Biography
American actor Shane Mikael Johnson paid his dues in a multitude of small roles before striking gold with his portrayal of slick government attorney Cooper Saxe on "Power" (Starz, 2014-). Having grown up in Washington, the actor earned his first screen role, as a soldier in Steven Spielberg's epic "Saving Private Ryan" (1998), while still attending Whitman College. After graduating, he began stringing together supporting roles on television shows like "Undressed" (MTV, 1999-2002) and "ER" (NBC, 1994-2009), and films such as "Behind Enemy Lines" (2001) and "Pumpkin" (2002). He got his big break when he was cast as one of the leads in the thriller "Black Cadillac" (2003). Johnson played one of three men being mysteriously chased by a Cadillac through Wisconsin. He continued making appearances on television with guest spots on "Bones" (FOX, 2005-17) and "Raising the Bar" (TNT, 2008-09), as well as serving as the narrator for "Deep Sea Salvage" (History, 2009). He branched out into providing voices for video games, including titles in the hit series "Fallout" and "Final Fantasy." After a memorable guest spot on "Castle" (ABC, 2009-16), he landed a recurring role on Illeana Douglas's IKEA-produced webseries "Easy to Assemble". He co-starred again with Douglas in the dark comedy "Chez Upshaw" (2013). He then took the lead in David Jung's horror film "The Possession of Michael King" (2014) playing a man who tempts demons to possess him. He initially began appearing as Cooper Saxe on a recurring basis during the first season of "Power" (Starz, 2014-). The character was a U.S. Attorney working to bring down Omari Hardwick's criminal kingpin, and became a series regular in the show's second season. He later starred with his wife, Keili Lefkovitz, in the romantic comedy "Death Everlasting" (2018) and in the Trevor Riley drama "Son of Perdition" (2018), both of which Johnson also produced.
