Bio: 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 Moli��re.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.
Tivia: Mando not only lends his voice, face and body to the infamous Vaas in Far Cry 3, but he also co-created the character with Ubisoft. The company was so pleased with his audition, that they created a new character based on his liking and acting choices.By his early 20s, Michael had already lived in 10 cities, 5 countries, 4 continents and over 35 different houses, which helped him better absorb different cultures and behaviors.While recording his famous "insanity" scene for Far Cry 3, Michael sat in a dark room alone talking to a tennis ball on a pole.Michael Mando and Bob Odenkirk became good friends during the shooting of Better Call Saul (2015).Mando has attended 2 universities, 4 high schools and 3 colleges - He had a lot of trouble deciding what he wanted to do growing up; bouncing between economy, psychology and international relations. He discovered acting for the first time in his early twenties. He quickly excelled and fell in love with the craft because it married his 3 first loves into a single profession: sports, music and poetry.Michael's mother tongue is French - he is also fluent in English, Arabic and Spanish.Michael Mando is fully bilingual (French and English).His first professional appearance, in which he played the title role, earned a record breaking 5 MECCA nominations.During his teens, he competitively played football, ice hockey and soccer. He still plays recreational soccer and basketball.Mando is the Artistic Director and President of Red Barlo Productions.Athletics have been a big part of Michael's life, who played competitive ice hockey (left wing), football (tail back) and soccer (middle field).He practices weapons training and mixed martial arts including Jeet Kune Do and Jiu Jitsu.Michael is also a singer/songwriter who loves jamming with local musicians when filming.Michael played the lead in all 5 Productions at The Dome Theatre where is he is praised by the Chairman as "one of the finest talents to emerge from the program in the last 25 years".He is of Lebanese descent.Is a huge fan of musician and composer Quincy Jones.His ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) is so severe that, when shooting Breaking Bad (2008) on location in New Mexico, he would always check the script for the planned exterior scenes so he could better prepare himself for chance encounters with reptiles. As a means of trying to overcome this fear, his costume designer Jennifer L. Bryan created a snake earring that the actor wore in many of his scenes.