Background and career
Michael John Myers (born May 25, 1963) is a Canadian and American actor, comedian, filmmaker, musician, and singer. His accolades include seven MTV Movie & TV Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2002, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2017, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada for his "extensive and acclaimed body of comedic work as an actor, writer, and producer". Following a series of appearances on several Canadian television programs, Myers attained recognition during his six seasons as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1989 to 1995, which won him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series. He subsequently earned praise and numerous accolades for playing the title roles in the Wayne's World (1992–1993), Austin Powers (1997–2002), and Shrek (2001–present) franchises. Myers also played the title character in the 2003 live-action adaptation of the Dr. Seuss book The Cat in the Hat. Myers acted sporadically in the 2010s, having supporting roles in Terminal and Bohemian Rhapsody (both 2018). He made his directorial debut with the documentary Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon (2013), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. He created and starred in the 2022 Netflix original series, The Pentaverate, and appeared in David O. Russell's comedy thriller Amsterdam.
Michael John Myers was born in Scarborough, Ontario, on May 25, 1963, to data processor Alice "Bunny" E. (née Hind) and insurance agent Eric Myers. His parents were British immigrants from the Old Swan area of Liverpool. His mother had served in the Women's Royal Air Force, and his father in the Royal Engineers. He has distant Scottish ancestry. He has two older brothers: Paul, a musician, and Peter, who worked for Sears Canada. He grew up in Scarborough and North York, where he attended and graduated from Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute in 1982. One of his neighbours and schoolmates was prominent voice actor Maurice LaMarche.
Myers began performing in commercials at 8 years old. At the age of 10, he made a commercial for British Columbia Hydro, with Gilda Radner playing his mother. At 12, he made a guest appearance as Ari on the TV series King of Kensington. At 16, he had a small role in the season 1 episode "Boy on Wheels" of the TV series The Littlest Hobo, as a friend of the episode's protagonist. After graduating from high school, Myers was accepted into The Second City Canadian touring company. He moved to the United Kingdom, and in 1985 he was one of the founding members of The Comedy Store Players, an improvisational group based at The Comedy Store in London. The next year, he was a cast member on the British children's TV program Wide Awake Club, parodying the show's normal exuberance with his own "Sound Asleep Club", in partnership with Neil Mullarkey. He returned to Toronto and The Second City in 1986 as a cast member in The Second City's Toronto main stage show, Second City Theatre. In 1988, he moved from the Second City in Toronto to Chicago. There, he trained, performed and taught at the Improv Olympic. Myers made many appearances, including as Wayne Campbell, on Toronto's Citytv in the early 1980s, on the alternative video show City Limits hosted by Christopher Ward; Myers also made several appearances after the launch of MuchMusic, for which City Limits was essentially the prototype. Myers also appeared as Wayne Campbell in the music video for Ward's Canadian hit "Boys and Girls". The Wayne Campbell character was featured extensively in the 1986 summer series It's Only Rock & Roll, produced by Toronto's Insight Production Company for CBC Television. Wayne appeared both in-studio and in a series of location sketches directed and edited by Allan Novak. Myers wrote another sketch, "Kurt and Dieter", co-starring with Second City's Dana Andersen and also directed by Novak, which later became the popular "Sprockets" sketch on Saturday Night Live.
Myers began appearing on Saturday Night Live on January 21, 1989, and eventually became the first repertory player added to the show's cast in over two years. "He quickly became one of the show's biggest draws thanks to his talent for creating oddball characters with memorable catchphrases", according to Entertainment Weekly. In addition to "Wayne's World" and "Sprockets", Myers starred in the recurring sketches "Lothar of the Hill People", "Stuart Rankin, All Things Scottish", "Lank Thompson", "Middle-Aged Man", "Simon", "Coffee Talk with Linda Richman", "Theatre Stories", "Phillip the Hyper Hypo", and "Scottish Soccer Hooligan Weekly". Myers's last episode as a cast member aired on January 21, 1995, exactly six years to the day after his first episode. He returned to host in 1997 and made an appearance as his film character Dr. Evil in 2014. In March of 2025, Myers made two guest appearances in sketches, portraying Elon Musk.
Dieter – host of Sprockets Linda Richman – hostess of Coffee Talk Japanese Game Show Host "Handsome Actor" Lank Thompson Simon – a young British boy who makes drawings in his bath tub and complains about having "prune hands" (the theme song for this segment was a slightly modified version of the theme song from Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings by Edward MacLachlan) Wayne Campbell (SNL, the Wayne's World films) Pat Arnold (SNL, Bill Swerski's Superfans) Stuart Rankin – proprietor of "All Things Scottish" Lothar (of the Hill People) Ed Miles (Middle-Aged Man) – An older man who helps young people with their problems Kenneth Reese-Evans – host of "Theatre Stories" Johnny Letter – an Old West citizen who writes polite, well-written letters of complaint.
Myers made his film debut when he and Dana Carvey adapted their "Wayne's World" SNL sketches into the feature Wayne's World (1992). It was among the most successful films of the year and was followed in 1993 by Wayne's World 2; Myers starred in So I Married an Axe Murderer the same year. He took a two-year hiatus from performing after the end of his time as an SNL regular. Myers returned to acting with the film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), followed by the sequels Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002). Myers played the title role (Austin Powers) and the villain (Dr. Evil) in all three films as well as a henchman (Fat Bastard) and another villain (Goldmember) in the sequels. One of Myers's rare non-comedic roles came in the film 54 (1998), in which he portrayed Steve Rubell, proprietor of New York City's famous 1970s disco nightclub Studio 54. The film was not critically or commercially successful, though Myers received some positive notice. In June 2000, Myers was sued by Universal Pictures for $3.8 million for backing out of a contract to make a feature film based on his SNL character Dieter. Myers said he refused to honor the $20 million contract because he felt the script was not ready. Myers countersued and a settlement was reached after several months where Myers agreed to make another film with Universal. That film, The Cat in the Hat, was released in November 2003 and starred Myers as the title character. It received negative reviews and was unsuccessful at the box office. In 2001, Myers provided the voice of Shrek in the animated film of the same name, having taken over the role after Chris Farley died in December 1997 before recording all of his dialogue. He reprised this role in Shrek 4-D (a theme park ride) in 2003, Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), the Christmas and Halloween television specials Shrek the Halls (2007) and Scared Shrekless (2010), and Shrek Forever After (2010). Myers received the MTV Generation Award in June 2007, making him the second Canadian to win the award, following Jim Carrey in 2006. In 2008, Myers co-wrote, co-produced and starred in the poorly received The Love Guru, and in 2009 had a minor role as British general Ed Fenech in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. In 2018, after an eight-year hiatus from feature films, Myers appeared in supporting roles in Terminal and Bohemian Rhapsody (both 2018). As of May 2022, Myers would neither confirm nor deny plans for Austin Powers 4. In July 2024, Myers was announced to reprise the voice of the title character in Shrek 5, scheduled for release on June 30, 2027.
