Michael C. Hall is an American actor whose television roles include David Fisher on the HBO drama series Six Feet Under and Dexter Morgan on the Showtime series Dexter. In 2009, Hall won a Golden Globe award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his role in Dexter.

Hall was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. His mother, Janice Styons Hall, is a high school guidance counselor in Wake Forest, and his father, William Carlyle Hall, worked for IBM. Hall grew up an only child, a sister having died in infancy before his birth. He has said of growing up a single child, that "There was a very one-on-one, immediate family relationship, my mom and I". His father died of prostate cancer in 1982, when Hall was 11 years old.

Hall attended Ravenscroft School in Raleigh, graduating in 1989. He graduated from Earlham College in 1993 and had planned to become a lawyer. He later attended New York University's Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 1996.

In 1999, director Sam Mendes cast Hall as the flamboyant Emcee in the revival of Cabaret, his first Broadway role.

In 2003, Hall toured as Billy Flynn in the musical Chicago. In 2005 he returned to Off-Broadway theater in the premiere of Noah Haidle's Mr. Marmalade, playing the title character, an emotionally disturbed little girl's imaginary friend.

Mendes suggested Hall for the role of closeted David Fisher when Alan Ball began casting the TV drama Six Feet Under. "Everything I opened up for Cabaret," Hall reported in a 2004 interview, "I slammed shut for David."

Hall's work in the first season of Six Feet Under was recognized by an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and for an AFI Award nomination for Actor of the Year in 2002 for his role as David Fisher. In addition, he shared in the Screen Actors Guild nominations for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series all five years that the show was in production, winning the award in 2003 and 2004.

Hall is currently starring in and co-producing the Showtime television series Dexter, in which he plays the titular character, a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department who moonlights as a vigilante serial killer. The series also casts Hall's ex-wife, Jennifer Carpenteras his foster sister, Debra Morgan. The series premiered on October 1, 2006 and its sixth season began on October 2, 2011. For his work on Dexter, Hall has been nominated for three more Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, in 2008, 2009 and 2010. The show itself was also nominated for a 2008, 2009 and 2010 Emmy in the Drama Series category. He won the 2007 Television Critics Association Award for Individual Achievement in Drama. Hall was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Drama in 2007, and again in 2008 finally winning the award at the 67th Golden Globe Awards in 2010. Also in 2010, he won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series. On December 4, 2010, Showtime announced that Dexter would be renewed for a sixth season and stated that a seventh season was possible. Season 6 premiered on October 2, 2011. Michael C. Hall was nominated for Best Leading Actor in a Drama series at the 2011 Emmy Awards, but did not win the category. Hall was negotiating his contract along with Showtime to raise his salary for the seventh season. On November 18, 2011, it was announced that Dexter had been renewed for both a seventh and eighth season.

Hall's film credits include the 2003 thriller Paycheck, the 2009 science fiction thriller Gamer, the 2011 comedy Peep World and 2011 East Fifth Bliss.

In 2009, Hall began doing voice-overs for some Dodge commercials, including the Challenger, Charger, Durango, Grand Caravan, and Journey, as well as the Jeep Grand Cherokee.

On May 1, 2003, Hall married actress Amy Spanger; he played Billy Flynn opposite her Roxie Hart in the Broadway musical Chicago the summer after their wedding. The couple separated in 2005 and filed for divorce in 2006. On December 31, 2008, he eloped with Jennifer Carpenter who plays the character of Dexter Morgan's foster sister, Debra Morgan, on Showtime's Dexter. They dated for a year prior to getting married. On December 18, 2010, Carpenter filed for divorce from Hall, citing irreconcilable differences. The filing also stated that the two had been separated since August 2010 and that she was seeking spousal support. Their divorce was finalized on 2nd December 2011.

On January 13, 2010, his agent and spokesman confirmed that he was undergoing treatment for a treatable form of Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Hall accepted his Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award in 2010 while wearing a knitted cap over his bald head, having lost his hair due to chemotherapy. On April 25, 2010, Carpenter announced that Hall was fully cured and was set to get back to work for a new season of Dexter.

He is currently the face of the Somalia Aid Society's Feed The People campaign. Recently, he has also worked with Kiehl's skin care line to do a limited edition line that benefits the Waterkeeper Alliance, an environmental nonprofit that works towards clean and safe water worldwide.