Michael Anthony Thomas Charles Hall (born April 14, 1968), known professionally as Anthony Michael Hall, is an American actor, producer and director who achieved stardom in several successful teen-oriented films of the 1980s. Hall began his career in commercials and on stage as a child, and made his screen debut in 1980. His films with director-screenwriter John Hughes, beginning with the popular 1984 coming-of-age comedy Sixteen Candles, shaped his early career. Hall's next movies with Hughes were the teen classics The Breakfast Club and Weird Science, both in 1985. His performances as lovable geeks in these three films connected his name and face with the stereotype for an entire generation.

Hall diversified his roles to avoid becoming typecast as his "geek" persona, joining the cast of Saturday Night Live (1985–1986) and starring in films such as Out Of Bounds (1986), Johnny Be Good (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Six Degrees of Separation (1993). After a series of minor roles in the 1990s, his performance as Microsoft’s Bill Gates in the Emmy-nominated 1999 film Pirates of Silicon Valley put him back in the spotlight. He starred role in the popular USA Network series The Dead Zone, from 2002 to 2007. During its run, the show remained one of the highest-rated cable television series.

Anthony Michael Hall was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His stepfather is a show business manager and his mother, Mercedes Hall, is an actress-singer. His sister is also a performer. He started doing TV commercials, and his first major break came when he was cast as the young Steve Allen (I) in Allen's semi-autobiographical play "The Wake." He came to the attention of movie audiences with his performance as the geeky, overbearing yet endearing "Farmer Ted" who talks Molly Ringwald into giving him her underwear in Sixteen Candles (1984). His television credits include the Emmy Award-winning _Gold Bug, The (1980) (TV)_, in which he played the young Edgar Allan Poe, as well as the TV movie Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn (1982) (TV) and specials "The Body Human" and "Orphans, Waifs and Wards". On stage he appeared in the Lincoln Center Festival's production of "St. Joan of the Microphone".