Attended Howard Roosa Elementary School in Evansville, IN
One of the few female celebrities named Michael. She is named after her mother's best friend, a woman named Michael.
Was twice cast to play 'Eric La Salle' 's girlfriend: first in Coming to America (1988), a role from which she resigned, and "ER" (1994) a role which she played for three seasons.
Had her first child, a son, with boyfriend, New York restauranteur Jimmy Rodriguez, on December 21, 2004, in New York.
Michael Michele will be seen opposite Kurt Russell, Ving Rhames and Scott Speedman in Dark Blue, a gritty drama depicting three generations of LAPD cops during the L.A. riots.
Making her mark on the big screen, Michele most recently co-starred opposite Will Smith in Michael Mann's highly praised film Ali, as Veronica Porsche, Ali's third wife. After three years on television's number-one rated drama series, ER, Michele concluded her final season as Dr. Cleo Finch on the landmark series in 2002.
Michele has appeared in many films, including The Sixth Man alongside Marlon Wayans, the urban drama New Jack City opposite Wesley Snipes and the independent film, The Substitute 2 opposite Treat Williams and B.D. Wong. Prior to joining the cast of ER, she was a series regular as Detective Rene Shepard on Homicide: Life on the Street, for which she received an NAACP Image Award nomination for outstanding actress in a Drama Series in 1999. Michele was later nominated for the same awarded for her role on ER in 2000. Her other television credits include Central Park West and New York Undercover.
A devoted mentor, Michele began working with underprivileged children in New York and the Midwest when she was 15, and she continues to do so today. She presently mentors young girls at New York City's Washington Irving High School and the Ralph Bunch School in Harlem. Aside from her charitable work, Michele fills her spare time playing her favorite sport, basketball. She resides in New York City.
