Park attended Nazareth College, Rochester, New York, originally intending to become an architect, before deciding to become an actor. He worked in the 1992 New Plays Festival at Geva Theatre in Rochester. He appeared in regional productions including Ellen Universe Joins The Band and Peephole. In 1994, Park appeared in the musical Hello Again at Lincoln Center Theater. In August 1994, Park was in the Goodspeed Opera House production of Shenandoah, and Good News at the North Shore Music Theatre. After understudying Billy Bigelow in the 1994 revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, he made his Broadway debut in 1995 in Smokey Joe's Cafe. In 1997, Park played Monty in the Playwrights Horizons production of Violet. The day after Violet opened was Park's first day in the long-running daytime soap operaAs the World Turns as Jack Snyder, joining in April 1997. Park received three Emmy nominations and several other soap-opera acting awards, including winning the 2010 and 2011 Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. During his 13-year tenure in As the World Turns, he continued to work in the theatre, playing Lucky Malone in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Little Me. He made two New York City CenterEncores! appearances: Bloomer Girl in 2001 as Jeff Calhoun, and Applause in 2008 as Bill Sampson. With As the World Turns coming to an end in June 2010, Park returned to the stage, and played the role of Pete's ghost father who appeared to his son as three "Alamo" characters in the coming-of-age musical The Burnt Part Boys at Playwrights Horizon. In the summer of 2010, he appeared as Lord Capulet in the musical The Last Goodbye at Williamstown Theatre Festival. Park then appeared as the cop in Will Eno's play Middletown at the off-Broadway Vineyard Theatre. Park performed in the role of Bert Bratt in the Broadway revival How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, starring Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette. In the 2012 independent financial thriller film Supercapitalist, Park appears as Morris Brown, co-starring along with Linus Roache, Kenneth Tsang, Derek Ting, Richard Ng, Kathy Uyen, and Darren E. Scott. On December 5, 2013, he participated as a cast member of the NBC telecast production of The Sound of Music Live! starring Carrie Underwood. He played Cecco, one of Captain Hook's pirates, in the NBC presentation of Peter Pan Live! starring Allison Williams and Christopher Walken; the musical was broadcast on December 4, 2014. In 2015, he created the role of Larry Murphy in the world premiere of the stage musical Dear Evan Hansen at Washington, DC's Arena Stage. The musical opened off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theater in the Spring of 2016, though he was not in the cast as he was appearing in the Broadway musical, Tuck Everlasting. He returned to Dear Evan Hansen in the Fall of 2016 when the musical made its debut on Broadway. For his work in Dear Evan Hansen, Michael Park earned the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album and his third Daytime Emmy Award, this one a Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program for his and the rest of the cast's Today Show performance that was broadcast on April 25, 2017.
Personal life
Park was born in Canandaigua, New York, but spent a year of his childhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has been married to music therapist Laurie Nowak since January 6, 1996. They have three children.
