Michael B. Jordan, middle of three children, was born in Santa Ana, California and raised in Newark, New Jersey by Donna (Davis), and Michael A. Jordan. His middle name Bakari means "noble promise" in Swahili.

Jordan has starred in three of the most critically acclaimed television dramas of the past decade. First, Michael played the hard-shelled but softhearted 'Wallace' in HBO's dramatic hit series "The Wire". He then went on to star as quarterback 'Vince Howard' on "Friday Night Lights" (NBC), before playing a recovered alcoholic, 'Alex', on NBC's "Parenthood".

Michael successfully took on his first major leading film role when he starred as 'Oscar Grant' in "Fruitvale Station" (dir: Ryan Coogler). The film is an account of Oscar's controversial slaying by police officers on a San Francisco train platform. The cast includes Octavia Spencer and Melonie Diaz, and was produced by Forest Whitaker (Significant Films). It premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival where it received the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for U.S. Dramatic Film. It also screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard category. Fruitvale has garnered many awards including Best First Feature at the 2014 Independent Spirit Awards, Outstanding Independent Motion Picture at the 2014 NAACP Image Awards and the 2014 Stanley Kramer Award from the Producer's Guild of America.

The 2013 New York Film Critics Circle honored Fruitvale Station with Best First Film and the picture was also chosen as one of the Top Ten Films at the 2013 National Board of Review Awards, where Michael took home the award for Breakthrough Actor. Michael also won the 2013 Gotham Award for Breakthrough Actor and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Actor.