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Michael Mando
Michael Mando
	Mando in 2018
Born	July 13, 1981 (age 43); Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
Alma mater	Dawson College
Occupation(s)	Actor, writer, director, singer
Years active	2000–present

Michael Mando (born July 13, 1981)^[1]^[2] is a Canadian actor. He played Nacho Varga on the AMC series Better Call Saul (2015–2022), Vaas Montenegro in the video game franchise Far Cry (2012, 2021), Vic Schmidt in the sci-fi series Orphan Black (2013–2014), and Mac Gargan in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). He is a two-time Canadian Screen Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nominee.

Early life

Mando was born in Quebec City.^[3]^[4] He was raised by his father and is the second of three brothers. The family moved around a lot, living in more than 35 homes in 10 cities across four continents before he was in his mid-20s.^[5]^[6] Mando's mother hails from Guinea, and his father was a Doctor of Chemistry from Germany. Mando spent most of his childhood growing up in Accra (Ghana), Abidjan (Ivory Coast) and Beirut (Lebanon) before returning home to Canada as a teen.^[7] His native language is French, and he speaks English, Spanish, and Arabic.^[5]^[6] He grew up wanting to be a writer or an athlete.^[5]^[8]

In his mid-20s he suffered a knee injury and consequently decided to change paths.^[5] He was enrolled in many fields, including international relations at the University of Montreal before discovering the performing arts at the Dome Theatre Program (Dawson College) in 2004.^[5] Despite no training he went on to play the male lead in all five productions of the program.^[5]^[6] He graduated in 2007. His Dome credits included Orlando in Shakespeare's As You Like It, Professor Katz in David Edgar's Pentecost, and Valentine Xavier in Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending.^[5] Steven W. Lecky, the chair of the program, called Mando "one of the finest talents to emerge from the program in the past 25 years."^[6]

Career

After playing the leading character in two award-winning professional theatre productions in Montreal,^[6] Mando founded Red Barlo Productions.^[5]^[6]^[9] The company’s first film, Conditional Affection (which Mando starred in, directed and wrote) was released in 2010 and officially selected to Fantasia,^[10]^[11] Bare Bones,^[11]^[12] ACTRA Short Films,^[5]^[11] and the New Hope International Film Festivals.^[11]^[13]

Mando’s television debut simultaneously followed with a wide range of contrasting characters. His credits include guest appearances in the crime series The Bridge, the medical drama mini-series Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, as an MS-13 gang member in The Border, and as a close friend of the character Kenzi (played by Ksenia Solo) in the fantasy series Lost Girl.^[14]

Mando has had repeated collaborations with directors John Fawcett and Érik Canuel as well as producer David Barlow. He had a starring role in the 2010 feature film Territories.^[15] In 2011, he had a recurring role in Les Bleus de Ramville^[15]^[16] and a guest appearance on the series King.^[15] He is the voice and likeness of Vaas Montenegro, a major character of the 2012 video game Far Cry 3.^[17] He also starred in a webseries called The Far Cry Experience as Vaas,^[18] who captures and tortures Christopher Mintz-Plasse as himself. In the 2020s, Mando would reprise his role as Vaas for Far Cry VR: Dive Into Insanity^[19] and Far Cry 6.^[20]

In 2012, Mando was cast in the first season of the science fiction television series Orphan Black, which began airing in 2013.^[21] He played Vic, an abusive drug-dealer and was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for his work on the series.^[22] He reprised his role of Vic in the second season in a recurring role. In 2014, Mando joined the cast of Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad spin-off, portraying Nacho Varga, a career criminal.^[23]

In 2023, he was set to star in the series Dope Thief, but was fired due to a physical altercation with another cast member.^[24]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	Conditional Affection	Jack	Short film Also director, writer and producer
2010	Territories	Jalii Adel Kahlid
2011	Abyss of the Mind	Johnny H.
2012	The Good Lie	Orville
2013	The Colony	Cooper
	Elysium	Rico	Uncredited
	Make Your Move	Raphael
2016	Wake Up	Johnny H. / Alter Ego	Short film Also director, writer and producer
2017	Spider-Man: Homecoming	Mac Gargan
2018	The Hummingbird Project	Mark Vega

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008; 2010	The Border	Mirza / Marco	2 episodes
2009	The Last Templar	Necia First Mate	2 episodes
	Web of Lies	Danny Wilcox	Television film
	Flashpoint	Felipe	Episode: "Eagle Two"
2010	Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures	Dr. Manolas	2 episodes
	The Bridge	K9	Episode: "Voices Carry"
	Lost Girl	Neville	Episode: "(Dis)Members Only"
2011	King	Esteban Demarco	Episode: "T-Bone"
2011	Michael: Tuesdays & Thursdays	Alain	Episode: "Unscripted Conversation"
2012	The Pregnancy Project	Javier Rodriguez	Television film
	Les Bleus de Ramville	Marc-Andre David	8 episodes
	Psych	Chuy	Episode: "Let's Doo-Wop It Again"
	The Killing	Vasquez	Episode: "Off the Reservation"
2013	The Listener	Len Gazicki	Episode: "Buckle Up"
	Rookie Blue	Cesar Medina	Episode: "The Kids Are Not Alright"
	Covert Affairs	Eduardo	Episode: "Into the White"
2013–14	Orphan Black	Victor "Vic" Schmidt	9 episodes
2014	La marraine	Alvaro Pessoa	5 episodes
2015–22	Better Call Saul	Nacho Varga	33 episodes
2016	The Crossroads of History	Gaum	Episode: "Columbus"

Video games

Year	Title	Voice role	Notes
2010	Shaun White Skateboarding	Francisco Crystobal
2012	Far Cry 3	Vaas Montenegro	Also likeness & motion capture
2021	Far Cry 6	Vaas Montenegro	Also likeness & motion capture

Web

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2012	FarCry Experience	Vaas Montenegro	5 episodes

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2012	NAVGTR Award	Lead Performance, Drama	Far Cry 3	Nominated
2013	D.I.C.E. Awards	Outstanding Character Performance - Male or Female	Far Cry 3	Nominated
2014	Canadian Screen Award	Best Guest Performance in a Drama Series	Rookie Blue	Nominated
2014	Canadian Screen Award	Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Program or Series	Orphan Black	Nominated
2019	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series	Better Call Saul	Nominated
2021	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series		Nominated
2022	Hollywood Critics Association	Best Supporting Actor in a Broadcast Cable/Drama Series		Nominated
2022	Saturn Awards	Best Supporting Actor on Television		Nominated