Michael Shanks

Michael Garrett Shanks (born December 15, 1970) is a Canadian actor, writer and director. He is best known for his role as Daniel Jackson in the long-running military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1 and as Charles Harris in the Canadian medical drama Saving Hope. He is also known for his work on low budget, genre work filmed in Canada. Shanks was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and grew up in Kamloops. He attended the University of British Columbia and was in the BFA Acting Program from 1990 to 1994. He later appeared in several stage productions while serving a two-year apprenticeship with the prestigious Stratford Festival in Ontario. His television career began with guest appearances on shows including Highlander and University Hospital. Parts in the television movies A Family Divided and The Call of the Wild preceded his casting in his breakthrough role as Daniel Jackson in Stargate SG-1. Shanks played archaeologist Dr. Daniel Jackson throughout the first five seasons of Stargate SG-1 before leaving the show at the end of its fifth season, citing creative differences concerning the under-use of his character and the direction of the show as a whole. He made several guest appearances throughout the sixth season playing his own character, as well as voicing the Asgard character Thor. Shanks returned for the seventh and subsequent seasons, winning the Leo Award for Best Lead Performance By A Male in a Dramatic Series in 2004 for the seventh season episode "Lifeboat". During the series' tenth and final season, he signed up for 16 of the 20 episodes, taking some time off in March 2006 for the birth of his third child (second with wife and occasional co-star Lexa Doig).