Michael Weatherly


Michael Manning Weatherly Jr. is an American actor, producer, and director known for playing the role of Anthony DiNozzo in the television series NCIS, and earlier played Logan Cale in the drama Dark Angel. In 2016, he began the title role of Dr. Jason Bull in Bull, a courtroom drama.

Early life

Weatherly was born in New York City and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut. His parents are Patricia and Michael Weatherly. Weatherly is of Irish descent.
Weatherly attended Fairfield Country Day School and graduated from Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts. He attended Boston University, Menlo College, and American University, but left college to pursue acting.
Weatherly sings and plays several instruments, including piano and guitar. He has contributed two songs to the NCIS soundtracks, "Bitter and Blue" and "Under the Sun". He played in a band while pursuing his early career in New York City. Another early project was a video shoot for a karaoke CD: A Taste of Honey's version of "Sukiyaki".

Career

Weatherly began his acting career with a minor television role on The Cosby Show as Theo Huxtable's roommate. He played the role of Cooper Alden in Loving and later, The City, appearing in the role from 1992 until 1996.
Weatherly moved to Los Angeles, soon landing a role as a series regular on the FOX television series Significant Others with Jennifer Garner, though the show only lasted six episodes. He then met director Whit Stillman who cast him in the 1998 film The Last Days of Disco as Hap, opposite Chloë Sevigny. Weatherly also appeared as a conflicted warlock in the series Charmed during its first season in 1998.
His movie credits include Meet Wally Sparks with Rodney Dangerfield, Gun Shy with Liam Neeson, Cabin by the Lake, and the independent film Trigger Happy opposite Rosario Dawson.
Weatherly starred in Dark Angel for the two seasons it was on the air. This role earned him three award nominations, two Saturn Awards for best supporting actor on television in 2001 and 2002, and one Teen Choice award for choice actor in 2001.
In 2003 he appeared as Senior NCIS Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo in two episodes of the CBS series JAG, a role he continued to portray in the spin-off series NCIS. He made subsequent guest appearances on both ' and '. Together with Pauley Perrette, who played Abby Sciuto, he is one of only two actors who have appeared in all four shows. In 2004 he starred in the television film The Mystery of Natalie Wood, portraying Robert Wagner. Since 2010, Robert Wagner had made twelve guest appearances on NCIS as Anthony DiNozzo, Sr., the father of Weatherly's character.
He was a guest presenter at the Australian Logie Awards of 2007 on May 6, 2007, and was a guest on Rove Live.
Weatherly made his directing debut with the season-eight episode of NCIS titled "One Last Score", which aired March 1, 2011, and also directed the NCIS season-10 episode "Seek" which aired March 19, 2013.
He portrayed Jesus Christ in a YouTube video that also featured comedian Sarah Silverman and was sponsored by a pro-choice organization.
CBS announced in January 2016 that Weatherly would be leaving NCIS after 13 seasons of starring as main character Anthony DiNozzo. At the same time, the network announced he would star in a new series called Bull in fall 2016, loosely based on the real-life trial consultancy of Dr. Phil McGraw.

Personal life

Weatherly married his Loving/The City co-star Amelia Heinle in February 1995. Their son, August, was born in 1996. They divorced in 1997.
During filming of Dark Angel in January 2000, Weatherly began a relationship with co-star Jessica Alba, leading to their engagement in 2001. The relationship ended in August 2003.
Weatherly married internist Dr. Bojana Jankovic on September 30, 2009. The couple live in Manhattan with their two children, a daughter, Olivia, and a son, Liam.
Weatherly is the uncle of actress Alexandra Breckenridge.

Sexual harassment

In January 2019, CBS made a $9.5 million settlement with actress Eliza Dushku after she was fired from a recurring role on Bull, after informing producers of Weatherly's inappropriate behavior on the set. According to documents from the official mediation, Weatherly was recorded on video making comments about spanking Dushku over his knee, soliciting a threesome, alluding to sexual assault in his "rape van," and other inappropriate remarks. After Dushku spoke with producers, Weatherly texted CBS Television Studios' president David Stapf saying he wanted to talk about Dushku's sense of humor, though Stapf pushed back saying "Ms. Dushku made the show better." Days later, showrunner Glenn Caron terminated her expected role on the show despite opposition from studio executives. The settlement amount was calculated to compensate Dushku for loss of earnings from her planned promotion to series regular, citing "well-developed plans" to make her a regular cast member following her three-episode guest appearance.
In December 2019 when the settlement was reported, Weatherly publicly apologized for the comments. Dushku responded that Weatherly broke the terms of their settlement by speaking to the press and characterized his apology as "more deflection, denial, and spin."

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

Saturn Awards
Soap Opera Digest Awards
Teen Choice Awards