Michael Lorenzo Urie (born August 8, 1980) is an American  actor, television producer and director, best known for his portrayal of Marc St. James on the ABC dramedy series Ugly Betty.

Career

Michael Urie graduated from Vines High School and Plano Senior High School. Urie, while still a student at Juilliard performed in the world premiere of Love and Happiness (2001) at the Consolati Performing Arts Center, starring as a sixteen-year-old trying to get rid of his mother’s boyfriend. In addition to this, he appeared in student productions of Sylvia (1998) and Locked Away (1999) at Quad C Theatre.

He also was the recipient of the 2002 John Houseman Prize for Excellence in Classical Theatre from the Juilliard School and his classical credits include Shakespeare, Jacobean drama, and commedia dell’arte.

Urie played the central character in the stage play WTC View as well as in the film adaptation. He is currently finishing a short documentary film, Two Down that centers on high school speech and debate tournaments, for Frontal Lobe Productions.
He is on the board of Plum Productions and serves as its casting director. With the same company he has produced and appeared in Prachtoberfest and lowbrow (and a little bit tacky). As a freelance producer, he has worked on Like The Mountains and The Fantasticks (Four Players Theatre). He also directed the latter production.

The character of “Marc St. James” on Ugly Betty was not initially intended as recurring; thus Urie was billed in the credits as a guest star. As originally conceived, Wilhelmina Slater was to have a different assistant in each episode. However, Vanessa Williams loved their chemistry, and Michael was signed on as a full time regular. He and the cast were nominated for Screen Actors Guild awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series in 2007 and 2008. The role earned Urie a Ewwy nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2009.

Patti LuPone has appeared with Urie to play Marc’s mother in at least one episode.

During the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike Urie hosted TLC’s reality-based series “Miss America Reality Check.” The program followed the contestants participating in the 2008 Miss America Pageant.

Urie returns often to his theater roots, including his recent direction of a one-night celebrity performed staging of Howard Ashman’s unproduced musical “Dreamstuff”. The musical was re-imagined by Howard’s partners Marsha Malamet and Dennis Green and performed one night only at Los Angeles’ Hayworth Theatre as part of the Bruno Kirby celebrity reading series. Eden Espinosa starred in the show along with Fred Willard, Vicki Lewis, David Blue and Luke Macfarlane. He has also been on “Live With Regis and Kelly” and has also starred in the 2008 Disney blockbuster production Beverly Hills Chihuahua as the voice of Sebastian

On 29 October 2008, he appeared as a guest presenter on the British National Television Awards, awarding for the Best Performance in a Serial Drama.

Urie originated the role of Rudi Gernreich in the 2009 off-Broadway play The Temperamentals, about the foundation of the early LGBT rights organization the Mattachine Society. Urie received a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor.