Michael Raymond-James (born Michael Weverstad; December 24, 1977) is an American actor. He is best known for playing René Lenier in the first season of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

series '' True Blood'', Britt Pollack on the FX series ''

Terriers Terrier () is a type of dog originally bred to hunt vermin. A terrier is a dog of any one of many breeds or landraces of the terrier type, which are typically small, wiry, game, and fearless. There are five different groups of terrier, wi ...

'', Neal Cassidy/Baelfire on the ABC series ''

Once Upon a Time "Once upon a time" is a stock phrase used to introduce a narrative of past events, typically in fairy tales and folk tales. It has been used in some form since at least 1380 in storytelling in the English language and has started many narrative ...

'', Mitch Longo on the CBS All Access series '' Tell Me a Story'' and Joseph Colombo on the " Godfather of Harlem"

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

Life and career

Raymond-James was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, and graduated Clarkston High School in 1996, where he was a football and track standout. He started out doing theater and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York, with George Loros, Geoffrey Horne and Robert Castle. Following several stage appearances in New York, including ''The Petrified Forest'' at the Pantheon Theater, he relocated to Los Angeles. He has guest starred in such series as '' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', '' Medium'', '' Boston Legal'', '' ER'' and the season two premiere of '' Lie to Me''. He starred in the FX original series ''

'' which was canceled by FX on December 6, 2010 after the first season. Raymond-James also played the role of Rene Lanier on the

original series '' True Blood''. In his feature debut Raymond-James played the best friend of Justin Timberlake's character in '' Black Snake Moan'' with

Christina Ricci Christina Ricci ( ; born February 12, 1980) is an American actress known for playing unusual characters with a dark edge. Ricci works mostly in Independent film, independent productions, but has also appeared in numerous box-office hits. She is ...

and Samuel Jackson. The actor also starred in Jonny Hirschbein's award-winning short film 'The Fix,' working alongside Robert Patrick and David Paymer. His feature-film credits include 'Moonlight Serenade,' starring as a piano prodigy opposite Academy Award-nominee Amy Adams. In an episode of '' The Walking Dead'' titled "

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

", Raymond-James played a young man named Dave, who presents a threat to series protagonist Rick Grimes and his group. He starred in ''Once Upon a Time'' as Neal Cassidy/Baelfire, who is Henry's father as well as Rumpelstiltskin's son and is later revealed to be the grandson of Peter Pan. In 2020, Raymond-James was cast to play the lead role of Gavin Wolcott in 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 ...

apocalyptic drama pilot ''La Brea'' which was written by David Appelbaum; however, he left the project and was replaced by Eoin Macken. In the 2021-22 season he recurs on '' Law & Order: Organized Crime'' as Jon Kosta.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Raymond-James, Michael 1977 births American male film actors American male television actors Hollywood United F.C. players Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute alumni Living people 21st-century American male actors Male actors from Detroit Men's association football players not categorized by position Association football players not categorized by nationality