Michael Rapaport

Michael Rapaport (born March 20 1970 in New York City, New York) is an United States|American actor and a comedian and has acted in over 20 films.

Biography
Rapaport idolized other New Yorkers Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken as a teenager. He was expelled from high school and moved to Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles to try stand-up comedy.

Once he got into acting, people began to like him for his kid-like goofy charm, especially as Lisa Kudrow's policeman boyfriend in Friends. Perhaps his most memorable role came in the television program|TV show Boston Public (which he also occasionally directed) as teacher Danny Hanson.

A versatile performer who more recently appears in comic roles, his film|movie roles include starring alongside Eddie Murphy in Metro (film)|Metro, as a wisecracking marine biologist in Deep Blue Sea, and a dramatic role as a naive college student who overcomes his loneliness by becoming a Nazi-Skinheads|racist skinhead in Higher Learning. Many credit his breakout role with the independent film Zebrahead (film)|Zebrahead.

Rapaport currently stars in the Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox situation comedy|sitcom The War at Home (TV)|The War at Home, which focuses on a family dealing with problems like sex, drugs, and other teen issues in a comedic way. The sitcom debuted in September 2005 on Sunday nights. Rapaport is only 16 years older than his eldest TV daughter, born in 1986.

Rapaport has been in many independent movies such as Kicked in the Head and Zebrahead (film)|Zebrahead.

He was in the New York tabloids in mid-2005 as the landlord who evicted troubled actress Natasha Lyonne from her apartment (in one of the residential buildings he owns), which he described as, among other things, "filthy". Rapaport wrote an account of the matter in May 2005's issue of Jane Magazine.

Selected filmography
Other movies he has been in, include:


 * Hitch (film)|Hitch (2005)
 * Grilled (film)|Grilled (2005)
 * King of the Jungle (2001)
 * Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001)
 * Men of Honor (2000)
 * Bamboozled (2000)
 * The 6th Day (2000)
 * Next Friday (2000)
 * Small Time Crooks (2000)
 * Deep Blue Sea (1999)
 * Cop Land (1997)
 * Metro (1997)
 * The Pallbearer (1996)
 * Beautiful Girls (1996)
 * Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
 * The Basketball Diaries (film)|The Basketball Diaries (1995)
 * Kiss of Death (1995 film)|Kiss of Death (1995)
 * Higher Learning (1995)
 * The Foot Shooting Party (1994)
 * Money for Nothing (film)|Money for Nothing (1993)
 * True Romance (1993)
 * ''Point of No Return (film)|Point of No Return (1993)
 * Zebrahead (film)|Zebrahead (1992)

Trivia

 * Is a huge rap fan, and has appeared on skits on Talib Kweli|Talib Kweli's critically acclaimed album "Quality", in Skits on Masta Ace's A Long Hot Summer and in the music video for Jay-Z's 'City Is Mine'.
 * Played Popcopy employee in the pilot episode of Chappelle's Show (On DVD, Chappelle and writer Neil Brennan said that they had bumped into Rapaport on the street, and offered him the job).
 * He was in an October 5, 1993 episode of NYPD Blue, playing a drug-addict who killed an old woman.
 * He was the voice of Joey Leone in the popular video game, Grand Theft Auto III. He would play Troy in the Grand Theft Auto clone Saints Row.
 * He is a New York Yankees fan.

External link


Michael Rapaport Michael Rapaport