Age: 52
male
Michael Brown (born August 3, 1973), professionally known as Michael Ealy, was born on August 3, 1973 in Silver Spring, Maryland. He attended SpringbrookHigh School and the University of Maryland, College Park. Ealy started his acting career in the late-1990s, appearing in a number of off-Broadway stage productions. Among his first film roles were Bad Company and Kissing Jessica Stein. His breakout role came in 2002's Barbershop, in which he plays reformed street thug Ricky Nash, a role that he reprised in the 2004 sequel, Barbershop 2: Back in Business. In 2003, he played the role of Slap Jack in the second installment of the Fast and the Furious film series, 2 Fast 2 Furious. Later in 2004, Ealy appeared in Never Die Alone with DMX. In 2005, Ealy co-starred in the telefilm version of Their Eyes Were Watching God, produced by Oprah Winfrey and Quincy Jones, and starring Academy Award-winning actress HalleBerry. The same year, he starred in the independent film Jellysmoke, directed by Mark Banning. He starred in the Showtime television series Sleeper Cell and Sleeper Cell: American Terror. On December 14, 2006, Ealy was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his role in Sleeper Cell: American Terror in the category Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television. In December 2008 he was featured in the movie Seven Pounds alongside Will Smith as Ben Thomas. He also starred as CIA Field Officer Marshall Vogel in the ABC television series FlashForward. In 2010 Ealy starred in the action-thriller Takers and in the drama For Colored Girls. Also in 2010, Ealy signed on to play an attorney, Derrick Bond in the TV series, The Good Wife.
Season One opens in Charleston, South Carolina. The Hargrove family is American royalty — a three-generation dynasty that built its fortune in luxury jewelry design, real estate, and high-society philanthropy. Their sprawling antebellum waterfront estate, Hargrove House, is a landmark and a fortress, and at its center sits the patriarch: HAROLD "HANK" HARGROVE, 80 — a towering, deeply traditional man who built everything from nothing and intends to control it until his last breath. Hank's youngest grandson, FORD HARGROVE, 24, has just returned from two years studying abroad in Europe — Paris, Rome, Barcelona — without finishing his degree, without accomplishing much of anything except filling tabloids with his escapades. He drives too fast, parties too hard, and has had a revolving door of women, including a current on-again, off-again girlfriend, PIPER LANGLEY, 26, a sleek, calculating Manhattan socialite who is deeply invested in becoming the next Mrs. Hargrove. Ford isn't in love with her. He isn't sure he's capable of loving anyone. Hank has had enough. He calls Ford into his private study and delivers the ultimatum in that quiet, devastating tone that ends conversations: You will marry a proper girl from Savannah — from a family I respect — or I will remove you from this family entirely. Ford knows his grandfather means it. Ford agrees, believing the marriage will be in name only. He figures he'll do it, smile through the photos, and continue his life exactly as before.
