Michael Rapaport

In June 2018, Rapaport was a passenger on an American Airlines flight from Houston to Los Angeles where a man tried to open an emergency door mid-flight. Rapaport was hailed as a hero for stopping him from doing so. He said of the incident "I got up out of my seat, half sleeping, with my headphones in my ear, and I put my hand on his shoulder, like 'What the (explicit) are you doing?' He had two hands on the lever," Rapaport said. "I said it three times, loud. The second time I said it, he still had his hand on the (explicit) thing. ... I sort of pinned him against the seat. This is happening all in about 45 seconds."

On June 19, 2017, Rapaport announced on Twitter that he would be joining the popular sports satire website Barstool Sports where he will be a correspondent for the podcast Pardon My Take. On February 18, 2018, Rapaport was fired from Barstool Sports after making a rude comment toward their fan base.

In 2016, Rapaport married his long time girlfriend, actress Kebe Dunn.

On April 17, 2014, an ESPN 30 for 30 film he directed premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film was about the 1970s championship-winning New York Knicks led by Earl Monroe, Walt Frazier, and Willis Reed. Players that made it to the premiere included Monroe, Frazier, Phil Jackson, Cazzie Russell, and Dick Barnett. Bill Bradley was not able to attend due to a recent hip replacement surgery.

On February 12, 2010, Rapaport participated in the NBA All-Star Weekend's Celebrity Game and won the MVP for the game for his defense on football player Terrell Owens, the MVP of the last two Celebrity Games, despite scoring just four points and having only a single rebound.

In October 2008, Rapaport announced that he was directing a documentary about hip hop act A Tribe Called Quest. The film, Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest, was released in 2011 and received mostly positive reviews.

In 2005, Rapaport wrote an article for Jane magazine about having to evict the actress Natasha Lyonne from a property he was renting to her during a period of heavy drug use on her part. The two have since reconciled and remain friends.

In 2000, Rapaport married writer and producer Nichole Beattie. They have two sons. They divorced in 2007.

Rapaport was arrested on May 18, 1997 for harassing ex-girlfriend Lili Taylor and charged with two counts of aggravated harassment. He then pleaded guilty to the charges in court and New York Supreme Court Justice Arlene Goldberg issued a protection order to keep the actor from contacting Taylor, as well as mandating that he undergo counseling sessions.

In 1989, Rapaport moved to Los Angeles, California when he was 19 years old to try to become a stand-up comic. Rapaport's stepfather, comic Mark Lonow, who owned The Improv with Budd Friedman, helped him get into the stand-up world. He did that for three years.

Rapaport had a hard time in school. He attended Erasmus Hall High School in the 1980s but was expelled, although he went back and graduated from Martin Luther King High School in New York City.

Michael David Rapaport (born March 20, 1970) is an American actor and comedian. He has appeared in over sixty films since the early 1990s, and starred on the sitcom The War at Home. He also appeared in Boston Public, Friends, Prison Break, Justified, and Atypical. His notable film roles include True Romance (1993), Higher Learning (1995), Metro (1997), Cop Land (1997), Deep Blue Sea (1999), The 6th Day (2000), Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), Big Fan (2009), and The Heat (2013). He also directed the documentary Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest (2011).

Rapaport grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, near 70th and York. He is Ashkenazi Jewish; his family is originally from Poland and Russia.