Michael David Rapaport (born March 20, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, and

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

host. Beginning his career in the early 1990s, he has made over 100 appearances in film and television. His film roles include ''Zebrahead'' (1992), '' True Romance'' (1993), ''

Higher Learning Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...

'' (1995), '' Metro'' (1997), '' Cop Land'' (1997), '' Deep Blue Sea'' (1999), '' The 6th Day'' (2000), '' Dr. Dolittle 2'' (2001), '' Big Fan'' (2009), and '' The Heat'' (2013). On television, he headlined the Fox sitcom '' The War at Home'' (2005–2007) and was a series regular on the Fox drama ''

Boston Public ''Boston Public'' is an American drama (film and television), drama television series created by David E. Kelley and broadcast on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox. Set in Boston, the series centers on Winslow High School, a fictional public high sc ...

'' (2001–2004), the fourth season of the Fox serial drama ''

Prison Break ''Prison Break'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created by Paul Scheuring for Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox. The series revolves around two brothers: Lincoln Burrows (Dominic P ...

'' (2008–2009), and the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

comedy drama ''

Atypical ''Atypical'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Robia Rashid for Netflix. The series takes place in Connecticut, and focuses on the life of 18-year-old Samuel "Sam" Gardner ( Keir Gilchrist), who is autistic. The first sea ...

'' (2017–2021). Rapaport held recurring roles on the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

sitcoms ''

Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane (producer), David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting List of Friends episodes, ten seasons. With an ensemble cast ...

'' (1999), ''

My Name Is Earl ''My Name Is Earl'' is an American television sitcom created by Greg Garcia (producer), Greg Garcia for NBC. It aired for four seasons from September 20, 2005, to May 14, 2009, with a total of List of My Name Is Earl episodes, 96 episodes. It wa ...

'' (2007–2008), and '' Justified'' (2014). Outside of his acting career, Rapaport directed the 2011 documentary '' Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest'' about the hip hop group

A Tribe Called Quest A Tribe Called Quest was an American Hip hop music, hip hop group formed in Queens, New York City, in 1985,Q-Tip< ...

. Active on several podcasts, he is the host of the ''I Am Rapaport Stereo Podcast''.

Early life and education

Rapaport was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, the son of June Brody, a New York radio personality, and David Rapaport, a radio executive who was the general manager of the All-Disco format at New York radio station WKTU Disco 92. He has a brother named Eric Rapaport and an older half-sister named Claudia Lonow (née Rapaport) via his father's prior marriage. Rapaport grew up on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, near 70th Street and York Avenue. He is

Ashkenazi Jewish Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...

; his family is originally from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Rapaport had a hard time in school. He attended

Erasmus Hall High School Erasmus Hall High School was a four-year public high school located at 899–925 Flatbush Avenue between Church and Snyder Avenues in the Flatbush, Brooklyn, Flatbush neighborhood of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brookly ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

in the 1980s, but was expelled. He graduated from Martin Luther King High School in Manhattan.

Career

In 1989, Rapaport moved to

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

when he was 19 years old to try to become a stand-up comic. Rapaport's stepfather, comic Mark Lonow, who owned

The Improv The Improv is a comedy club franchise. It was founded as a single venue in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City in 1963, and expanded into a chain of venues in the late 1970s. History Originally, it was a 50-seat single venue (whic ...

with Budd Friedman, helped him get into the stand-up world. He did that for three years. His big break in acting was on the TV series '' China Beach''. Rapaport had a recurring role in ''

'' as Frank, a convict Earl reunites with in prison. He played one of the main characters in the season four of ''

'' as Homeland Security Agent Don Self. In October 2008, Rapaport announced that he was directing a documentary about

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

act

A Tribe Called Quest A Tribe Called Quest was an American Hip hop music, hip hop group formed in Queens, New York City, in 1985,Q-Tip< ...

. The film, '' Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest'', was released in 2011 and received mostly positive reviews. Rapaport guest starred in the fifth season of the FX series '' Justified'' as villain Daryl Crowe Jr, kingpin of the Crowe family. On February 12, 2010, Rapaport participated in the NBA All-Star Weekend's Celebrity Game and was named the MVP because of his defense on football player Terrell Owens, the MVP of the last two Celebrity Games, despite scoring just four points and having only a single rebound. On April 17, 2014, an ESPN ''

30 for 30 ''30 for 30'' is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes four "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series und ...

'' film he directed premiered at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

. The film was about the 1970s championship-winning

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the Na ...

led by

Earl Monroe Vernon Earl Monroe (born November 21, 1944) is an American former professional basketball player. He played for two teams, the Baltimore Bullets and the New York Knicks, during his career in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Both teams ...

, Walt Frazier, and

Willis Reed Willis Reed Jr. (June 25, 1942 – March 21, 2023) was an American professional basketball player, coach, and general manager. He spent his entire ten-year pro playing career (1964–1974) with the New York Knicks of the National Basketball ...

. Rapaport is a frequent guest on ''

The Howard Stern Show ''The Howard Stern Show'' is an American radio show hosted by Howard Stern that gained wide recognition when it was radio syndication, nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from WINS-FM, WXRK in New York City, between 1986 and 2005. The sho ...

'' on

Sirius XM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting corporation headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. The company was formed by the 2008 merge ...

, and participates in the show staff's fantasy football league. Rapaport hosts the ''I Am Rapaport Stereo Podcast'' on the CBS Local radio network with childhood friend Gerald Moody. Other podcasts that Rapaport has appeared on include ''The Monday Morning Podcast'' with Bill Burr, ''Mailtime'' and ''Pardon My Take'' by

Barstool Sports Barstool Sports is an American blog website and digital media company headquartered in New York City that publishes sports journalism and pop culture-related content. It is owned by Dave Portnoy, who founded the company in 2003 in Milton, Massa ...

, '' The Adam Carolla Show'', '' The Fighter and the Kid'', '' Unqualified'', ''The

Bill Simmons William John Simmons III (born September 25, 1969) is an American podcaster, Sports journalism, sportswriter, and cultural critic who is the founder and CEO of the sports and pop culture website ''The Ringer (website), The Ringer''. Simmons fir ...

Podcast'' and its predecessor, ''The BS Report''; ''The Chive Podcast'', '' WTF with Marc Maron'', ''His & Hers Podcast'', '' Cari Champion's Podcast'', ''The Joey Boots Show'', ''The Dirty Sports Podcast'' and more. On June 19, 2017, Rapaport announced on Twitter that he would be joining the sports satire website Barstool Sports where he would be a correspondent for the podcast ''Pardon My Take''. On February 18, 2018, Rapaport was fired from Barstool Sports after making a rude comment toward their fan base. Rapaport is a reporter for

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

, covering the

Big3 Big3 (stylized BIG3) is a 3x3 basketball, 3-on-3 basketball league founded by the hip-hop musician and actor Ice Cube and entertainment executive Jeff Kwatinetz. The league consists of 12 teams whose rosters include both former National Basketb ...

basketball league formed by

Ice Cube O'Shea Jackson Sr. (born June 15, 1969), known professionally as Ice Cube, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor, and film producer. His lyrics on N.W.A's 1989 album '' Straight Outta Compton'' contributed to gangsta rap's widespread popu ...

. He is the narrator of the ''WWE 365'' series on

WWE Network WWE Network is a subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and digital television network owned by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, a division of TKO Group Holdings. The service relied on technology develo ...

. In 2023, Rapaport competed in season ten of '' The Masked Singer'' as the wild card contestant "Pickle". A running gag is that he would bump into

Nick Cannon Nicholas Scott Cannon (born October 8, 1980) is an American comedian, television presenter, actor, and rapper. In television, he began his career as a teenager on Nickelodeon's '' All That'' before going on to host '' The Nick Cannon Show'', '' ...

. Rapaport was eliminated on "2000s Night". After the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Rapaport appeared in many independent activist shorts supporting the release of hostages taken by Hamas and its affiliates. Rapaport has since become a vocal pro-Israel advocate. In 2025, Rapaport praised far-right Rabbi Meir Kahane, saying that "Kahane was always right."

Personal life

On May 18, 1997, Rapaport was arrested for harassing ex-girlfriend Lili Taylor and charged with two counts of aggravated harassment. He pleaded guilty to the charges in court and

New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the superior court in the Judiciary of New York. It is vested with unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction, although in many counties outside New York City it acts primarily as a court of civil ju ...

Justice Arlene Goldberg issued a protection order to keep the actor from contacting Taylor, as well as mandating that he undergo counseling sessions. In 2000, Rapaport married writer and producer Nichole Beattie. They have two sons. They divorced in 2007. In 2005, Rapaport wrote an article for '' Jane'' magazine about having to evict the actress Natasha Lyonne from a property he was renting to her during a period of heavy drug use on her part. The two have since reconciled and remain friends. In 2016, Rapaport married his long time girlfriend, actress Kebe Dunn. In June 2018, Rapaport, while on an American Airlines flight from Houston to Los Angeles, stopped another passenger attempting to open an emergency door mid-flight.

Filmography

Film

Television

Documentary

Video games

Music videos

Music album

Works and publications

References

External links

*
I Am Rapaport
' podcast * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rapaport, Michael 1970 births Living people 20th-century American comedians 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American comedians 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American male actors American documentary filmmakers American landlords American male comedians American male film actors American male television actors American male video game actors American people of Polish-Jewish descent American people of Russian-Jewish descent American stand-up comedians American Zionists Barstool Sports people Comedians from Manhattan Jewish American comedians Jewish American male actors Jewish male comedians Male actors from Manhattan People from the Upper East Side People convicted of harassment American Kahanists