Michael Carlyle Hall (born February 1, 1971) is an American actor, musician, and producer. He is best known for his roles as Dexter Morgan, a serial killer and blood spatter analyst in the Showtime series Dexter, and as David Fisher in the HBO drama series Six Feet Under. In 2010, Hall won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his role in Dexter. He has also acted in Broadway shows, narrated audiobooks, and is currently the lead vocalist of the band Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum.
Born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, Hall graduated from New York University’s graduate acting program at the Tisch School of the Arts in 1996. He began his acting career on Broadway in the revival of Cabaret and appeared in a variety of shows in the mid- to late 1990s. This acting exposure led to his casting in Six Feet Under, which aired from 2001 to 2005. In 2006, he was cast in the role as Dexter Morgan, a role that ended in 2013. He assumed the title role in Hedwig and The Angry Inch on Broadway (2014–15). In 2019, Hall starred in the Netflix thriller film In the Shadow of the Moon.
Early life
Hall was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. His mother, Janice (née Styons) Hall, is a mental health counselor at Lees-McRae College, and his father, William Carlyle Hall, worked for IBM. Hall grew up an only child; his sister died in infancy before his birth. His father died of prostate cancer in 1982 at the age of 39 when Hall was 11 years old. He has said of this: “There was a very one-on-one, immediate family relationship, my mom and I.” In a 2004 interview, Hall stated of his father’s death: “Certainly, for a young boy, there’s no good age, but I think I was on the cusp of a time in my life where I was starting to reach puberty, to relate to my father. To have him… Something gets frozen. As you revisit it for the rest of your life, it’s sort of this slow but hopefully sure crawling out of that frozen moment.”
Hall graduated from Ravenscroft School in Raleigh, in 1989, and from Earlham College, a liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana, in 1993. He has said that he planned to become a lawyer, but later admitted that he never actually intended to go to law school. Hall graduated from New York University’s graduate acting program at the Tisch School of the Arts in 1996.
Career
Early in life, Hall discovered acting, and performed in What Love Is while in second grade at Ravenscroft School. When he was in fifth grade, he began singing in a boy’s choir, then in high school musicals, performing in standards such as The Sound of Music, Oklahoma!, and Fiddler on the Roof. He continued acting during his time at Earlham College, where he starred in such productions as Cabaret.
A young Hall stars in Earlham College’s Cabaret
Hall’s professional acting career began in the theater. Off-Broadway, he appeared in Macbeth and Cymbeline at the New York Shakespeare Festival, and in Timon of Athens and Henry V at The Public Theater, The English Teachers at the Manhattan Class Company (MCC), and the controversial play Corpus Christi at the Manhattan Theatre Club. He also performed in the workshop production of what was then known as Sondheim’s Wise Guys, later versions of which were titled Bounce, and finally, Road Show. He sang the role of Paris Singer; this character’s songs and function in the play were transferred to the character Hollis Bessamer in the final version of the play. In Los Angeles, Hall appeared in Skylight at the Mark Taper Forum. He also was part of the Texas Shakespeare Festival the summer of 1995. He played Lancelot in Camelot, Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing.
Stage
During August 4–30, 1998, Hall performed in William Shakespeare’s Cymbeline in the role of Posthumus.
In 1999, director Sam Mendes cast Hall as the flamboyant Emcee in the revival of Cabaret, Hall’s first Broadway role.
In 2003, Hall toured as Billy Flynn in the musical Chicago. In 2005, he returned to off-Broadway theater in the premiere of Noah Haidle’s Mr. Marmalade, playing the title character, an emotionally disturbed little girl’s imaginary friend.
In 2014, he returned to Broadway in the play The Realistic Joneses, starring in the role of John Jones.
He assumed the title role in Hedwig and The Angry Inch on Broadway on October 16, 2014, and performed the role until January 18, 2015. Hall returned to the role of Hedwig from February 17–21, 2015, to replace John Cameron Mitchell, who had a knee injury.
At the end of 2015 and the start of 2016, Hall starred as Thomas Newton in the NYTW stage production of Lazarus, created by David Bowie and Enda Walsh. Hall performed the song “Lazarus”, which appeared on Bowie’s final album, Blackstar (2016), on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in December 2015. He later appeared in the London production from October 25, 2016, until January 22, 2017.
In 2018, Hall starred as Thom Pain in the off-Broadway production of Thom Pain (based on nothing), a one-man show written by Will Eno. The show was directed by Oliver Butler for the Signature Theatre in New York City, and it ran from October 23, 2018 to December 9, 2018 after being extended twice.
On February 3, 2019, Hall starred as a fictionalized version of himself in the half-hour-long, one-time-only Broadway musical, Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical.
Six Feet Under
Mendes suggested Hall for the role of closeted David Fisher, when Alan Ball began casting the TV drama Six Feet Under. “Everything opened up for me in Cabaret,” but, Hall reported in a 2004 interview, “It slammed shut for David.”
Hall’s work in the first season of Six Feet Under was recognized with a nomination for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and for an AFI Award nomination for Actor of the Year in 2002. In addition, he shared in the Screen Actors Guild nominations for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series all five years that the show was in production, winning the award in 2003 and 2004.
Dexter
Hall at the 2013 Comic-Con
Hall starred in and co-produced the Showtime television series Dexter, in which he played a psychopathic blood-spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department, who moonlights as a serial killer / vigilante. Jennifer Carpenter played his adoptive sister, Debra Morgan. The series premiered on October 1, 2006, and ended its run in 2013. After months of rumors, on April 18, 2013, Showtime announced via social media that season eight would be Dexter‘s final season. Hall also voiced Dexter Morgan in the animated web series Dexter: Early Cuts.
For his work on Dexter, Hall was nominated for five Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series from 2008 to 2012. The show itself was also nominated for Emmy citations in the Drama Series category in the same years. He won the 2007 Television Critics Association award for Individual Achievement in Drama. Hall was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Drama in 2007, 2008, and again in 2010. Also in 2010, he won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series.
On January 16, 2014, Showtime President David Nevins said there had been discussions for a Dexter spinoff series that would take the character in a different direction and not continue the previous series. Nevins said they would only do the show if Hall agreed to return.
Hall stated he would be open to returning for a spinoff series, but said: “I can’t even wrap my mind around that. And it’s all just theoretical until there is some sort of script reflecting somebody’s idea of where it could possibly go. But it’s hard for me to imagine what that would be. Yeah, as far as playing Dexter again for an undefined amount of time, that’s a little daunting to consider. But doing another television series—there’s a lot of amazing stuff on TV. I don’t want to do that right away. But I wouldn’t say never to that.” He has said he would consider revisiting his role as the serial killer if something was written that he deemed “worth pursuing”.
On October 14, 2020, Showtime confirmed that Hall would reprise his role of Dexter Morgan in a 10-episode limited series, with Clyde Phillips returning as showrunner. The series is expected to premiere in 2021.
Other TV series
In 2017, Hall played John F. Kennedy in season two, episode eight of the Netflix historical drama The Crown, alongside actress Jodi Balfour as Jackie Kennedy. He also starred as Tom Delaney, British widower and doctor, in Safe, an eight-part Netflix original crime drama which premiered on May 10, 2018.
Film
Hall’s film credits include the thriller Paycheck (2003), the science fiction thriller Gamer (2009), the 2011 drama The Trouble with Bliss (2011), the comedy Peep World (2012), and Kill Your Darlings (2013). Hall performed in a film adaptation of Joe R. Lansdale’s cult novel Cold in July, directed by Jim Mickle. The film premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Hall will portray Abraham Lincoln’s advisor, Leonard Swett, in the documentary film The Gettysburg Address.
In 2019, Hall starred as Holt in the Netflix thriller film In the Shadow of the Moon.
Animation and narration
Hall voices the character Toffee in Daron Nefcy’s Star vs. the Forces of Evil and also voiced Batman in Justice League: Gods and Monsters.
In 2018, Hall narrated the audiobook version of Stephen King’s horror novel Pet Sematary.
In 2019, Hall starred alongside Martha Plimpton and Hamish Linklater in an episode of the theatre podcast Playing on Air, titled “Nudity Rider”.
Music
Hall has sung for the band Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum since 2018, alongside Matt Katz-Bohen and Peter Yanowitz. On September 3, 2019, they filmed their first music video for their song, “Ketamine”, in Tarrytown, New York. The audio for the song was released October 25, 2019, with the official music video premiering on Collider December 12, 2019. The band’s eponymous debut EP was released on April 2, 2020.
Personal life
In 2002, Hall married actress Amy Spanger. Hall played Billy Flynn opposite Spanger’s Roxie Hart in the Broadway musical Chicago, the summer after their wedding. The pair divorced in 2006.
In 2007, Hall began dating his Dexter co-star Jennifer Carpenter. They eloped on New Year’s Eve 2008 in California and publicly appeared together for the first time as a married couple at the 66th Golden Globe Awards in January 2009. In December 2010, Hall and Carpenter released a statement announcing that they had filed for divorce after having been separated “for some time”. The divorce was granted for irreconcilable differences and finalized in December 2011; however, the two remain close friends.
In September 2012, Hall began dating Morgan Macgregor, who was an associate editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books, and they married on February 29, 2016. In an interview with the Daily Beast, Hall stated, “I think there’s a spectrum. I am on it. I’m heterosexual, but if there was a percentage, I would say I was not all the way heterosexual.” Despite this, Hall says he has never been attracted to another man. However, he stated he sometimes desires emotional connections with other men that he feels would be considered gay.
Hall is a vegan. He lives in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City with his wife, Morgan.
Cancer
On January 13, 2010, Hall’s agent and spokesman confirmed that Hall was undergoing treatment for a form of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In an interview, Hall said that it was upsetting to learn of his cancer when he was 38 years old, as his father had died from cancer at age 39. Hall accepted his Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award in 2010 while wearing a knitted cap over his bald head, having lost his hair due to chemotherapy. On April 25, 2010, Carpenter announced that Hall’s cancer was fully in remission and he was set to get back to work for a new season of Dexter.
Charity
Hall is the face of the Somalia Aid Society’s “Feed The People” campaign. He has also worked with Kiehl’s to promote a limited-edition skin care line that benefits the Waterkeeper Alliance, an environmental nonprofit organization that works toward clean and safe water worldwide.
In 2011, Hall was the celebrity spokesperson for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s “Light the Night Walk” fundraising campaign.
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Paycheck | Agent Klein | |
| 2009 | Gamer | Ken Castle | |
| 2011 | Peep World | Jack Meyerwitz | |
| 2012 | The Trouble with Bliss | Morris Bliss | |
| 2013 | Kill Your Darlings | David Kammerer | |
| 2014 | Cold in July | Richard Dane | |
| 2015 | Justice League: Gods and Monsters | Kirk Langstrom / Batman | Voice; Direct-to-video |
| 2016 | Christine | George Peter Ryan | |
| 2016 | After Adderall | Director | |
| 2017 | Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House | John Dean | |
| 2018 | Game Night | The Bulgarian | |
| 2019 | The Report | Thomas Eastman | |
| 2019 | In the Shadow of the Moon | Holt | |
| 2021 | John and the Hole | Brad | |
| TBA | The Gettysburg Address | Leonard Swett | Voice |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001–05 | Six Feet Under | David Fisher | 63 episodes |
| 2004 | Bereft | Jonathan | Television film |
| 2006 | Mysteries of the Freemasons | Narrator | Television film |
| 2006–13 | Dexter | Dexter Morgan | 96 episodes Also executive producer |
| 2009–10 | Dexter: Early Cuts | Dexter Morgan | Voice; 12 episodes |
| 2011 | Vietnam in HD | Narrator | 6 episodes |
| 2012 | Ruth & Erica | Tom | 3 episodes |
| 2014 | Years of Living Dangerously | Himself | Episode: “A Dangerous Future” |
| 2015 | Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles | Kirk Langstrom / Batman | Voice; Episode: “Twisted” |
| 2015–19 | Star vs. the Forces of Evil | Toffee | Voice; 11 episodes |
| 2017 | The Crown | John F. Kennedy | Episode: “Dear Mrs. Kennedy” |
| 2018 | Safe | Dr. Tom Delaney | 8 episodes Also executive producer |
| 2019 | Documentary Now! | Billy May “Dead Eyes” Dempsey | Episode: “Any Given Saturday Afternoon” |
| 2021 | Dexter: Revival | Dexter Morgan | 10 Episode limited series: sequel to its original series Dexter |
Theater
| Year | Title | Role | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Henry V | Earl of Warwick | Delacorte Theatre |
| 1996 | Timon of Athens | Caphis | Delacorte Theatre |
| 1996 | Skylight | Edward Sergeant | Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre |
| 1998 | Macbeth | Malcolm | The Public Theater |
| 1998 | Corpus Christi | Peter | Manhattan Theatre Club |
| 1998 | Cymbeline | Posthumus Leonatus | Delacorte Theatre |
| 1999–2000 | Cabaret | Emcee | Studio 54 |
| 2002 | Chicago | Billy Flynn | Richard Rodgers Theatre |
| 2004 | R Shomon | Reporter | Williamstown Theatre Festival |
| 2005 | Mr. Marmalade | Mr. Marmalade | Laura Pels Theatre |
| 2014 | The Realistic Joneses | John Jones | Lyceum Theatre |
| 2014–15 | Hedwig and the Angry Inch | Hedwig | Belasco Theatre |
| 2015–17 | Lazarus | Thomas Jerome Newton | New York Theatre Workshop King’s Cross Theatre |
| 2018 | Thom Pain (based on nothing) | Thom Pain | Signature Theatre Company |
| 2019 | Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical | Himself | Midtown Manhattan’s Town Hall |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Association | Category | Nominated work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | American Film Institute Awards | Male Actor of the Year in a Television Series | Six Feet Under | Nominated |
| 2002 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series | Six Feet Under | Nominated |
| 2002 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | Six Feet Under | Nominated |
| 2003 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | Six Feet Under | Won |
| 2004 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | Six Feet Under | Won |
| 2005 | Monte-Carlo Television Festival | Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series | Six Feet Under | Won |
| 2005 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | Six Feet Under | Nominated |
| 2006 | Satellite Awards | Best Actor – Television Series Drama | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2006 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | Six Feet Under | Nominated |
| 2007 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor – Television Series Drama | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2007 | Satellite Awards | Best Actor – Television Series Drama | Dexter | Won |
| 2007 | Saturn Awards | Best Actor on Television | Dexter | Won |
| 2007 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2007 | Television Critics Association Awards | Individual Achievement in Drama | Dexter | Won |
| 2008 | Astra Awards | Favorite International Personality or Actor | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2008 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor – Television Series Drama | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2008 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2008 | Satellite Awards | Best Actor – Television Series Drama | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2008 | Saturn Awards | Best Actor on Television | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2008 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2009 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor – Television Series Drama | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2009 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2009 | Saturn Awards | Best Actor on Television | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2009 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2009 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2010 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor – Television Series Drama | Dexter | Won |
| 2010 | Monte-Carlo Television Festival | Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series | Dexter | Won |
| 2010 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2010 | Satellite Awards | Best Actor – Television Series Drama | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2010 | Saturn Awards | Best Actor on Television | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2010 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series | Dexter | Won |
| 2010 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2011 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor – Television Series Drama | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2011 | Monte-Carlo Television Festival | Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2011 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Drama Series | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2011 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2011 | Saturn Awards | Best Actor on Television | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2011 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2011 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2012 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2012 | Saturn Awards | Best Actor on Television | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2012 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2013 | Saturn Awards | Best Actor on Television | Dexter | Nominated |
| 2014 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Ensemble Performance | The Realistic Joneses | Won |
| 2016 | Lucille Lortel Awards | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical | Lazarus | Nominated |
| 2016 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance | Lazarus | Nominated |
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical | Lazarus | Nominated |
| 2017 | WhatsOnStage Awards | Best Actor In A Musical | Lazarus | Nominated |