Michael Vartan was born November 27, 1968 in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France. He is the only child of a Bulgarian father and a Polish mother who got divorced when Vartan was only five years old. After a childhood spent traveling between France, where his father lived, and the United States, where his mother stayed, Vartan finally moved to the U.S. at age 18. He took up acting and made his film debut in the French movie, Un home et deux femmes in 1991. It wasn't until 1993 when he starred in the Italian epic, Fiorile, that he gained recognition and was nominated for a French Caesar Award for Best Up-and-Coming Actor. His first big budget American project was The Pallbearer with Academy Award-winning actress, Gwyneth Paltrow and
Friends star,
David Schwimmer . He has since appeared in the hit romantic comedy, Never Been Kissed, with Drew Barrymore but his signature role to date is as CIA Agent Michael Vaughn on the spy drama, Alias.
Michael Vaughn, played by Michael Vartan on Alias, is an operative with the Central Intelligence Agency or CIA. He became Sydney Bristow's handler when she joined the agency as a double agent against SD-6 and eventually became romantically involved with her.
(Photo courtesy of ABC)