A theatrically trained actor, Harold Perrineau has appeared in a wide array of roles throughout his busy – but often unrecognized – career. Because of this variety of parts, Perrineau has been difficult to typecast – an accomplishment the actor not only appreciated, but worked hard to achieve. Though he broke in with a brief stint on “Fame” (NBC, 1981-87), Perrineau became more of a known commodity with a supporting role on HBO’s grisly prison drama, “Oz” (1997-2003). But it was his role as Michael Dawson on the hit ABC series “Lost” (2004- ), a man struggling to be a father to his son (Malcolm David Kelly) after crash landing with 46 others on a mysterious island, that finally earned the actor the name recognition he long deserved.
Born on Aug. 7, 1968 in Brooklyn, NY, Perrineau developed his chops in dance and acting at the Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, VA and with the Alvin Alley Company. After “Fame,” his first major television break happened in 1990 when he was cast in a recurring role on the NBC series "I’ll Fly Away." In 1995, he finagled his way into playing a 16-year-old in Wayne Wang’s critically acclaimed film "Smoke," a comedy that wove together stories centering around a smoke shop. Despite being closer to 30 than 16, Perrineau pulled off the role brilliantly, earning himself an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Male. An accomplished Shakespearean actor, he naturally fit into the role of Mercutio opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, and John Leguizamo in Baz Luhrmann's contemporary rendition of "William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet" (1996).
The following year, Perrineau was cast in the critically acclaimed series "OZ,” created by Tom Fontana. Perrineau portrayed Augustus Hill, the wheel chair-bound narrator imprisoned for 20 years-to-life for drug dealing and murder, whose neutrality in gang matters allowed him to be one of the more decent characters, making him the moral center of the series. Continuing to widen his acting palette, Perrineau was cast in the romantic comedy "The Best Man" (1999); then played a drag queen in Fina Torres' "Woman on Top" (2000), co-starring Penelope Cruz. In 2003, Perrineau gained wide exposure as Link, the pilot and crew operator aboard the Zion hovercraft Nebuchadnezzar, in the blockbuster sequels "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions."
Returning to series television, Perrineau joined the ensemble cast of “Lost,” playing a down-and-out artist who journeyed to Australia to reclaim custody of his son (Malcolm David Kelley) only to crash land on a mysterious island with 46 other survivors, including a surgeon and de factor leader (Matthew Fox), an alluring escaped convict (Evangeline Lilly), an unscrupulous con artist (Josh Holloway), and a former Iraqi Republican Guard soldier (Naveen Andrews). As Michael Dawson, Perrineau straddled the line between right and wrong in trying to protect his son, Walt, especially when he was taken by the island’s ruthless inhabitants, The Others. Michael made his series exit at the end of the second season after making a deal with Ben Linus (Michael Emerson), the controlling leader of the Others, who gave him and Walt a boat and directions to get off the island. With speculation circling whether or not he would return to “Lost,” Perrineau moved on to other projects, appearing in a small, but pivotal role in “28 Weeks Later” (2007), a surprisingly good sequel to Danny Boyle’s excellent sci-fi horror film “28 Days Later” (2002), that saw the British Isles devastated by the so-called rage virus, which turns humans into unstoppable, blood-thirsty zombies.