CHAD MICHAEL COLLINS

Born and raised in the countryside of upstate New York, actor Chad Michael Collins has gone from blue-collar roots bailing hay and shoveling manure to travelling the world to do battle with treacherous military commanders, undead Egyptian zombies, a monster made of rock, and prehistoric-sized crocodiles!

Collins just wrapped shooting on the pilot episode of TNT's "The Closer" spinoff, "Major Crimes." He guest stars opposite the new LA chief Mary McDonnell, who replaces Emmy-nominated "Closer" star Kyra Sedgewick. "Major Crimes" will premiere this Auguest after "The Closer" series finale.

Collins spent his March doing a month-long shoot in Sofia, Bulgaria, where he starred in the lead role in the Sony feature film COMPANY OF HEROES, a WWII period actioner based on the PC game of the same name, widely considered one of the best strategy games ever created. Co-starring Tom Sizemore, Vinnie Jones, and Neal McDonough, Collins plays a young Army private tasked with an impossible mission deep in the heart of Nazi Germany that may tip the scales of war. The film is slated for a release sometime in early 2013.

Transitioning from drama to comedy with ease, Collins guest-starred in The CW’s “Ringer” in early March with Nestor Carbonell and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar.  He followed that up with an episode of the hit CBS sitcom "2 Broke Girls," from Executive Producer/Creator Michael Patrick King ("Sex and the City").  His guest-starring turn aired in late March and was directed by the Tony and Emmy Award-nominated Scott Ellis.

2011 proved to be a breakthrough year for the up-and-coming Collins, who appeared on several hit primetime shows and saw the successful release of one of his feature films.

He began the year with a guest-starring turn on the #1-rated CBS drama “NCIS,” and followed it with a guest-starring role as a champion cagefighter being blackmailed by a dangerous former training partner on the CBS staple “CSI: Miami.” The latter featured several days of complex MMA fight sequences opposite a former UFC competitor, choreographed by Emmy-winning Fight/Stunt Coordinator Jim Vickers.

Last summer, Collins starred in the franchise lead role for the Sony reboot SNIPER: RELOADED, a re-launch of the original SNIPER films starring Tom Berenger. As Berenger’s estranged son, Collins plays a Marine infantry grunt stationed in the Congo. When a UN peacekeeping mission goes awry, he seeks revenge against the rogue marksman that cuts down his squad by embracing the way of sniper and uncovering a treacherous conspiracy. Co-starring Billy Zane, who reprised his role from the 1993 original, a sequel is slated for the fall of 2012.

In addition to appearing in such projects as HBO’s “Enlightened,” The CW’s “90210,” and the Hallmark MoW “Love’s Christmas Journey,” Collins also shot a lead role in the hilarious indie mockumentary ROCK BARNES: THE EMPORER IN YOU. Collins stars as a straight man playing a gay consultant to the oblivious, narcissistic self-help guru ‘Rock Barnes’ (Broken Lizard's Eric Stolhanske). ROCK BARNES – essentially SPINAL TAP meets a drunken Tony Robbins seminar – is currently in post-production with plans for several 2012 festival entries.

A self-proclaimed “accidental” actor, Collins made his way west to Hollywood in pursuit of a public relations career after majoring in journalism at Ithaca College. He was a few years in with an entertainment PR firm when a successful talent manager and producer they shared a client with convinced him to take an acting class. Instantly hooked, acting was simply a hobby for Collins at first as he continued to work in personal publicity and build his freelance writing career. But successive projects with bigger roles – and budgets – soon followed, and it became clear to him that he had found his true calling: playing pretend for a living.

Collins’ early credits include the zombie-horror flick/SyFy Channel guilty pleasure LEGION OF THE DEAD, the SyFy MoW “Rock Monster,” and the Sony/SyFy sequel LAKE PLACID 2, one of the cabler’s highest-rated original movies. He also appeared in CBS’ “CSI: NY,” ABC Family’s “Greek,” the indie psych horror film ROOM 33, and the Hallmark original MoW “The Christmas Card,” also one of their highest-rated telefilms.

Collins grew up in Canajoharie, NY, a town west of state capital Albany. It was there he lettered in football, basketball, and baseball, sports he continues to play to this day in Los Angeles. Collins also enjoys boxing, kickboxing, and mixed-martial arts. A tad obsessed with knights and soldiers, he frequents the shooting range, dabbles in archery, plays World of Warcraft, and devours the historical fiction of Bernard Cornwell and the fantasy of George RR Martin with relish. He is also a lover of all things comic book-related and rock-n-roll, old and new (but mostly old). Collins is currently penning a book of tips and advice for the beginning Hollywood actor that draws from both his experience as a neophyte player as well as working in the industry at large, scheduled for a release this summer.

For more information about Chad Michael Collins, please visit his website at www.ChadMichaelCollins.com, his official Facebook Fan page at www.Facebook.com/ChadMichaelCollins, and follow him on Twitter @ccollins32.

##

*Updated 5/11/12