Michael Westen

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Michael Westen (played by Jeffery Donovan) is a burned spy who is forced to work in Miami while figuring out who burned him. He had a relationship with Fiona Glenanne, but proved to be afraid of commitment. Above all else, he fears his neurotic mother (Madeline Westen) who is entirely focused on Michael. Michael had to use every trick in the book and go through quite a few contacts to finally get a look at his burn notice, however, he still needs to find out why he got burned.

As Michael continues his travels through Miami little bits of his past come up. His father died 8 years ago, but when Michael was a kid, his father would beat him. Michael's father had a tendency to not finish projects, and instead leave them to Michael to complete. When he was 6 years old, and the Star Wars movies were released, Michael ripped up the floor boards and used the heat vent to see it and get by his father who had grounded him. Michael's father also forced him to fake a seizure inside a Mr. Goodwrench so his father could steal some spark plugs. The last words he heard from his father was "I'll see you in hell boy". Michael left his home at 17 with fifty dollars and one change of clothes. Michael has a younger brother, Nate Westen, but he refuses to answer his mother's calls, and Michael doesn't get along with him. Since Michael has stayed in Miami, Nate has occasionally helped Michael in his missions.



USA Character Bio

Most people would be thrilled to be on the warm, beautiful sands of South Beach. However, Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) is not "most people." He's got a pesky FBI tail, a violence prone ex-girlfriend looking for closure, and a hypochondriac mother calling him 30 times a day. Yet these are the least of his problems.

After 10 years of serving his country working in Eastern Europe and the OPEC countries as a covert operative, Michael is living every spy's worst nightmare. While in the middle of a dangerous mission in Nigeria, Michael's "contact" informs him that he has been burned. When a spy gets fired, he doesn't get a call from human resources and a gold watch. In Michael's case, they jeopardize his life, freeze his bank accounts, dump him in Miami, and flag him on every government list known to man. They can't take away his skills or what's in his head, so they take away his assets and his resources to make sure he can never work again. They burn him.

Now Michael has a much different mission: he must find out who issued his burn notice and why he was blacklisted so that he can put his life back together. Meanwhile, he has to fend off a suddenly hostile world of old foes gunning for him. In order to survive in Miami and fund his own personal investigation, Michael enlists the help of the only two "friends" he has: Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) an ex-IRA operative who also happens to be an ex-girlfriend and Sam (Bruce Campbell) a washed-out military intelligence contact whom the feds have keeping an eye on Michael. He's also forced to deal with the family he went halfway around the world to get away from - particularly his mother, Madeline (Sharon Gless), who couldn't be happier to have her son back in town.

Michael, on the other hand, is happiest when he is in a different hemisphere from the rest of his family. He was 17 when he left home to join the military and he never turned back. Now stuck in Miami, the one place he vowed never to return to, he must confront the bad memories of his childhood and repair the broken relationships he left behind.

As he gets closer to the truth, Michael scrapes by helping out whoever needs his services -- mostly desperate people who can't go to the police. Using his Special Ops training, some duct tape and his sardonic humor, Michael becomes a reluctant hero. It's a dangerous gig, but it's the best he can do ... for now.