Michael Rosenbaum

Michael Rosenbaum
Rosenbaum at the BE Blow Out, August 2006
Born	Michael Owen Rosenbaum July 11, 1972(1972-07-11) (age 37) Oceanside, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1997–present
Official website

Michael Owen Rosenbaum (born July 11, 1972) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Lex Luthor on Smallville and also for portraying the Flash in the DC animated universe. Rosenbaum has also done film and other voiceover work.

Early life

Rosenbaum was born in Oceanside, New York and raised in Newburgh, Indiana.^[1] He is Jewish and was "closer to religion" in New York than in Indiana.^[2] Rosenbaum graduated from Castle High School in Indiana and from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, with a degree in theatre arts. Immediately after, he moved to New York City to pursue an acting career.

Career

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Once in New York, an MTV Networks intern named Vincent Letizia spotted his 8 x 10 black and white photo in a batch of other casting submissions for a pilot called "Talk Girl". The pilot was never green-lighted, but Rosenbaum stood out as a newly discovered talent. A new MTV pilot was conceived specifically for Rosenbaum with the working title of "The Michael Rosenbaum Project." The project later became known as "The Temp" and covered Rosenbaum in a reality television setting as a temp, who would walk into a different job each day. The pilot featured Rosenbaum as a Cat filling in on Broadway's "Cats" musical, and as a zoo keeper filling in at the zoo, sweeping animal manure and the like. The pilot never took off with MTV Executives. It was the mid 1990s before the mega boom of Reality TV and though the show was good, it was possibly before its time.^{[citation needed]} This turned out to be a good thing for Rosenbaum who shortly thereafter left for Los Angeles where his talents could be showcased to a wider audience.^{[citation needed]}

In 2001, Rosenbaum received a Saturn Award for his portrayal of Lex Luthor on Smallville. A role that caused him to drop out of Eli Roth's Cabin Fever at one time. Smallville was starting to hit his stride and schedules collided leaving Roth to fill the role himself. Continuing in the comic book genre, he played Wally West (a.k.a. The Flash) in the DC Comics animated series Justice League, Static Shock, and Justice League Unlimited as well as portraying a younger Wally West as Kid Flash in Teen Titans. In the third season Justice League episode "Great Brain Robbery", Michael Rosenbaum reprised his role as Lex Luthor when his character was trapped in Clancy Brown's Lex Luthor's body. In February 2007, Rosenbaum confirmed that he would be leaving Smallville after season seven of the show, and he did not appear in Smallville season eight, however, in the season eight episode "Identity" as well as several other episodes, photos and stock-footage of Rosenbaum are seen. Rosenbaum is rumored to be returning as a guest star in Season 9.^[3]

Rosenbaum has a few notable vocal impressions in his repertoire, including Christopher Walken, Keanu Reeves, and Kevin Spacey. The makers of the DCAU have used these impressions in their work, having Rosenbaum do his Walken voice for Ghoul in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker and his Spacey voice for Deadshot; coincidentally, Spacey portrayed Lex Luthor in the film Superman Returns.

Personal life

Rosenbaum is an ardent New York Rangers fan and often plays in charity hockey games. His favorite band is Guns N' Roses. His favorite animal is a wolf. In an episode of MTV Cribs, Rosenbaum shows his love of singing, karaoke, exercising and Cap'n Crunch. He is left-handed. Rosenbaum often likes to play miniature golf.

Filmography

Television series

• Late Night with Conan O'Brien (segment: "The Amsterdam Kids")
• The Rinky Dinky Show (550)
• Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane (1999-2000) (as Jack)
• Smallville (2001-2009) (as Lex Luthor)
  • Directed the 125th episode, titled "Freak"
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005) (episode: Gun Fever, as Colin)
• PG Porn (2008-) (as Charlie Braun)
• Untitled Pilot^[4] (2009), signed on for a currently untitled NBC family program

Films

• Father of Invention (2010)
• Wing Man (2009) (Rumored)
• Shear Love A short film ^[5] (2008)
• Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight (2007), provided voice for Tanis Half-Elven
• Kickin' It Old Skool (2007)
• Cutlass (2007)
• Racing Stripes (2005), (voice) Ruffshodd
• Cursed (2005)
• Bringing Down the House (2003)
• Special (2003)
• Sorority Boys (2002)
• Poolhall Junkies (2001)
• Rave Macbeth (2001)
• Sweet November (2001)
• Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000) (as Ghoul)
• Eyeball Eddie (2000)
• 1999 (1998)
• Urban Legend (1998)
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)
• The Day I Ran Into All My Ex-Boyfriends (1997)
• The Devil & the Angel (1997)

Animation

Michael Rosenbaum at the Jules Verne Adventures Film Festival

• Batman Beyond (1999-2001) (various characters)
• Justice League (2001-2004) (as The Flash and Deadshot)
• Justice League Unlimited (2004-2006) (as The Flash, Deadshot, Ghoul, Doctor Polaris, and Lex Luthor in one episode of the third season of Justice League Unlimited.)
  • In the Justice League Unlimited episode "The Great Brain Robbery," the Flash trades bodies with Lex Luthor (who was portrayed by Clancy Brown) for a brief period of time. The voice actors continued to portray their character's normal bodies, so The Flash's body still sounded like the Flash, even while it was inhabited by Luthor's mind. Thus, Michael Rosenbaum reprised his role as Lex Luthor for most of the episode, the same role he had on Smallville for seasons 1-7. In addition, because he also portrayed Dr. Polaris, there are numerous scenes in which Rosenbaum is speaking dialogue as Dr. Polaris to the body of Lex Luthor (the role he plays on Smallville) inhabited by the mind of the Flash (another role he plays on Justice League Unlimited).
• The Zeta Project (2001-2002) (as Agent West)
• Static Shock (2000-2004) (Trapper (Series 1, 2 & 4), various voices, and guest appearance as The Flash in the third season two-part episode "A League of Their Own")
• Jackie Chan Adventures (2000-2005) as Drago
• Teen Titans (2005) as Kid Flash
• Total Drama Island (2007-2008) as Justin
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2009) (episode: Dawn of the Dead Man!, as Deadman/Triad Boss)

Video games

• Gladius (2003) as Valens
• Yakuza (2006) as Akira Nishiki
• Dark Sector (2008) as Hayden Tenno

Cameos In Animation/Comic

• Justice League episode Tabula Rasa: Amazo while looking for Lex Luthor runs into Michael Rosenbaum.
• Justice League Unlimited #38: On page 10, Giganta and Flash are having a discussion while sitting on a billboard. It reads: INJURED? Call Rosenbaum and Associates (the person in the picture bears a strong resemblance to Michael Rosenbaum).

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michael Rosenbaum

External links

• Official Fan Website
• Michael Rosenbaum cast bio on The CW
• Michael Rosenbaum at the Internet Movie Database
• Michael Rosenbaum at TV.com