Michael Emerson (born September 7, 1954) is an American actor who is best known for his roles as Benjamin Linus on Lost (2006–2010) and as Harold Finch in the CBS series Person of Interest (2011–2016). Other prominent roles include Zep Hindle in the horror film Saw (2004) and the recurring role of Cayden James on Arrow (2017–2018). He currently stars as Dr. Leland Townsend in the Paramount+ thriller series Evil (2019–present).

He has won two Primetime Emmy Awards, one Guest Actor in a Drama Series award for portraying William Hinks on The Practice (2000–2001), and the second a Supporting Actor in a Drama Series award for his role in Lost, which he also received three other Primetime Emmy nominations for. Emerson has also worked extensively in theatre, notably originating the role of Oscar Wilde in Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde from 1997 to 1998, portraying Willie Oban in the 1999 Broadway revival of The Iceman Cometh, and playing Guy in the debut production of Will Eno's Wakey, Wakey in 2017.

Emerson was born in Cedar Rapids,^[1] Iowa, to Carol (née Hansen) and Ronald H. Emerson.^[2] He grew up in Toledo, Iowa, where he was a member of his high school marching band.^[1]

He graduated in 1976 from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he majored in theater^[3] and minored in art.^[4] He studied for a semester at the National Theater Institute at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center,^{[citation needed]} then moved to New York City. Unable to find acting work, he took retail jobs and worked as an illustrator.^[1][4][5] In 1986, he moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where (from 1986 to 1993) he appeared in local productions at Theater Jacksonville and The Players by the Sea and worked as a director and teacher^[4] at Flagler College.^[6] After several years of work including illustration and teaching,^[4] Emerson earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Alabama in the Alabama Shakespeare Festival acting program.^[7]

Emerson landed a starring role in 1997 as Oscar Wilde in Moises Kaufman's critically acclaimed off-Broadway play Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, and then followed up with several other notable stage performances. In 1998, he performed opposite Uma Thurman in an off-Broadway production of Le Misanthrope. In 1999, he played Willie Oban in The Iceman Cometh. He co-starred with Kate Burton in both Give Me Your Answer, Do! and Hedda Gabler.^[8]

In September 2001, Emerson won an Emmy Award as Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for playing serial killer William Hinks in several episodes of The Practice. In 2006, Emerson began a guest-star role as Benjamin Linus on the serial drama television series Lost.^[9] Emerson was originally set to appear in a small number of episodes, then returned for Season 3 as a main cast member and eventually became a main antagonist of the program. He received an Emmy Award nomination in the Outstanding Supporting Actor category in 2007 and 2008 for his work in the third and fourth seasons. He won the award in 2009 after being nominated for his role in the fifth season.^[10]

Emerson was nominated in 2009 for a Golden Globe Award in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role category. He was nominated for an Emmy for each season in which he was listed in the main cast.^[11]

On July 31, 2010, Emerson and Preston read A.R. Gurney's Love Letters, which was a 1990 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, at the Charleston Stage as a fundraiser for the theater.^[12]

Emerson was set to reunite with former Lost cast member and friend Terry O'Quinn in a comedy-drama, tentatively titled Odd Jobs, by J. J. Abrams. It was expected to start filming by the end of 2010, but further development has been postponed. Emerson joined the cast of another Abrams series, Person of Interest, that debuted in September 2011 on CBS. He played a billionaire who teams up with a supposedly dead CIA agent to fight crime in New York City.^[13]

Emerson married actress Carrie Preston in 1998 in her hometown of Macon, Georgia.^[14] They met while he was performing in a stage production of Hamlet in Alabama.^[1][5] It is his second marriage.^[1] The two later starred together in Straight-Jacket (2004). Preston portrayed Emily Linus (the mother of Emerson's character) on Lost in the flashback sequences of the episode "The Man Behind the Curtain".^[9] The two teamed up again, with Emerson portraying Preston's next-door neighbor, in the film Ready? OK! (2008).^[15] Preston also appeared in several episodes of Person of Interest as Grace Hendricks (the former fiancée of Emerson's character).

Emerson supports charities connected to the theater community, including the Actors Fund, Broadway Cares, and Off-Off Broadway, in addition to publicly supported radio stations and Habitat for Humanity.^[4]

• In 2000, played the unnamed narrator character in the radio play adaptation of the Neil Gaiman short story, Murder Mysteries.
• In 2003, participated in a staged reading of a play involving string theory written by Jacquelyn Reingold called String Fever at Rockefeller University.
• In 2003, was the voice of George Washington in Favorite Son, an experimental documentary film about the relationship between George Washington and Alexander Hamilton.
• In 2005, narrated audio book CD of Robert Penn Warren's novel All the King's Men.
• In 2006, narrated audio book CD of The Amalgamation Polka by Stephen Wright, published.
• In 2007, with other Lost cast members, he participated in a play-reading session at the Tenney Theatre in Hawaii to raise money for the Honolulu Theatre for Youth.
• In 2009, narrated a reading of "Babar the Elephant" with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra.
• Co-narrated with Peter J. Fernandez, the audio book version of James Patterson's novel, Four Blind Mice.
• Co-narrated with John Rubinstein the audio book of the novel Private Sector by Brian Haig.