Michael Rand grew up in Connecticut. As an only child, it was evident early on that Mike was to be the center of attention. He always had the leads in school plays. By the fourth grade, Mike appeared in a commercial for a local television station's kids' club. Someone asked him who his favorite actor was and at that time he replied, "John Ritter," since he watched "Three's Company" reruns every night. At his eighth grade graduation his classmates voted him "Most Likely to Succeed."
During his senior year of high school, Mike had the opportunity to audition for the role of an extra in a film called "Sleepers" being filmed at Fairfield Hills Hospital in Newtown, CT starring a then-unknown Brad Pitt. He got the part and as he moved on to college, Mike continued to pursue acting. The highlight of college was when a camera crew came to his school and filmed a day in his life when he was on MTV's "FANatic." The show aired 65 times over 6 months and Mike was recognized constantly in public and quickly made him one of the most popular students in school. This also led to more appearances on MTV, including frequent appearances introducing music videos on “Total Request Live” & other MTV programming including the popular hidden-camera prank show "Boiling Points." He also beat out nearly 1,800 auditioners to be chosen in the top 50 of New York for FOX's "American Idol 2."
Mike also appeared as a journalist during JP Morgan's press conference & in a scene where Thomas Edison invents the light bulb on the Emmy-award winning miniseries, History's "The Men Who Built America." In the fifth season of National Geographic Channel's "Brain Games" he appeared on episode 8 entitled "Peer Pressure." This appearance led to Mike being cast in the children's science show version of the show years later on Netflix's "Brainchild" on episode 3 entitled "Superheroes." Mike currently hosts his own podcast on YouTube entitled "The Mike Rand Show" where he interviews various celebrities including those from the world of wrestling, sitcoms, film, & music.