After completing high school, Michael did his two years compulsory National Service as an infantryman in the South African Defence Force in Potchefstroom.

[3] Michael's first significant American television role was in 2005 when he landed the support lead in Dean Devlin's mini-series The Triangle.

[5] The following year, he played the lead in Animal Planet's TV special Mermaids: The Body Found, which scored the highest viewership ratings for the channel since 2003.

[7] In 2015, he played the supporting role of Lester in the film The Salvation, for director Kristian Levring, and starring Mads Mikkelsen, Eva Green and Jonathan Pryce.

[11][12][13] The actor was next seen as the main protagonist, Sam in director Christopher-Lee Dos Santos' indie feature "Last Broken Darkness".

[15] In 2018, he guest starred as The Ghost (Connor) on CBS' MacGyver (2016 TV series) and was considered for an Emmy nomination for his portrayal.

[18] In 2019 the busy actor recurred on Deep State (TV series) on Fox and Epix as Colonel John Russell, as well as "The Devil Speaks" and "Die Spreeus" for Kyknet, while in 2020 he starred in the multi award-winning cult indie film Fried Barry, "Triggered" (Samuel Goldwyn Films), The Last Days of American Crime (Netflix), "A Boere-Krismis" (Mnet), as well as "Vagrant Queen" (SyFy), "MariTeam" for Germany and "The Cars that made the World" (History).

In 2022 he was seen opposite David Tennant in "Around the World in 80 Days" for the BBC and as a series regular in "Die Byl" for Kyknet (South Africa) and "Ludik" for Netflix.