
Birthdate: Aug 10, 1988
Birthplace: Jonesboro, Arkansas
John Michael Finley is a veteran theater actor who made his feature film debut in the lead role of co- directors Jon and Andrew Erwin’s music-based biopic on the life of Christian pop singer Bart Millard, I Can Only Imagine (2018), co-written by Jon Erwin and Brent McCorkle, with Madeline Carroll, Trace Adkins, Pricilla Shirer, Cloris Leachman and Dennis Quaid, grossing $86 million for distributors Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions. Finley starred in director/producer/writer Garrett Batty’s Christian-themed drama based on a true story, Faith of Angels (2024), with Cameron Arnett, Kirby Heyborne, and Michael Bradford.
Finley co-starred in co-director/producer Larry A. McLean’s and co-director Dave Alan Johnson’s historical drama, Love, Courage and the Battle of Bushy Run (2024), co-starring Tom Connolly, Rachele Schank, Adam Baldwin, Edward Gelhaus, and Jackson Hurst, and which was produced by My House Entertainment and Triple Horse Studios. Finley returned as the star of the sequel, I Can Only Imagine 2 (2026), co-starring Milo Ventimiglia, Sophie Skelton, Trace Adkins, and Dennis Quaid, under the co-direction of Andrew Erwin and Brent McCorkle (who also wrote the screenplay), and was released wide by Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions.
John Michael Finley was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and raised in Lebanon, Missouri, by his parents, Wayne and Betsy Finley. Finley has four siblings. Finley attended and graduated from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where he studied acting. Finley has been married to Elizabeth Doran since 2017.
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Theater Life: John Michael Finley has had a robust theater career on the stages of Chicago (Lyric Opera of Chicago, Drury Lane Theatre, Writers’ Theatre, Mercury Theatre, Court Theater, Marriott Theatre and Paramount Theatre); New York (Eugene O’Neill Theatre, Sondheim Theatre) where he appeared in the Broadway casts of the Les Miserables and The Book of Mormon; and London (The Prince of Wales Theatre), where he continued in that staging of The Book of Mormon.
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