About Karl Makinen
Karl Edward Makinen Jr. was born in Queens, New York to Marilyn and Karl Sr. (aka Detective "Eddie" Makinen, NYPD). The family moved to Long Island when Karl Jr. was two years old. Growing up fishing, swimming and boating on Lake Ronkonkoma gave him a great childhood. He and his three brothers Michael, Shawn, and Josef, did what most boys do, and gave their parents hell. Karl, the third of the four boys, seemed to need the majority of attention in the family and would love to act out his father yelling at his brothers to his great grandmother, producing the greatest laugh that could come from a 90 plus year old woman.After performing shows in his basement for the neighborhood kids and enjoying the laughs and reactions he created, Makinen became involved in school plays. He performed the lead in Guys and Dolls, Fools, Dracula, and others, winning him a scholarship that he spent in New York City, going to HB studios with his actor high school friend Chris Franjola. After booking some extra work and being turned down for a few Broadway shows, Makinen briefly contemplated his father's wishes of becoming one of "New York's Finest" (policeman), but he and Franjola ultimately decided it was time to get serious about acting and make the move to Hollywood. Disappointing his father's wishes, the two bought a one-way ticket to Los Angeles.Landing at LAX with less than two thousand dollars between them, nowhere to stay and not knowing anyone, they slowly made their way. Conversations in phone calls to his family were monopolized by his father insisting he should take the LAPD test and be a cop like his younger brother Josef (NYPD). After getting some small parts in B films, he finally quieted his father's pleas to become a cop, "take the test, take the test, get on the list" when he received a guest-starring role on his father's favorite show, NYPD Blue, playing Jimmy Clayton (a cop killer) in the first season.Makinen has appeared in over thirty film and television roles, playing cops, bad guys and, occasionally, a nice guy.::Victoria Lichtman
Karl Edward Makinen Jr., was born in Queens, New York, to a Swedish/Finnish father and Italian/Irish mother. He moved to Lake Ronkonkoma Long Island at the age of two until he was 20, when he moved to Los Angeles to study and pursue acting. Karl has acted in over 60 film and television shows, including recurring roles on The Walking Dead, Twin Peaks 2019, Perry Mason '2020, Desperate Housewives and in movies such as Call of the Wild, Joe Dirt, Princess Diaries and more...Karl's father was a NYPD detective and his mother ran a dry-cleaning business on Long Island. He is the third of four boys. Karl's first big break was on Season 1 of NYPD Blue, much to the delight of his NYPD detective father. Karl began to work steadily in both film and television projects, appearing in guest-star roles on shows such as NCIS, CSI Miami, Bones, Monk, Six Feet Under, Cold Case, How to Get Away with Murder, Charmed, Hawaii 5-0, Criminal Minds and9-1-1. Recurring roles followed on shows such as The Unit, Desperate Housewives, Prison Break, and most recently as Richard in AMC's The Walking Dead, as Commander Joe Morton in HBO's Perry Mason and as General Braxton in ABC's Strange Angel.Notable film roles include Proprietor in Call of the Wild with Harrison Ford, Houdini with Mark Ruffalo, FBI agent in Thirteen Days with Kevin Costner, and a cop (go figure) in both Joe Dirt and The House of Sand and Fog.Karl lives in Los Ange...