Early life

Boatman was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the son of Gwendolyn Boatman Pugh, a job supervisor for the handicapped, and Daniel Boatman, an army officer. He was raised in Chicago. Boatman is a graduate of Western Illinois University and received its "Alumni Achievement Award" in 1997.

Boatman studied acting at Western Illinois University, where he played a variety of roles including Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Purlie in Purlie Victorious. He was a member of the student sketch comedy troupe Shock Treatment, which performed at local bars and nightclubs. During his senior year Boatman won the prestigious Irene Ryan theater award for best supporting actor, during the finals competition at the Kennedy Center.

Acting career

In 1986, Boatman moved to Chicago, where he studied acting with Jane Brody, a popular acting teacher and casting director. Later that same year, he auditioned for and won the role of "Motown" in the critically acclaimed Vietnam action drama, Hamburger Hill. That same year he appeared in Running on Empty with River Phoenix, and The Trial of Bernard Goetz for the PBS American Playhouse series. In 1988, he auditioned for the pilot episode of the Vietnam era television drama, China Beach. He went on to play Samuel Beckett, the mortician in the China Beach mortuary, for the next three seasons. He later co-starred on The Jackie Thomas Show with Tom Arnold, and the short-lived WB series Muscle. In 1996, he landed a role on the ABC sitcom, Spin City, playing "Carter", the irascible, openly gay minority affairs liaison. For his work on Spin City he was nominated for five NAACP Image Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy. He also won the GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Association Against Defamation) award for Best Actor.

At the same time he was on Spin City, Boatman played the role of "Stanley Babson", the anal-retentive chief financial officer on the HBO original series Arliss and starred on both series simultaneously until they were canceled in 2002. For his work on Arliss Boatman was nominated for four Image Awards, also for Best Supporting Actor. He played the lead role in the critically acclaimed Charles Burnett drama, The Glass Shield. Later, he appeared in the feature films The Peacemaker, with George Clooney and Nicole Kidman, and Woman Thou Art Loosed, and in several made-for-TV movies. Michael Boatman also narrated in the WPA slave narratives in the HBO film Unchained Memories, in 2003.

In 2007, Boatman co-starred in the feature films, The Killing of Wendy (2008), American Summer and My Father's Will. He has had many notable guest appearances, including five episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Less Than Perfect, Yes, Dear, Scrubs, CSI: Miami, Hannah Montana and Grey's Anatomy. Boatman guest starred in the mystery/drama Warehouse 13, in July 2009.

In 2009, he joined the cast of the Lifetime comedy series, Sherri, starring Sherri Shepherd. The series is based on Shepherd's life experiences as a divorced single mom, actress and stand up comedian. Boatman plays 'Doctor Randy Gregg', Sherri's son's pediatrician and Sherri's love interest.

More recently he has appeared as attorney Julius Cain in The Good Wife. In 2011, Boatman guest-starred as Russell Thorpe on Gossip Girl, along with Tika Sumpter, who played his daughter Raina. In 2012, Boatman became a recurring character in the FX original series Anger Management, reuniting with his former Spin City co-star Charlie Sheen as Sheen's next door neighbor Michael. Beginning in late September 2013, he began co-starring in Nick at Nite's new series, Instant Mom, alongside Tia Mowry-Hardrict.

Writing

Boatman is also a screenwriter and novelist. He sometimes writes in the splatterpunk horror genre. Splatterpunk is a divisive genre which offends as much as it entertains. Joe Lansdale praised his first collection with ""Michael Boatman writes like a visitor from hell. Someone out on short term leave for bad behavior. I love this stuff. He's one of the new, and more than promising, writers making his mark, and a dark and wonderful mark it is."

Many multi-author anthologies feature at least one of his short stories. They include Sick Things: An Anthology of Extreme Creature Horror, Until Someone Loses an Eye, Sages and Swords, Badass Horror and Christmas in Hell. He has been published in Weird Tales, Horror Garage and Red Scream. He introduced Cyber-Pulp Halloween 3.0 which was published by Cyber-pulp Books. His Born Again from Eulogies II: Tales From the Cellar received an Honorable Mention from Ellen Datlow in The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Six. His first collection of short stories, God Laughs When You Die, was published by Dybbuk Press on October 23, 2007. His humorous horror novel, The Revenant Road, was published by Drollerie Press in 2009.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Hamburger Hill	Pvt. Ray Motown
1988	Running on Empty	Spaulding
1988-91	China Beach	Pvt. Samuel Beckett
1990	Donor	Arnold	TV Movie
1991	Fourth Story	Sgt. Teal	TV Movie
1992	Unbecoming Age	Robert
	Quantum Leap	Sergeant Billy Johnson	Episode: "Nowhere to Run"
	In the Line of Duty: Street War	Robert Dayton	TV Movie
1992-93	The Jackie Thomas Show	Grant Watson
1993	House of Secrets	Sgt. Joe DuBois	TV Movie
1994	The Glass Shield	Deputy J.J. Johnson
1995	Muscle	Garnet Hines
	Living Single	Brent Washington	Episode: "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow... Dammit"
	The Larry Sanders Show	Greg	Episode: "I Was a Teenage Lesbian"
1997	The Peacemaker	CPN Beach
1998	Walking to the Waterline	Marshall the Mover
1996-2002	Spin City	Carter Sebastian Haywood	145 episodes
1996-2002	Arli$$	Stanley Babson	32 episodes
2003-07	Law & Order	Dave Seaver	2 episodes
2003-11	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Dave Seaver	7 episodes
2003	Less Than Perfect	Ted Elliot	2 episodes
2004	Educating Lewis	Joe	TV Movie
	Woman Thou Art Loosed	Todd
	CSI: Miami	Wes Gallagher	Episode: "Not Landing"
	Yes, Dear	Adam	Episodes: "Couples Therapy"
2005	Scrubs	Ron Laver	Episode: "My Roommates"
	Once Upon a Mattress	The Jester	TV Movie
	Play Dates	Stewart	TV Movie
2006	Kalamazoo?	Special Angel Albert
	Huff	Art	Episode: "Maps Don't Talk"
2007	Frangela	Adam	TV Movie
	Traveling in Packs	Bob	TV Movie
	And Then Came Love	Ted
	Grey's Anatomy	Doug Kendry	Episode: "My Favorite Mistake"
2008	Hannah Montana	Randall Harrison	Episode: "Hannah in the Streets with Diamonds"
2009	A Secret Promise	Lorence
	Sherri	Dr. Randolph Gregg	8 episodes
	Warehouse 13	Professor Ed Marzotto	Episode: "Pilot"
	The Killing of Wendy	Detective Blake
	The Game	Chauncey	3 episodes
	Criminal Minds	William Harris	Episode: "Soul Mates"
2009-14	The Good Wife	Julius Cain	17 episodes
2010	Philadelphia: The Great Experiment	Narrator
	White Collar	Russel Smith	Episode: "Copycat Caffrey"
	Three Chris's	Walter Wayne
2011	Queen of Media	Robert
	The Doctor	Dr. Robert Brody
	The Pool Boys	Donovan Tucker
	Gossip Girl	Russell Thorpe	8 episodes
2012	Bad Parents	Gary
	Hornet's Nest	Richard Panessa
	The Smart One	Tom Holiday	TV Movie
2012-13; 2014	Anger Management	Michael	34 episodes
2013-2015	Instant Mom	Charlie Phillips	Main Role

[ Source: Wikipedia ]