Michael Zelniker is a Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter. He is best known for his performance as Red Rodney in

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the " Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "'' Do ...

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-winning film ''

Bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

'' (1988) and as Doug Alward in ''

The Terry Fox Story ''The Terry Fox Story'' is a 1983 Canadian-American biographical film of Canadian amputee and runner Terry Fox. It was written by Howard Hume, John Kastner and Rose Kastner, and directed by Ralph L. Thomas. The film stars Eric Fryer as Fox, Chr ...

'' (1983), for which he won a

Genie Award The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978; also known as the "Etrog Awards," for sc ...

for Best Supporting Actor at the

5th Genie Awards The 5th Genie Awards were presented on March 21, 1984, at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto.Jay Scott, "Terry Fox Story wins best picture Genie". ''The Globe and Mail'', March 22, 1984. The awards ceremony was hosted by Louis Del Grande. No ...

in 1984.

Early life and education

Originally from

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

, Zelniker studied acting and theatre at

Dawson College Dawson College (French: ''Collège Dawson)'' is an English-language public general and vocational college in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The college is situated near the heart of Downtown Montreal in a former nunnery on approximately 12 ac ...

, Dome Theatre."Blissful success: Former Montrealer Michael Zelniker is wowing critics and audiences with his new movie Stuart Bliss". ''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of t ...

'', August 31, 1998.

Career

Zelniker appeared in the films ''Pinball Summer'' (1980), ''

Ticket to Heaven ''Ticket to Heaven'' is a 1981 Canadian drama film directed by Ralph L. Thomas and starring Nick Mancuso, Saul Rubinek, Meg Foster, Kim Cattrall, and R.H. Thomson. The plot concerns the recruiting of a man into a group portrayed to be a reli ...

'' (1981), '' Heartaches'' (1981), ''

'' (1988), ''

Glory Enough for All ''Glory Enough for All'' is a 1988 Canadian television movie directed by Eric Till and written by Grahame Woods, depicting the discovery and isolation of insulin by Frederick Banting and Charles Herbert Best. It was the winner of nine 1989 Gemi ...

'' (1991),"Banting, Best earned their glory". ''

Windsor Star The ''Windsor Star'' is a daily newspaper based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Postmedia Network, it is published Tuesdays through Saturdays. History The paper began as the weekly ''Windsor Record'' in 1888, changing its name to the ''Bor ...

'', October 15, 1988. ''

Naked Lunch ''Naked Lunch'' (sometimes ''The Naked Lunch'') is a 1959 novel by American writer William S. Burroughs. The book is structured as a series of loosely connected vignettes, intended by Burroughs to be read in any order. The reader follows the na ...

'' (1991),"Actor can only dream of Tangiers". ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and par ...

'', February 6, 1991. ''

Queens Logic ''Queens Logic'' is a 1991 American ensemble coming-of-age comedy-drama film from Seven Arts Pictures starring Kevin Bacon, Linda Fiorentino, Joe Mantegna, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Malkovich, Ken Olin, Chloe Webb and Tom Waits. It was directed by St ...

'' (1991),''Mercenary'' (1996) and ''

Snide and Prejudice ''Snide and Prejudice'' is a 1997 film directed by Philippe Mora. Synopsis At a mental institution, the resident physician, Dr Cohen, encourages his patients who believe that they are important Nazi figures to act out their fantasies. The therapy ...

'' (1997), and made guest appearances in the television series ''

The Littlest Hobo ''The Littlest Hobo'' is a Canadian television series (French title: ''Le Vagabond'') based upon a 1958 well-known film of the same name directed by Charles R. Rondeau. The series first aired from 1963 to 1965 in syndication, and was revived fo ...

'', '' In the Heat of the Night'', ''

Murder, She Wrote ''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The seri ...

'', '' Profiler'', ''

Strong Medicine ''Strong Medicine'' is an American medical drama with a focus on feminist politics, health issues and class conflict that aired on the Lifetime network from 2000 to 2006. It was created and produced in part by Whoopi Goldberg, who made cameo ...

'', '' The Dead Zone'' and ''

Millennium A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannus, kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting ...

''. He wrote the screenplay for the 1998 film ''Stuart Bliss'', in which he also played the title character. ''Stuart Bliss'' was also produced by Zelniker, and won the Northampton Film Festival's Best of Fest Award in 1998. Zelniker wrote, produced, and directed '' Falling'', which won Indie Fest USA International Film Festival's Best of Festival Award in 2012. In 2013 he began teaching Acting for Film, Chekhov Technique and Performing Shakespeare at the Los Angeles Campus of the

New York Film Academy New York Film Academy – School of Film and Acting (NYFA) is a private for-profit film school and acting school based in New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami. The New York Film Academy was founded in 1992 by Jerry Sherlock, a former f ...

after teaching Acting for the Camera, Acting Technique and Shakespeare at the

American Musical and Dramatic Academy The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) is a private conservatory for the performing arts located in New York City and Los Angeles, California. The conservatory offers both Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees and two-year certificates in prof ...

from 2004 to 2013. In 2018, Zelniker became a climate leader with the Climate Reality Project, trained by former Vice President

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic ...

. He served as the Co-Chair of Climate Reality's Los Angeles Chapter from 2018 - 2021. He wrote, produced, edited and directed the documentary, ''The Issue with Tissue - a boreal love story'' about the boreal forest and the Indigenous Peoples who have called it home for thousands of years. ''The Issue with Tissue'' held its world premiere at Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival on September 18, 2022.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* Best Supporting Actor Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners Canadian male film actors Canadian male television actors Canadian male screenwriters Canadian male stage actors Dawson College alumni Male actors from Montreal Living people Writers from Montreal Year of birth missing (living people) {{Canada-actor-stub