Name	Michael Jai White
Height	6' 1½"
Naionality	American
Date of Birth	10 November 1967
Place of Birth	Brooklyn, New York, USA
Famous for

After taking a few acting lessons, seven black belts holder Michael Jai White worked as a martial arts teacher for children and as a junior high school teacher specializing in emotionally disturbed children for three years.

Around the late 1980s, White got his first break when he backed fellow black belt holder and martial-arts maestro Steven Seagal on a soup commercial for Japanese television. He soon began auditioning for roles in Manhattan and landed his earliest big screen role as Apocalypse, Inc. Executive, in Lloyd Kaufman's Troma movies “The Toxic Avenger, Part II” and “The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie” (both in 1989), billed as Michael White.

In 1991, White had an uncredited appearance as an audience man in the second "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" film, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze," and was featured as an alley guy in Charles Lane's comedy movie "True Identity," starring Lenny Henry. He also appeared in the straight-to-video kung-fu movie "Ring of Fire" (1991; starring Don 'The Dragon' Wilson) and its straight-to-video sequel, “Lion Strike” (1995; aka “Ring of Fire 3: Lion Strike").

Meanwhile, White played a soldier in Roland Emmerich's sci-fi/action film "Universal Soldier," starring fellow martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme, and did stunt work in Phillip J. Roth's sci-fi/action “Prototype” (both in 1992). He also made his TV debut with an uncredited guest role as a military policeman in an October 1992 episode of NBC sitcom “Saved by the Bell,” followed by another guest appearance in a May 1993 episode of the long-running action series starring Lorenzo Lamas, "Renegade."

After acting in straight-to-video Hong Kong martial arts feature "Full Contact" (1993; starring Chow Yun-Fat), White was spotted as a guest on episodes of Fox series "Living Single" and "Martin," both of which airing on the same date (February 20, 1994). He then did stunt work in actor/director Steven Seagal's environmental action-adventure film "On Deadly Ground" (1994) and portrayed Lieutenant Fancy's (played by James McDaniel) hot-headed brother Reggie in two 1995 episodes of ABC's Emmy-winning, long-running cop drama series "NYPD Blue."

In 1995, White snagged his first starring role, as the former heavyweight boxing champ in the HBO biopic, "Tyson," which was directed by Uli Edel. In the following year, he appeared in writer/director John Herzfeld's crime drama feature "2 Days in the Valley," with James Spader, Danny Aiello, Peter Horton, Teri Hatcher and Charlize Theron, and played Elroi in the CBS dramatic movie helmed by Bruce Pittman and stars Louis Gossett Jr., "Captive Heart: The James Mink Story."

White was to appear as Jax in New Line's movie based on the popular "Mortal Kombat" fighting game series, “Mortal Kombat Annihilation” (1997), but New Line made up their mind and wanted him for “Spawn” instead. In “Spawn,” a film adaptation of the cult comic book of the same name, White took the titular role of a double-crossed military soldier/assassin who seeks vengeance from the fiery depths of Hell. The film, directed and co-written by Mark Dippé, was released in the United States on August 1, 1997. White's performance later earned him a Blockbuster Entertainment Award nomination for Favorite Male Newcomer.

Following his first feature starring role, White went to play Demond, Wendy Raquel Robinson's boyfriend with a "stick-it-anywhere" policy, in Neil Abramson's comedy film starring Jerry Springer, "Ringmaster" (1998). He also delivered a standout turn opposite Alec Baldwin as Pointy, a rising Detroit hood who considers himself a Renaissance man, in Scott Sanders' noirish crime/drama film adapted from the novel by Patrick Quinn, "Thick as Thieves" (1998), which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival.

In 1999, White reunited with Van Damme for "Universal Soldier: The Return" (1999), the second theatrical film in the “Universal Soldier” series, this time in the significant role of S.E.T.H. (short for Self Evolving Thought Helix), the military's supercomputer and the chief antagonist of the film. He also starred as Ben Cooper in "Mutiny" (1999), an NBC movie executive-produced by Morgan Freeman which was based on the factual story about 300 predominantly black sailors who were killed during WW II while loading munitions on a ship in San Francisco.

Entering the new millennium, White became series regular, as Dr. Derrick Hatcher, on the short-lived and controversial ABC drama which depicts daily life in a mental institution, "Wonderland," and co-starred with Danny Glover in the critically-acclaimed TV movie "Freedom Song." He was also seen in Eugene Williams' 8-minute comedy film "The Bus Stop."

White continued to add to his resume with roles in films like Andrzej Bartkowiak's adaptation of John Westermann's novel, "Exit Wounds" (2001; starring frequent collaborator Steven Seagal; White played Sergeant Lewis Strutt, the leader of the group of corrupt cops), Rob Hardy's thriller film about adultery and deceipt, "Pandora's Box" (2002; he played a dark, handsome stranger whom Monica Calhoun's lead character falls for), and in writer/director Evan Oppenheimer's comedic drama "Justice" (2003; starring Erik Palladino).

He appeared in Quentin Tarantino's epic-length revenge drama "Kill Bill" trailer when the film was still due to be released as one movie, but does not appear in either Volume 1 or 2 of the theatrical version. He also supported Michelle Yeoh in a Hong Kong movie directed by Jingle Ma, "Fei ying" (2004; aka "Silver Hawk"), and shared the screen with Carmen Electra, Vivica A. Fox, Bill Bellamy and Stacey Dash in writer/director David Silberg's romantic comedy "Getting Played" (2005).

Meanwhile, TV viewers could catch him guest starring in Fox drama series "Boston Public," Showtime popular television drama "Soul Food," CBS cop drama "CSI: Miami" and Kids' WB animated television series "Static Shock," as well as in the novel-based TV movie “Hotel” (2003). He had a recurring role as Doomsday on Cartoon Network's animated television series based on the comic book characters, "Justice League," and played a co-starring role as Ellis Hayes on CBS short-lived drama series starring Jeremy Sumpter, "Clubhouse" (2004-2005). He also appeared in Busta Rhymes f. Mariah Carey music video for "I Know What You Want."

In 2006, White starred as Heavyweight Champ George "Iceman" Chambers in the direct-to-video sequel to the 2002 action film, "Undisputed II: Last Man Standing," and was spotted as a guest in an August episode of NBC short-lived drama series “Windfall.”

White will soon be seen as Marcus, the couple to Tasha Smith's character, in Tyler Perry's film adaptation of his own hit stage play, "Why Did I Get Married?," which will be released in the US on October 12, 2007. He is currently filming Christopher Nolan's upcoming sequel to the film "Batman Begins," "The Dark Knight" (starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger), in which he will portray the role of Gamble, a crime lord attempting to gain power in Gotham, and will star as Bone in Ben Ramsey's forthcoming action/drama film titled "Blood and Bone."