Michael Urie

Michael Lorenzo Urie was born on August 8, 1980 in Houston, Texas and is best known for his recurring TV role as Marc St. James on ABC's hit series Ugly Betty, as well as his Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Award-winning career on the New York stage.

Urie was raised in Plano, Texas, and graduated Plano Senior High School in 1998. He studied at the Collin County Community College before being accepted into the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City, graduating in 2003.

His first break as an actor was in the role of Eric in the play WTC View, and Urie also starred in its 2005 film adaptation. He shot to stardom just one year later after being cast as Marc St. James in ABC's series Ugly Betty, opposite Vanessa Williams. He appeared in a total of 85 episodes up to 2010 (as well as 12 episodes of the spin-off Mode After Hours in 2008 and 2009). Following the show's cancellation, Urie was able to devote more time to his theatre career.

He made his Off-Broadway debut as Rudi Gernreich in The Temperamentals at New World Stages February 2010, receiving a Theatre World Award and a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor. He then assumed the leading role of Prior Walter in the 2010 Off-Broadway revival of Tony Kushner's Angels in America and was cast as Yepikhodov in Classic Stage Company's 2011 revival of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. He would make his Broadway debut in the role of Bud Frump in the revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, playing the role from January to May 2012. He garnered great acclaim for his performance as Alex More in the solo show Buyer & Cellar at Barrow Street Theatre in 2013, which won him his first Drama Desk Award and a second Lucille Lortel Award; the show later made a London transfer to the Menier Chocolate Factory. He starred alongside Patti LuPone (who had also played his mother on Ugly Betty) in Lincoln Center Theater's 2015 production of Shows for Days and, most recently, as Hlestakov in Red Bull Theater's revival of The Government Inspector and Second Stage Theater's acclaimed revival of Torch Song in 2017. In the latter, he played Arnold Beckoff and received another Lucille Lortel Award nomination. The production transfered with Mr. Urie to Broadway's Hayes Theater from October 9, 2018 under the new title of Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song, in honor of the playwright, and closed on January 6, 2019.

Urie has also worked as a producer, casting director, and theatre director over the course of his career. His résumé as a director includes high school productions, regional productions, and two Off-Broadway credits for Bright Colors and Bold Patterns in 2016 and 2018. He has also hosted the Drama League Awards ceremony since 2016.

On screen, his most notable credits since Ugly Betty include The Decoy Bride (2011), Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life (2011), Petunia (2012), Partners (2012-13), Such Good People (2014), Modern Family (2014-15), The Good Wife (2014-16), Younger (2016-17), Diverted Eden (2018), and Shrinking, for which he earned his first Emmy Award nomination in 2025.