Michael Welch biography

Michael Alan Welch (born July 25, 1987) is an American actor. He has portrayed the roles of Luke Girardi on the TV series Joan of Arcadia and Mike Newton in the 2008 film Twilight and its sequels New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.

Life and career

Welch was born in California. His father is Protestant and his mother is Jewish.
Welch began his acting career at the age of 10. Welch is close friends with his Joan of Arcadia co-star Aaron Himelstein, who played the recurring character Friedman on the series. He and Himelstein had known each other for several years but did not become good friends until the series began in 2003.
Welch appeared in the 1998 film Star Trek: Insurrection, as well as on the television series Malcolm in the Middle, The X-Files, 7th Heaven, Cold Case, Without a Trace, NCIS, Crossing Jordan, The Riches, and Birds of Prey. He also narrated the Carl Hiaasen book Flush for CD in 2006. One of his most acclaimed roles is as a teenage version of Colonel Jack O'Neill in the Stargate SG-1 episode "Fragile Balance". In 2008, Welch played Mike Newton in the film Twilight, based on the book by Stephenie Meyer. He reprised the role in the film's sequels, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn - Part 1. He stars also in the Indie thriller Unrequited under the direction from Jason Epperson.
Welch is featured in the online viral campaign "Aczone: The Musical", which was created to inform teenagers about a new acne treatment.

 

Fun Facts

He is a skilled drummer.

He played drums in a band with another actor, Joey Zimmerman.

Has an older sister, Sarah, who is an Optometrist working in a VA Hospital.

As his eyes are blue in real-life, he had to wear contact lenses when playing the younger version of Colonel Jack O'Neill in the "Stargate SG-1" (1997) episode "Fragile Balance" as Richard Dean Anderson (who plays the usual version of the character) has brown eyes.

Got his first car, a Toyota Prius, in October 2004.

His family owns a dog named Charley. It was a runaway after the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, California that they adopted.

Andrew Dorsett, the Young Frasier to his Young Niles in "Frasier" (1993) episode "Where Every Bloke Knows Your Name," plays in a band with one of Welch's friends who is also one of his former drum instructors.

Has played both an autistic youth in the movie "United States of Leland", and a genius in the series "Joan of Arcadia".

His favourite TV show is "Family Guy" (1999).

His favourite films are Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) and The Matrix (1999).

Quotes

(Regarding his performance as Luke on "Joan of Arcadia") I don't feel that I'm playing it like a nerd. I've never liked to play stereotypes.

[You have to] put your own ego aside and do what's right for the role. I've always been willing to do that. I really don't care what I look like as long as it fits with the thing I'm working on.

I always thought it'd be fun to go to a sci-fi convention, watch a bunch of Klingons walking around, all of that kind of stuff.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1998	Frasier	Young Niles	TV, 1 episode
	Veronica's Closet	Aaron	TV, 1 episode
	Chicago Hope	Lama Topa Rinpoche	TV, 1 episode
	Star Trek: Insurrection	Artim	Young Artist Award
1998–1999	Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place	Michael Rush	TV, 3 episodes
1999	7th Heaven	Donovan Birbeck	TV, 1 episode
	Walker, Texas Ranger	Adam Crossland	TV, 1 episode
	Disney's Villains' Revenge	Peter Pan	voice
	The Norm Show	Jimmy	TV, 1 episode
	Jesse	Gabe	TV, 3 episodes
2000	American Adventure	Kevin	TV movie
	Ladies Man	Kyle	TV, 1 episode
	Shasta McNasty	Jeff	TV, 1 episode
	Straight Right	Joey Geddes
	The Pretender	Eric Gantry	TV, 1 episode
	Personally Yours	Sam Stanton	TV movie
	The Drew Carey Show	Scout #1	TV, 1 episode
2001	Delivering Milo	Mr. Owen
	Malcolm in the Middle	Josh	TV, 1 episode
	The X Files	Trevor	TV, 1 episode
	The Ballad of Lucy Whipple	Butte Whipple	TV movie
	The Invisible Man	Adam Reese	TV, 1 episode
	Touched by an Angel	Robbie McGregor	TV, 1 episode
	The District	Christian Gilroy	TV, 1 episode
	Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse	Pinocchio	voice
	Judging Amy	Mike Amble	TV, 1 episode
2001–2002	House of Mouse	Pinocchio	TV, voice
2002	Rocket Power: Race Across New Zealand		TV, voice
	The Angel Doll	Little Jerry Barlow
	Birds of Prey	14 Year Old 'Guy'	TV, 1 episode
	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Todd Branson	TV, 1 episode
2003	The United States of Leland	Ryan Pollard
	Stargate SG-1	Young Jack O'Neill	TV, 1 episode
2003–2004	Fillmore!	Cockney Kid	TV, 2 episodes
2003–2005	Joan of Arcadia	Luke Girardi	TV; Young Artist Award
2005	Without a Trace	Lance	TV, 1 episode
	Strong Medicine	Win	TV, 1 episode
	Cold Case	Daniel Potter - 1972	TV, 1 episode
2006	NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service	Kody Meyers	TV, 1 episode
	Crossing Jordan	Josh Winter	TV, 1 episode
	All the Boys Love Mandy Lane	Emmet
2007	An American Crime	Teddy Lewis
	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Scott Heston	TV, 1 episode
	Choose Connor	Max
	The Beautiful Ordinary	Stephen	aka Remember the Daze
	Numb3rs	Kyle Clippard	TV, 1 episode
	CSI: Miami	Shane Partney	TV, 1 episode
2008	American Son	Goldie
	Day of the Dead	Trevor Bowman
	The Riches	Ike	TV, 4 episodes
	My Suicide	Earl
	The Thacker Case	Kevin Thacker
	Twilight	Mike Newton
2009	The Grind	Josh
	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Steuben Lorenz	TV, 1 episode
	The Lost Dream	Perry
	The Twilight Saga: New Moon	Mike Newton
2010	Criminal Minds	Syd Pearson	TV, 1 episode
	Unrequited	Ben Jacobs
	The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	Mike Newton
	Glenn Martin DDS	voice	TV, 1 episode
	Breaking Dawn (film)	Mike Newton
	Bones	Norman Hayes	TV, 1 episode (6x17)
	Born Bad	Denny
	Boys of Abu Ghraib	Pits	post poduction