Michael Rapaport

Michael David Rapaport (born March 20, 1970) is an American actor, podcast host, director, and comedian. He has acted in more than forty films since the early 1990s. His best known roles on television are on Boston Public, Friends, The War at Home, Prison Break, and Justified. Some of his film roles include True Romance (1993), Higher Learning (1995), Cop Land (1997), Deep Blue Sea (1999), The 6th Day (2000), Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), Big Fan (2009), The Heat (2013), and Atypical (2017). Early life Rapaport was born in New York City, 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 grew up on the east side of Manhattan. He has a brother named Erik Rapaport. His family is from Poland and Russia, and he is Jewish. The surname Rappaport is of Italian Jewish origin. He was expelled from high school and moved to Los Angeles, California when he was 19 years old to try to become a stand-up comic. His half-sister is Claudia Lonow via his father, David Rapaport, although she chose to adopt the surname of her half-brothers' stepfather, Mark Lonow, professionally. Rapaport's mother remarried comic Mark Lonow, who owned the Improv with Budd Friedman, which helped him get into the stand-up world. In 1998, Rapaport plead guilty to aggravated harassment of his former girlfriend, actress Lili Taylor. He was spared jail time, but sentenced to mandatory counseling, and a protection order was enforced.  Career He had a recurring role in My Name is Earl as Frank, a convict Earl reunites with in prison. His character was the reason for many of the things in Earl's life, such as indirectly giving Earl his trailer and El Camino after a botched robbery with his partner, Paco. He played one of the main characters in the season four of Prison Break as Homeland Security Agent Don Self. In October 2008, Rapaport announced that he was directing a documentary about hip hop act A Tribe Called Quest. 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 won the MVP for the game for 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 film he directed premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film was about the 1970s championship-winning New York Knicks led by Earl Monroe, Walt Frazier, and Willis Reed. Players that made it to the premiere included Monroe, Frazier, Phil Jackson, Cazzie Russell, and Dick Barnett. Bill Bradley was not able to attend due to a recent hip replacement surgery. Rapaport is an occasional guest on the Howard Stern Show on Sirius Satellite Radio, especially when he participates in the staff's fantasy football pool. 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, The Adam Carolla Show, The Fighter and The Kid, Anna Faris is Unqualified, The Bill Simmons 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 popular sports satire website Barstool Sports where he will be a cat killing correspondent for the podcast Pardon My Take. Rapaport is currently also a reporter for Fox Sports, covering the BIG3 basketball league formed by Ice Cube.