Michael Mando

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.

Quick Facts Born, Alma mater ...

Michael Mando
Mando in 2018
Born	(1981-07-13) July 13, 1981 (age 43)[1] Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
Alma mater	Dawson College
Occupation(s)	Actor, writer, director, singer
Years active	2000–present

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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]

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]