Biography
Critical praise for performances on Broadway and turns as charismatic criminal figures on "Boardwalk Empire" (HBO, 2009-2014) and "Person of Interest" (CBS, 2011-2016) allowed Morgan Spector to enjoy high-profile turns on series like "Homeland" (Showtime, 2011- ) and numerous independent films. Born October 4, 1980 in Santa Rosa, California, Spector began acting at an early age, appearing in a community theater production of Christopher Durang's "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All To You" when he was eight years old. Performances in high school productions led to training at Reed College and the American Conservatory Theater and roles in the national touring company of "The Lion King" and numerous regional stage performances. Spector made his screen debut in the independent drama "Raspberry Heaven" (2004), but concentrated largely on theater work in the ensuing years, which led to his breakout turn in a 2010 production of Arthur Miller's "A View from the Bridge" opposite Scarlett Johansson and Liev Schreiber. Initially cast as a longshoreman in the production, he was promoted to one of the leads when actor Santino Fontana was injured during previews. Critical praise for his performance led to his star-making stage performance as a sinister visitor in the New Group's 2012 production of "Russian Transport." A slew of television roles soon followed, culminating in recurring roles on "Boardwalk Empire" as Frank Capone, an even-tempered sibling to the infamous gangster Al Capone, and as Russian mobster Peter Yogorov on "Person of Interest." In 2014, he returned to Broadway to co-star in "Machina" with British actress Rebecca Hall, whom he would marry the following year; the couple later appeared together in "Christine" (2016), director Antonio Campos' biopic of newscaster Christine Chubbock, who committed suicide on-air in 1974. The film was just one of an impressive number of film and television projects in which Spector appeared between 2015 and 2018: he served as narrator for "Friday Night Tykes" (USA Network/Esquire Network, 2014- ), an intense documentary series about youth football leagues in Texas, and was cast as a Soviet operative training undercover American spies in the short-lived "Allegiance" (NBC, 2015). Spector moved to top-billing for "The Mist" (Spike, 2017- ), a episodic take on the Stephen King novella of the same name, and co-starred with Hall that year in both the independent comedy feature "Permission" (2017) and the New York stage production of "Animal." During this period, Spector also found time to play a young Sylvester Stallone in "Chuck" (2016), a biopic of the boxer Chuck Wepner, who served as an inspiration for "Rocky" (1976), and co-star as an investigator in the eighth season of "Homeland."
