Michael Shanks was born in Vancouver on December 15, 1970, the younger of two brothers. He grew up in Kamloops, British Columbia. Michael describes himself as "some kind of overachiever" at school he played defense in hockey, fly-half and later wing in rugby, was a member of the Student Council, and joined the theatre group. He once played the role of The Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. In 2006, he again played
The Cowardly Lion during a parody of the movie in the
Stargate SG-1 episode "200". As well as acting in the theatre group, he also directed, but at that time, an acting career didn't seem to be on the horizon. Instead, at 16, he had to decide whether or not to become a professional hockey player. He chose not to, but he continues to support the Canucks and has played for the Stargate SG-1 team against teams from other Vancouver-based shows.
Michael went on to the University of British Columbia to study business, financing his studies by taking laboring and lumberjack work. Math proved to be his downfall as a failed calculus course meant he was a half credit short of getting a Business degree. He switched to Theatre and graduated in March, 1994 with a degree in Fine Arts. From UBC, Michael spent two years at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, taking on a number of small roles. He has said that his dream role would be Henry V, though he feels the play is both outdated in the way its focus is a tyrannical king, calling on God "so he can go and beat the crap out of a pile of people" and too topical. That is not, he says, "what we want to be thinking about in this current climate".
Following a number of small roles in TV shows such as
Madison, The Commish and
Highlander, in 1997 Michael auditioned for the role of Dr Daniel Jackson on
Stargate SG-1, the TV spin-off of the original
Stargate movie. Michael went into the audition with his spot-on impersonation of James Spader (who had played Daniel Jackson in the movie) and got the job. He could also, as Brad Wright said, "do humor". In 1999, between seasons two and three, Michael took on the role of Hamlet in a short run of the production. Although rehearsal time was limited and the reviews were mixed, Michael enjoyed the experience. After five seasons of
Stargate SG-1, Michael left the series, citing lack of use of the character of Daniel Jackson as the reason behind his decision. A fan campaign to return Michael (and Daniel Jackson) to the show started when it was announced that he was leaving (www.savedanieljackson.com). A year later it was announced that Michael would return as a full-time member of the cast for season seven.
After leaving
Stargate SG-1 at the end of season 5, Michael had a number of roles in movies such as
Suddenly Naked with Wendy Crewson,
Suspicious River with Molly Parker and Callum Keith Rennie,
Mary Higgins Clark's All Around The Town and the Emmy-award winning
Door to Door with William H Macy, Helen Mirren and Kyra Sedgwick. He did a number of guest appearances on shows such as
Outer Limits and
Andromeda, and starred as Adam Wade in the reworking of Max Rohmer's
Sumuru, filmed in South Africa. In addition, he took the opportunity to meet fans at conventions in the US, Australia and Europe. Although not part of the main cast of
Stargate SG-1 during Season 6, he did reprise his role in three episodes, "Abyss", "The Changeling" and "Full Circle", and continued to voice Thor, the Asgard leader. During the ten-year run of
Stargate SG-1, Michael also directed and wrote for the show. His directorial debut was the complex season 4 episode "Double Jeopardy". While the result was an episode that was well received, for Michael the experience of directing was bittersweet.
"Everyone was prepared for the idea of me directing, but no one, especially me, was prepared for the situation that I ended up in. I knew I was going to be like a fish out of water, but I never imagined how much so. However I learned a lot more directing an episode like that then I would have doing a far more simpler one. It pretty much introduced me to all the ups and downs of production. I'm glad to say the experience has not discouraged me in the least from directing."
In season 7 he further stretched his creativity by writing the episode "Resurrection", having already received a story credit for the episode "Evolution, Part 1". During the mid-season filming hiatus in 2006, Michael completed a made-for-TV film for the Lifetime Network,
Under The Mistletoe, which aired in December 2006. At the end of filming for the tenth and final season of
Stargate SG-1, Michael flew to Bulgaria to film
MegaSnake, a movie for the SciFi Channel. Immediately upon his return to the US, he began work on a second movie for the Lifetime Channel.
Judicial Indiscretion, which co-starred Academy Award nominee Anne Archer, aired in April 2007. He then went on to a 3-episode recurring role on Fox Channel's
24, as Mark Bishop. These aired in April and May, 2007. In mid-April he began filming the first of two
Stargate SG-1 direct-to-DVD movies,
The Ark of Truth and
Stargate: Continuum, which were released in March and July of 2008. In August, Michael made his first appearance as the mysterious Victor on the TV show
Burn Notice, where he continued to be a recurring character for the remainder of the season.
In 2006, Michael, along with his friend and co-star, Christopher Judge, formed Slacktwaddle Productions. Their first creation was the 2007 Women of Sci Fi calendar. Both actors are also slated to be executive producers and to star in a series written by Christopher Judge called
Rage of Angels. The project is currently in the planning stages.
Michael has a daughter, Tatiana, born in August 1998, with his former partner, Vaitiare Bandera (Sha're in
Stargate SG-1). In August 2003, he married Lexa Doig, whom he met on the set of
Andromeda when he guest-starred as Gabriel, in the episode "Starcrossed". On September 13, 2004, Lexa gave birth to their daughter Mia Tabitha. 18 months later on March 19, 2006, they had their first son, Samuel David.
~ From Michael Shanks Online 
