Michael Brainard

Michael Scott Brainard (born November 23, 1965) is an American actor. He is best known for playing the roles of Joey "Jake" Martin on the ABC soap opera All My Children (1988 to 1991, 1994 and 1995) and Ted Capwell on the NBC soap opera Santa Barbara (1991 to 1993).

Early life Brainard was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and raised in Laguna Hills. His father was a Los Angeles firefighter and his mother was an accountant. He has one sibling, an older sister. After graduating from Laguna Hills High School, Brainard attended California State University, Fullerton. He studied acting at Pacific Christian College, the School of Performing Arts in Costa Mesa, and the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in Los Angeles. During his college years, he performed in productions of Mister Roberts, Fiddler on the Roof, Front Page, Flowers for Algernon, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Brainard played the role until the show's final episodes aired in January 1993. He appeared as himself on Circus of the Stars in 1992.

After the cancellation of Santa Barbara, he made return appearances to All My Children in 1994 and 1995. Brainard guest starred on Silk Stalkings in 1994 and Family Law in 2000. He had roles in the films Toi and Poochie and Invincible.

On stage, Brainard has appeared as a guest artist at Culver-Stockton College. He starred as Valmont in a 2002 production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. He returned in 2005 to star in Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs. Brainard has also written and directed two plays, A Murder of Crows and Lookin' for Some Posse. In 2015, he co-starred with his former Santa Barbara castmate Robert Fontaine in Mi America, a drama about a hate crime.

From 2020 to 2021, Brainard played Coach on the web series Duke and Dammit. In 2020, he wrote and co-produced the 13-part audio series The Ernie Pyle Experiment! for WFIU radio. The series celebrates the life of journalist Ernie Pyle.

Personal life Brainard has a side career as a woodworker. In 2007, one of his pieces was featured on the cover of the Los Angeles Times calendar section, in a photo of actress Kate Walsh.

Filmography

Film

Television

Web series