Mike Henry (voice actor)

Mike Henry (born March 25, 1964) is an American writer, producer, singer, voice actor, and comedian from Richmond, Virginia.

Henry is best known for his work on Family Guy, where he is a writer, producer and voice actor. He provides voices for many characters including Cleveland Brown, Herbert and Bruce. Starting with the show's fifth season, Henry had received billing as a main cast member. In 2009, Henry, Seth MacFarlane and Richard Appel created a spin-off of Family Guy called The Cleveland Show to focus on Cleveland and his new family.

Early life and education
Mike Henry and his younger brother Patrick were born to artist parents and raised in Richmond, Virginia. Henry's parents divorced when he was eight years old and he was primarily raised by his mother. He attended Collegiate School (Richmond, Virginia) where he liked to imitate pitcher Walter Johnson during varsity baseball game warm-ups. He later adopted a self-described "conservative" lifestyle and attended Washington and Lee University, a traditionally conservative university. While his brother Patrick was attending the Rhode Island School of Design, Henry acted in Patrick's short films and met Seth MacFarlane.

Family Guy
Henry met MacFarlane at the Rhode Island School of Design and kept in touch with him after they graduated. A few years later, MacFarlane contacted him about being part of a show called Family Guy; he agreed and came on as both a writer and voice actor. During the show's first four seasons, he was credited as a guest star, but beginning with season five's "Prick Up Your Ears" he has been credited as a main cast member. Henry has stated that Cleveland's voice was based on a person who used to play basketball with him. His friend went to the University of Maryland, but his accent made it sound like "Merlin".

After two episodes of the second season, Family Guy was taken off the network's permanent schedule and shown irregularly thereafter. The show returned in March 2000 to finish airing the second season which contained 21 episodes, all the cast came back for the series return. The third season contained 21 episodes and began airing from July 11, 2001 to February  14, 2002. During its second and third-season runs, Fox publicly announced that the show had been cancelled at the end of the second season in 2002. In spite of the announced cancellation, in 2003 Fox decided to make the third season. During the third season, Fox announced that the show was canceled for good. The series was renewed later in 2005 for its fourth season due to strong DVD sales and its syndication on basic-cable networks. Once again Henry and the rest of the cast came back for their voice works.

The Cleveland Show
In 2009, a spin-off series titled The Cleveland Show premiered on Fox. The project was created by MacFarlane, Henry and American Dad! show runner Rich Appel. Cleveland references this at the end of the episode "Baby Not On Board". The series had its premiere on September 27, 2009. Due to the cancellation of Mike Judge's King of the Hill, the American adaptation of Sit Down, Shut Up being moved to Saturday nights, and the renewal of American Dad!, The Simpsons is now the only cartoon on Fox's "Animation Domination" line-up that was not created by Seth MacFarlane. The show, which was picked up to air a first season consisting of 22 episodes, was picked up by Fox for a second season, consisting of 13 episodes, bringing the total number to 35 episodes. The announcement was made on May 3, 2009 before the first season even premiered. Due to strong ratings FOX picked up the back 9 episodes of season 2 which would make a 22 episode season and bring the total episode count of the show to 44.

Personal
Mike Henry has one child named Rhys Morgan.