Michael D. Cohen

he/him
High quality professional studio portrait of Michael D. Cohen standing with his arms in his pockets against a solid light green backdrop. Michael has light skin, dark brown hair and eyes. He is wearing a dark blue long sleeve shirt with a minimal dark necklace.

High quality professional studio portrait of Michael D. Cohen standing with his arms in his pockets against a solid light green backdrop. Michael has light skin, dark brown hair and eyes. He is wearing a dark blue long sleeve shirt with a minimal dark necklace.

Job title
actor   writer   acting coach   director  
Identity categories
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trans   man   mountaineer   rock climber  
Places of practice

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Born

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (1975)

Images
High quality professional studio portrait of Michael D. Cohen standing with his arms in his pockets against a solid light green backdrop. Michael has light skin, dark brown hair and eyes. He is wearing a dark blue long sleeve shirt with a minimal dark necklace.
Metadata
Biography

Michael D. Cohen is a series regular on Nickelodeon's hit sit-coms Henry Danger and Danger Force playing "Schwoz", a genius of indiscernible foreign nationality. The show won the Kids' Choice Award for best show in 2017 and 2020 and was nominated in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022. Michael shared his trans history in Time Magazine making him the first series regular actor ever to publicly disclose, let alone while being on a kid’s show.

He has also appeared on shows such as Modern Family, The Real O'Neals, 2 Broke Girls, The Mindy Project, Angie Tribeca, Powerless, Austin & Ally, The Wizards of Waverly Place and many others. Film credits include the Coen Brothers comedy Suburbicon directed by George Clooney, the Oscar-nominated film Whiplash, as well as the Canadian Screen Award-nominated film It Was You Charlie, for which he was nominated for an ACTRA Award for Outstanding Lead Performance.

Michael has dozens of commercial credits including the current Wendy's "Everything I Ever Wanted" campaign, Nespresso (working again with George Clooney), Mini Starburst, FedEx, Capital One, Boston Market, Honda with Patrick Warburton, and the Super Bowl Hulu Plus campaign with Will Arnett.

Michael made history by writing and directing Manlee Men, the GLAAD Media Award nominated episode of Danger Force, which featured the first ever live action trans character on Nickelodeon. The character was also portrayed by Nickelodeon’s first openly trans teen actor who Michael found through the casting initiative he created: The Trans Youth Acting Challenge. The success of the episode resulted in Michael going on to direct five episodes of Danger Force. Michael is currently in post production on Roughing It, a comedy short he wrote and directed starring Erinn Hayes and Sophie Giannamore.

As a teacher and coach, Michael served as Co-Chair of the SAG-AFTRA Hollywood Conservatory at the American Film Institute. He is a faculty lecturer for the University of Texas at Austin in Hollywood and has directed two highly successful industry showcases for UT Austin. He also teaches through his own studio the Michael D. Cohen Acting Studio in Los Angeles, at The Groundlings, and for SAG-AFTRA.

He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Cell Biology and a Masters degree in Adult Education focusing on transformative education for performers. He is also an avid mountaineer and rock climber.

Michael D. Cohen. “Bio.” Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.michaeldcohen.com/copy-of-about-1.
Filmography