Michael Mando

Michael Mando was born in Quebec City, Canada. His mother hails from Guinea, and his dad (who raised him and his two brothers as a single parent) was a Doctor of Chemistry from Germany. He spent most of his childhood growing up in Accra (Ghana) and Abidjan (Ivory Coast) then moved to Beirut (Lebanon) before returning home to Canada as a teen. Michael speaks four languages: French, English, Arabic and Spanish. He excelled in competitive sports including hockey, football and soccer but opted to pursue an academic scholarship instead in Psychology and International Relations. However, everything changed in 2001 when tragedy struck twice - first his mother was shot in a car hijacking that left her paraplegic; then a few months later Michael caught a bullet to the knee in an unrelated incident. During his two years of rehab, he took some time off university and discovered a deep love of acting. He studied contemporary and classical theatre, particularly falling in love with the works of Shakespeare and Molière. From there he made the leap to video games and co-created a character which led to international stardom. His iconic motion-capture performance of Vaas Montenegro in Far Cry 3 and The Far Cry Experience went on to be considered as one of the greatest in gaming history. He later was nominated twice in the same year for Best Supporting Actor at the Canadian Emmys (C.S.A.) for his performances in TV dramas Orphan Black and Rookie Blue. He followed up by joined the cast of Better Call Saul as one of the original characters new to the Breaking Bad Universe. The prequel went on to have worldwide critical and commercial success, earning multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, including two SAG Awards Nominations for Best Ensemble. Michael reprises his role as fan and critics favorite, Nacho Varga, in the sixth and final season of the saga (2022). Michael has also been teased as super-villain Mac Gargan aka The Scorpion in Marvel's blockbuster Spiderman franchise.