Biography

Michael Goorjian, born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, is an American actor, filmmaker, and writer. As an actor, Michael won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Special for David's Mother (1994) with Kirstie Alley. He is also well known for his role as Justin, Neve Campbell's love interest on the Golden Globe winning series Party of Five (1994), as well as Heroin Bob in SLC Punk! (1998). As a director, Michael achieved widespread recognition for his first major independent film, Illusion (2004), a film he wrote, directed and starred in alongside Hollywood-legend Kirk Douglas

Michael's acting career began at the early age of 14 when he decided to audition for a local theatre company thinking it was a 'cool way' to skip class. After landing the lead role in a 'not-so-cool play called Computer Crazy, Michael soon found out that the rest of the cast were all senior citizens and that he would have to perform the play at his own junior high. Despite this rather humiliating experience, Michael stuck with acting and eventually trained at UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television.

Michael's first big Hollywood break came as a dancer when in 1992 he was cast as Skittery in the Disney film, Newsies (1992), starring Christian Bale and Robert Duvall. What followed was starring roles in numerous films including Chaplin (1992) with Robert Downey Jr., Forever Young (1992) with Mel Gibson, Oscar-winning Leaving Las Vegas (1995), Hard Rain (1998) with Morgan Freeman and Christian Slater, SLC Punk! (1998), The Invisibles (1999) with Portia de Rossi, Broken (2006) with Heather Graham and Conversations with God (2006).

Michael also guest starred in countless television series including Lie to Me (2009), House (2004), Alias (2001), Monk (2002), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000), CSI: Miami (2002), Without a Trace (2002), Chicago Hope (1994) as well as a recurring role on Life Goes On (1989) as Ray Nelson.

Never straying far from the stage, Michael is a founding member of the Los Angeles based theater group, Buffalo Nights and starred in the West Coast premiere of Dennis McIntyre's powerful drama, Modigliani, which won him a L.A. Weekly Theater Award nomination for Best Lead Actor. With the 'Nights', Michael also received tremendous critical acclaim for playing title roles in both productions of, The Apollo of Bellac by Jean Giraudoux, and J.B. by Archibald MacLeish. Michael also won a LA Critics Choice and a Garland Backstage West awards for his original choreography for the L.A. production of the musical Refer Madness.
- IMDb mini biography by: Michael A. Goorjian

Michael made his first real foray into directing with the mock-documentary Oakland Underground (1997), a comedy about an underground occult music scene in Oakland, CA. From there, Michael made Illusion (2004) with Kirk Douglas, which was released theatrically in 2006 after racking up over a dozen festival awards, including Best Screenplay at The Hampton's International Film Festival, Best Feature at the Lake Tahoe International Film Festival and The Audience Award at the Sonoma International Film Festival. With Illusion (2004), Michael was critically lauded for his ability to blend great filmmaking with philosophical depth.

Soon after Illusion (2004), Michael began collaborating with the publishing company Hay House to produce and direct a number of films including the documentary You Can Heal Your Life (2007), starring internationally renowned metaphysical author and teacher, Louise L. Hay and The Shift (2009), starring internationally best-selling author Dr. Wayne Dyer, along with Michael DeLuise and Portia de Rossi. His most recent work with Hay House is an original film anthology called Tales of Everyday Magic (2012), which explores meaningful philosophical ideas through intimate and intense, character-driven stories.

Additional directing credits include the short film Players' Club (2006) which swept the 2006 Elevate Film Festival in Los Angeles, including Best Director and The War Prayer (2007), an adaptation of Mark Twain's short story by the same title starring Jeremy Sisto. Michael also moonlights directing a circus/cabaret show in eastern-European called Palazzo.
- IMDb mini biography by: Michael Goorjian