Michael Charles Chiklis (born August 30, 1963) is an American actor, television director and television producer.
He is perhaps best known for his role as LAPD Detective Vic Mackey on the FX police drama The Shield, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. He is also known for playing Commissioner Tony Scali on the ABC police drama The Commish, The Thing in two Fantastic Four films, and Jim Powell on the ABC science-fiction comedy-drama No Ordinary Family. Additionally, he co-starred as Vincent Savino in the CBS crime drama Vegas. In 2014 Chiklis joined the cast of American Horror Story for its fourth season, American Horror Story: Freak Show. The following year he was cast as Nathaniel Barnes, in the second season of Gotham, as a series regular.
Chiklis was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. His mother, Katherine (née Vousboukis), is a hospital administrative aide, and his father, Charlie Chiklis, runs a hair/beauty salon. Chiklis has been described as having inherited his acting ability from his mother. His father is a second-generation Greek American (his paternal ancestors came from Lesbos), and his mother is of Greek and Irish descent. Chiklis grew up in Andover, Massachusetts and began entertaining his family with celebrity imitations when he was 5 years old. As a child, Chiklis appeared in regional theater productions and became a member of the Actors' Equity Association at age 13. In the ninth grade, he portrayed Hawkeye Pierce in Andover High School's production of M*A*S*H. He graduated from Boston University College of Fine Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.