Mike Colter
Birthdate: Aug 26, 1976
Birthplace: Columbia, South Carolina, USA
Mike Colter (birthname: Mike Randal Colter) is a veteran supporting actor in features as well as a player in the recurring role of Luke Cage in several popular Marvel Studios’ TV series, including Jessica Jones (2015 and 2019), Luke Cage (2016-2018) and The Defenders (2017). Colter’s feature debut was under Clint Eastwood’s direction in his Oscar-winning boxing drama, Million Dollar Baby (2004), starring Hilary Swank, Eastwood, and Morgan Freeman.
After a small role in writer-director Kevin Jordan’s indie drama, Brooklyn Lobster (2005), with Danny Aiello and Jane Curtin, Colter played opposite Vanessa Williams, Eartha Kitt, Kevin Daniels, Michael Boatman, Stephen Spinella, and Ben Vereen in the Richard Schenkman-directed rom-com, And Then Came Love (2007). In director Philip Noyce’s thriller, Salt (2010), Colter had a supporting role opposite Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Andre Braugher, with the movie earning over $293 million globally.
Colter followed with supporting roles in two major 2012 releases: Men in Black 3, with Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, and Josh Brolin, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, earning over $654 million worldwide; and in his second Best Picture Oscar-nominated movie, Kathryn Bigelow’s Al-Qaeda-based thriller, Zero Dark Thirty, starring Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong, and James Gandolfini, grossing over $132 million globally.
After five years, Mike Colter returned to features as one of the guys in the hit ($141 million gross) comedy, Girls Trip (2017), marking the breakout performance of Tiffany Haddish, alongside Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, and Larenz Tate, under Malcolm D. Lee’s direction. After a major supporting role in the panned Netflix sci-fi Extinction (2018), Colter appeared in writer-producer-director Guy Nattiv’s Nazi skinhead drama, Skin (2018), released by A24 after a world premiere at the Toronto film festival, and co-starring Jamie Bell, Vera Farmiga, Danielle Macdonald, Daniel Henshall, and Bill Camp.
Colter got his face on the poster for the acclaimed Sundance premiere written and directed by star Hannah Pearl Utt, Before You Know It (2019), playing opposite Utt, Jen Tullock, Judith Light, Mandy Patinkin, and Alec Baldwin. Colter’s next supporting role was in the Christian drama (and the first distributed through the new Disney-owned 20th Century label), Breakthrough (2019), co-starring Chrissy Metz, Josh Lucas, Topher Grace, Marcel Ruiz, and Dennis Haysbert, earning over $50 million globally.
Colter again had a major supporting role in director Deon Taylor’s cop drama, Black and Blue (2019), co-starring Naomie Harris, Tyrese Gibson, and Frank Grillo, and grossing nearly $23 million worldwide. Reuniting with director Taylor and co-star, Hilary Swank, Colter played major support with Michael Ealy in the psychological drama, Fatale (2020), released by Lionsgate for a modest $7 million return.
After co-starring with Jason Sudeikis and Evangeline Lilly in writer-director Aharon Keshales’ little-seen crime thriller, South of Heaven (2021), Mike Colter had his first starring role in writer-director Patrick Gilles’ biopic, I’m Charlie Walker (2021), with Dylan Baker, Carl Lumbly and Monica Barbero. After appearing in his first non-English-language production—writer-director Jung Byung-gil’s Korean action thriller, Carter (2022), released on Netflix, Colter had one of his biggest roles to date co-starring opposite Gerard Butler in the action drama, Plane (2023), projected to gross over $50 million during its early 2023 release.
Personal Details
Mike Colter was born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina, by his father Eddie Lee Colter, Sr., and his mother Freddie Colter. He has a brother, who is an agent with the Secret Service. After graduating from Calhoun County High School, Colter attended the historically Black college in Columbia, Benedict College, for his freshman year and then transferred to the University of South Carolina, graduating there in 1999 with a B.A. in theater.
He went on to earn an MFA at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. At Rutgers, he met his future wife, Iva, to whom he has been married since 2002. The couple has two daughters, the eldest named Naiella. Colter is a second cousin to actor Viola Davis. Colter’s height is 6’ 3”.
Filmography
actor
Previous (6)
- 2023 |
- 2020 |
- 2019 | Black and BlueasDarius
Black and Blue
A rookie New Orleans police officer is forced to balance her identity as a black woman after she witnesses two corrupt cops committing murder.
- 2019 | Before You Know ItasCharles
Before You Know It
A pair of sisters find out that the mother they thought was dead is alive and starring on a soap opera.
- 2019 | BreakthroughasTommy Shine
Breakthrough
When her 14-year-old son drowns in a lake, a faithful mother prays for him to come back from the brink of death and be healed.
- 2017 | Girls TripasStewart Pierce
Girls Trip
When four lifelong friends travel to New Orleans for the annual Essence Festival, sisterhoods are rekindled, wild sides are rediscovered, and there's enough dancing, drinking, brawling and romancing to make the Big Easy blush.
Some Facts About Mike Colter
BMOC: Mike Colter was identified in his high school yearbook as having been voted by his class as “most ambitious.”
