Christian Michael Leonard Slater (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor from New York City.
His family has deep ties to the entertainment industry. His mother is Mary Jo Slater, a noted casting director who's been nominated for multiple Emmys for her work, and his father is Michael Hawkins (né Thomas Knight Slater), an actor.
He is best-known for a string of bad-boy roles that stretch from the 80s to the 90s such as in Twisted and Heathers. He tried branching out into more traditional heroic roles before re-embracing edgy parts in the 2000s. After a brief dip in his career marked by multiple critically lambasted and short-lived TV series and DTV films, he returned to the spotlight with Mr. Robot for which he won a Golden Globe. His career has been generally strong ever since.
He is also a die-hard Trekkie. The reason his eyebrows look like they do is because he'd shaved them as a child to try and look like Mister Spock and they didn't grow back properly. He also had a cameo in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country thanks to his mother, who cast the film.
Notable roles:
- The Legend of Billie Jean — Binx Davy
- Twisted — Mark Collins
- The Name of the Rose — Adso de Melk
- Tucker: The Man and His Dream — Preston Tucker Jr.
- Heathers — Jason "J.D." Dean
- The Wizard — Nick
- Gleaming the Cube — Brian Kelly
- Tales from the Darkside: The Movie — Andy Smith
- Pump Up the Volume — Mark Hunter/Hard Harry
- Young Guns II — "Arkansas" Dave Rudabaugh
- Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves — Will Scarlet
- Mobsters — Lucky Luciano
- Kuffs — George Kuffs
- FernGully: The Last Rainforest — Pips
- Untamed Heart — Adam
- True Romance — Clarence Worley
- Interview with the Vampire — Daniel Molloy
- Jimmy Hollywood — William
- The Confessor — Daniel Clemens
- Murder in the First — James Stamphill
- Broken Arrow (1996) — Riley Hale
- Hard Rain — Tom
- Very Bad Things — Robert Boyd
- The Contender — Reginald Webster
- 3000 Miles to Graceland — Hanson
- Windtalkers — Sgt. Pete "Ox" Henderson
- Mindhunters — J.D. Reston
- Dinosaur Planet — Narrator
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius — Jet Fusion
- Alone in the Dark (2005) — Edward Carnby
- Bobby — Daryl Timmons
- He Was a Quiet Man — Bob Maconel
- The Ten Commandments — Moses
- Igor — Doctor Schadenfreude's Igor
- My Own Worst Enemy — Henry and Edward
- Guns, Girls and Gambling — John Smith
- Breaking In — Oz
- Bullet to the Head — Marcus Baptiste
- Nymphomaniac — Joe's father
- Archer — Slater
- Mr. Robot — Mr. Robot
- Milo Murphy's Law — Elliott Decker
- Dawn of the Croods — Gurg Doorc (Grug's Criminal Doppelgänger)
- The Lion Guard — Ushari
- Justice League Action — Deadshot
- Rick and Morty — Vance Maximus Renegade Starsoldier
- Mune: Guardian of the Moon (2017 English dub) — Leeyoon
- The Wife — Nathaniel Bone
- Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay — Deadshot
- We Can Be Heroes (2020) — Tech-No
- LEGO Star Wars: Terrifying Tales — Ren
- Inside Job (2021) — Rand Ridley
- The Boys: Diabolical — The Narrator
- Willow (2022) — Allagash
- Chupa — Richard Quinn
Tropes associated with this actor include:
- Brooklyn Rage: He's originally from New York and is a green belt in kenpo karate. Scary combination.
- Career Resurrection: After a long period of fading from headlining big Hollywood projects and a string of failed TV shows in the 00s, Mr. Robot was a critical and commercial smash, and earned him a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Series.
- Genki Guy: In interviews he's very energetic.
- Guttural Growler: His trademark.
- Large Ham: No matter the role, you can always expect him to be this.
- One-Steve Limit: Is no relation to Helen Slater, despite playing her brother in The Legend of Billie Jean.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Winona Ryder, whom they both had a massive crush on each other while filming Heathers. Despite ending up with other people, they remained good friends ever since. He joked "she's still the woman of my dreams."
- Romance on the Set: Slater was the boyfriend of Kim Walker (who starred alongside him in the 1988 dark comedy Heathers) during filming. They broke up after finishing filming.
- Slater and Winona Ryder had crushes on each other and briefly dated. Though they admit they’re better as friends, Slater still calls Winona “the woman of” his “dreams” and they are very close.
- Throw It In: Claims he did a Jack Nicholson impression to play JD. That ended up becoming his trademark.
