Michael Austin Cera ( SERR-ə; Italian: [ˈtʃeːra]; born June 7, 1988) is a Canadian actor and musician. Over his career, he has received nominations for a British Academy Film Award, three Critics' Choice Movie Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Tony Award. Cera became known for portraying leading roles in a string of comedic films such as Superbad (2007), Juno (2007), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008), and Youth in Revolt (2009). He took supporting roles in both comedies and dramas including Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), This Is the End (2013), Molly's Game (2017), Person to Person (2017), Gloria Bell (2019), Barbie (2023), Dream Scenario (2023) and The Phoenician Scheme (2025). He voiced Dick Grayson / Robin in The Lego Batman Movie (2017).
Cera gained prominence portraying George Michael Bluth in the Fox sitcom Arrested Development (2003–2006; 2013–2019), and took a leading role in the Hulu comedy series Life & Beth (2022–2024). He voiced animated roles including Josh Spitz in Braceface (2001–2004), Brother Bear in The Berenstain Bears (2003–2004), Todd in the Wayside pilot (2005), Barry in Sausage Party (2016) and its Amazon Prime Video sequel series Sausage Party: Foodtopia (2024), Hank in Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (2022), and reprising his role as Scott Pilgrim in the Netflix series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023). He is also known for his Broadway performances in the Kenneth Lonergan plays This Is Our Youth in 2014, Lobby Hero in 2018, for which he received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play, and The Waverly Gallery in 2019. In addition to acting, Cera is a musician, having released his debut album True That in 2014. Cera has also performed as the touring bassist for indie rock supergroup Mister Heavenly.
Cera was born on June 7, 1988, in Brampton, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto. He is the son of Linda (née Cockman) and Luigi Cera, a technician. He is of Sicilian descent through his father. His parents both worked for Xerox. Cera has an older sister, Jordan, and a younger sister, Molly. He became interested in acting after viewing Ghostbusters repeatedly when sick with the chicken pox at the age of three. Cera memorized all the dialogue and idolized Bill Murray. He enrolled in The Second City, Toronto, and took improvisation classes. Cera attended Conestoga Public School, Robert H. Lagerquist Senior Public School, and Heart Lake Secondary School until grade nine. After starting acting, he completed school online through grade twelve.
1999–2007: Child acting and breakthrough
His first role was an unpaid appearance in a Tim Hortons summer camp commercial. That appearance eventually landed him a position in a Pillsbury commercial, in which he poked the Pillsbury Doughboy and had his first role with lines.
In 1999, Cera was cast as Larrabe Hicks in the Canadian children's show I Was a Sixth Grade Alien, which ran for two seasons. That year, he also appeared in the television films What Katy Did and Switching Goals, starring the Olsen twins. The next year Cera made his theatrical film debut in the science fiction film Frequency (2000) as the son of Noah Emmerich's character. Cera also appeared in the films Steal This Movie! and Ultimate G's: Zac's Flying Dream in 2000. He had his first leading role in the latter film, which was presented in IMAX theaters. Cera appeared in several television films in 2001, including My Louisiana Sky and The Familiar Stranger. He also began voicing Josh Spitz in the animated series Braceface, which he continued until 2004. In 2002, Cera played the young Chuck Barris (played by Sam Rockwell) in the George Clooney-directed film Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. He provided the voice for Brother Bear – an anthropomorphic bear – in the 2003 The Berenstain Bears animated series, which aired for three seasons. In 2005, Cera voiced Todd in the Wayside pilot movie, based on the Wayside School books.
He had a role in the critically panned Fox pilot The Grubbs in 2002, which was never aired. But Cera successfully auditioned for a part in another Fox sitcom, Arrested Development. This began airing in November 2003 and ran for three seasons. The show follows the formerly wealthy and dysfunctional Bluth family, with Cera playing George Michael Bluth, the teenage son of character Michael Bluth, played by Jason Bateman. After three seasons, Fox canceled the series in 2006 due to low viewership, although it had received critical acclaim. In 2006, Cera created and starred in a parody of Impossible is Nothing, a video résumé created by Aleksey Vayner. Cera and his Arrested Development co-star Alia Shawkat guest-starred as a pair of college students in the teen noir drama Veronica Mars, in the episode "The Rapes of Graff" in 2006.
2007–2013: Further success and stage debut
Along with best friend Clark Duke, Cera wrote and starred in a series of short videos released on their website. Duke originated the idea, as he was enrolled at Loyola Marymount University and used their videos for his film school studies. In 2007, the pair signed a deal with CBS Television to write, produce, direct, and act in a short-form comedy series entitled Clark and Michael. The show featured guest stars such as David Cross, Andy Richter and Patton Oswalt, and was distributed via CBS's internet channel, CBS Innertube.
In May 2007, Cera appeared in a staged comedy video that shows him being fired from the lead role of the film Knocked Up, after belittling and arguing with its director Judd Apatow, in a scene that mocks the David O. Russell blow up on the set of I Heart Huckabees. Cera starred in the Apatow-produced teen comedy Superbad alongside Jonah Hill. Their characters in the film – two virgin teenagers about to graduate from high school whose party plans go awry – were based on the comedy's writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Superbad was released in cinemas in August 2007, topping the US box office for two weeks in a row.
Cera's performance was critically acclaimed: The Atlantic reviewer said that the film "belongs to Michael Cera" for capturing "teenage sexual abashment as indelibly as he did in the role of George Michael [on Arrested Development]." The New York Times said that he was "excellent" and CNN praised Cera and Hill for playing "off each other beautifully".
In November 2007, Cera hosted a live, staged version of Saturday Night Live; it was not broadcast due to the ongoing 2007 Writers Guild of America Strike. In his second film of 2007, Cera co-starred in Juno as Paulie Bleeker, a teenager who has impregnated his long-time school friend Juno (played by Elliot Page). For Superbad and Juno, Cera won Breakthrough Artist in the Austin Film Critics Association Awards 2007, and was included in Entertainment Weekly's "30 Under 30" list in February 2008.
Cera starred alongside Kat Dennings in the romantic comedy-drama Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008), in which they played two strangers who bond over their shared love of a band and try to find their secret show. He starred in the comedy Extreme Movie (2008), which was composed of vignettes focusing on teen sex. Cera held a recurring role on the comedy series Childrens Hospital from 2008 to 2016 as Sal Viscuso, a hospital staffer who is known only by his voice through an intercom.
Cera played a fictionalized version of himself in the independent romantic comedy Paper Heart (2009). It explored the fictional relationship between Cera and the film's writer Charlyne Yi, also playing herself. Cera and Yi composed the film's score together. That year Cera starred opposite Jack Black in the comedy Year One, set during the Stone Age. The film, directed by Harold Ramis, was poorly received, although Time magazine critic Mary Pols said that Cera's performance saved the film from being a "catastrophe". In his final film of 2009, Cera starred in Youth in Revolt, an adaptation of the eponymous novel. He played a shy teenager named Nick Twisp who creates a destructive alter ego, François Dillinger, after becoming smitten with a girl, played by Portia Doubleday. Cera had also begun to write. His first published short story, "Pinecone", appeared in McSweeney's Quarterly thirtieth issue in 2009.