Harold Perrineau as
Michael Dawson Born on August 7, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York, Harold Perrineau, Jr. studied music and theater at the Shenandoah Conservatory in Virginia. He eventually pursued an acting career and played a wheelchair-bound criminal in the critically acclaimed hit series, Oz. His notable roles include that in Baz Luhrmann's modern day adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, in which he played Mercutio, Romeo's cross-dressing, gender-confused best friend.
In talking about Mercutio, Perrineau told Contact Music, “Mercutio was just buggin' out, you know what I mean? He was just high, crazy, stoned. In a society where macho is the thing, for Mercutio to come out in a dress, that's ballsy. Mercutio is just off his rocker and doesn't care. Then there was that thing about him maybe loving Romeo or not, well I guess that changes things.”
However, Perrineau’s most well-known film role to date is Link, the Zion hovercraft pilot in The Matrix trilogy. His other film credits include Woman on Top, Gardens of the Night, 28 Weeks Later and Demons.
Harold Perrineau first appeared on Lost as Michael Dawson in 2004, and stayed on the show in its first two seasons. In August 2007, it was reported that he was to return to the show to reprise his role.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Perrineau opened up about his experiences on Lost, and when asked if he has worked with a production team such as that of Lost, he said, "Never. And while it was really fun in the beginning, it gets a little like, 'Uhh, what am I doing?' You really have to stay on your feet creatively, so when the scripts come you can find some way to make it as interesting and current and filled with as much stuff as you can, having just read it a week earlier. So, because I've been gone for a year and have no idea what has happened, I'm already gearing up to make a bunch of choices so I can fit all of that into whatever they have him do. You have to be really creative, and that's kind of fun, figuring stuff out."
(Image courtesy of ABC)