Biography for
Michael Zelniker More at IMDbPro »

Mini Biography

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada to parents Seymour and Dorothy Zelniker. After graduating from Dawson College's Conservatory Acting School. Zelniker re-located to Toronto where he began working in many of Canada's finest theatres, including the National Arts Centre, the St. Lawrence Centre, Manitoba Theatre Centre, the Neptune Theatre, Toronto Free Theatre, Factory Theatre Lab, the Globe Theatre and Bathurst Street Theatre. Plays performed in include "American Buffalo", "Henry V", "Mother Courage", "Streamers", "Total Eclipse" and "Stepdance". Zelniker's favorite role is Mozart in "Amadeus" which he did at the Wool Warehouse Theatre in New Mexico. As his movie and television career began taking off, Zelniker moved to Los Angeles appearing in more than 20 feature films and countless times on television. Some noteworthy starring roles are Red Rodney in Clint Eastwood's "Bird", Allen Ginsberg in David Cronenberg's "Naked Lunch" and James Bertram Collip in PBS's "Glory Enough For All". He starred opposite Robert Duvall in "The Terry Fox Story", for which he won a Canadian Academy Award (Genie Award), and with John Malkovich and Kevin Bacon in "Queen's Logic". Guest starring on series television such as "Murder She Wrote", "Chicago Hope", "Millennium", "Profiler", "In the Heat of the Night" and "Dead Zone". Zelniker co-wrote, produced and starred in the festival award winning feature, "Stuart Bliss". In 2011, he co-wrote, produced, and directed the low budget feature, "Falling..." While working on a series of one act plays at the Coast Playhouse in Los Angeles, he met actress, Dea Lawrence who 2 years later became his wife. Their company, Aion Pictures, produces movies and theatre. Zelniker also teaches at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, the premiere acting conservatory in Los Angeles.

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