I am originally from Laurel, Maryland -- which is a town situated directly between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.  Even though it was a 20-minute drive to either city, our town always had a very small-town, rural feel to it.  It was a great place to grow up.

After high school, I enrolled at the University of Maryland, where I eventually became a cheerleader.  Go TERPS!!  I learned that I had an ability to lead the crowd and take control of an audience, and excelled in that environment.  I eventually wound up enrolling at the University of Kentucky on a cheerleading scholarship -- where I had the opportunity to compete at the highest level of the sport.  It was a special honor to be part of such a talented team, and I not only competed in the sport, but I also eventually became a coach and an instructor for Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA), which gave me the opportunity to travel all over the country, and meet many interesting, talented, attractive, fun people that loved to work hard and have a ball doing it.  It was an amazing ride.

After hanging up my megaphone, and the end of my cheerleading career, I decided that I wanted to be a doctor, and went back to school to pursue a medical degree.  But while I was applying to medical school, I fell in love, and we moved to New York city, where I landed a job helping to build the first web site for MasterCard International (the credit card company).  That was the beginning of the internet wave, and I continued to ride that wave eventually launching myself into an interactive marketing career with IBM for many years.

Then one day when I was on vacation riding actual water waves at the beach in Fort Lauderdale, I found an unusual bottle with a genie trapped inside.  I let out the genie (who's name is Cesar), and he was so grateful that he granted me one wish.  I told him that I always secretly wanted to be an actor, but was never really able to pursue a career in it, so then he said, "Mecca Lecca High, Mecca Hiney HO," and the next thing I knew I was in Hollywood, California working on my acting career.  I look forward to the next chapter . . .

Mike Shaffrey