Huisman was born on July 18, 1981 in Amstelveen, Noord-Holland, which is near Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Before Game of Thrones (2011), Huisman had a role in Paul Verhoeven’s acclaimed Black Book (2006), and he played Rudolf Nureyev in the BBC TV movie Margot (2009) about prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn. Before he became ubiquitous on television, he also performed in a band called Fontaine that wrote music for soundtracks. He released a solo album in 2005.
Huisman combined his acting and musical talents on the show Treme (2010), where he played Sonny, a drug addicted musician. Then came his big break with one of the most popular TV shows of all time, Game of Thrones (2011), where he took over the role of Daario Naharis. He was given a lot of leeway to approach the character and re-interpret Daario his own way. The creators of Game of Thrones (2011) felt that viewers would adapt to the transition between actors well, and Michiel was indeed accepted by the fans of the show.
Huisman had the distinction of being on three big shows at the same time, namely “Thrones,” country music drama Nashville (2012), where he played producer Liam McGuiniss, and the sci-fi series Orphan Black (2013), where he played Cal Morrison, a human interacting with clones.
He also worked regularly in movies such as Brad Pitt’s World War Z (2013), and the best seller adaptation Wild (2014), starring Reese Witherspoon.
