Michael Hyatt

Charlene "Michael" Hyatt is a British-born American actress. Before her work in film and television, she performed on stages throughout the United States, particularly in Ragtime on Broadway. She has played Brianna Barksdale on The Wire, Dr. Noelle Akopian on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Detective Sheila Muncie on Ray Donovan. Hyatt was born in Birmingham, West Midlands, to Jamaican-born parents, Vera Hyatt, an art historian, museologist, and former deputy director of the National Gallery of Jamaica, and Charles Hyatt, an actor, broadcaster, and comedian. As a child, Hyatt was exposed to art and theater from the work of both of her parents during the 1970s in Jamaica. Hyatt migrated to the United States with her mother and two siblings when she was 10 years old. The family lived in Maryland and then Washington, D.C. Hyatt has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Howard University and received her Master of Fine Arts from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. During college, she did a theater practicum and worked at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. During grad school, she worked for director Spike Lee as an assistant.