Early life and education
McDonald grew up in Fullerton, California, attending St. Juliana Catholic Elementary School and then Servite High School in Anaheim.1 He earned a business degree from the University of Southern California and subsequently worked as a bank loan officer in Los Angeles.1 A visit to a sketch comedy show at the Groundlings Theatre redirected his ambitions entirely. He quit the banking career and enrolled in the Groundlings' improv program, becoming a full company member from 1992 to 1997.1 During this period he also picked up early on-screen experience through Roger Corman film projects, including directing The Crazysitter (1994) and A Bucket of Blood (1995).1
Career
MADtv (1998-2008)
McDonald joined the sketch comedy series MADtv in 1998 and remained with the show through 2008, ten seasons in total, making him its longest-serving cast member.1 He developed a roster of recurring characters, the most enduring of which was Stuart Larkin, a lanky, preppy teenager with an oversized, childlike emotional dependency on his mother that routinely escalated into spectacular tantrums. Rusty Miller and Bible Dude were other recurring creations.1 McDonald also contributed as a writer and director on the series. Guest appearances on Seinfeld, Family Matters, Scrubs, and NewsRadio were woven around his MADtv commitments during this era.1
Film work
McDonald appeared in small roles in all three Austin Powers films: International Man of Mystery (1997), The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), and Goldmember (2002).1 He then built a recurring professional relationship with director Paul Feig and actress Melissa McCarthy, appearing in The Heat (2013), Spy (2015), and The Boss (2016) before joining the 2016 Ghostbusters cast.1 In Halloween Kills (2021), McDonald played Little John, one half of a gay couple living in Michael Myers' childhood home alongside Big John (Scott MacArthur), in a role with more screen time than his earlier supporting parts.1
Television directing and producing
McDonald directed twelve episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and served as a writer, director, and producer on the ABC comedy series Cougar Town.1 He released a stand-up special, Michael McDonald: Model Citizen, on Showtime in October 2010.1 Further directing credits include episodes of God's Favorite Idiot (2022), Home Economics (2022), The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers (2023-2024), and Not Dead Yet (2025).2
Voice acting
Starting in 2016, McDonald has voiced Howard McBride, the anxious and safety-conscious father of Clyde McBride, in the Nickelodeon animated series The Loud House.1 The role has continued through subsequent seasons and spin-off content. Earlier voice credits include voicing Gandhi in Clone High (2002-2003).1
Recent acting work
Beyond his directing and voice commitments, McDonald has made guest-acting appearances in What We Do in the Shadows (2022), God's Favorite Idiot (2022), The Sex Lives of College Girls (2023), Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, How I Met Your Father (2024), and Mother of the Bride (2024).2
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)
McDonald played Jonathan, the manager of the Stonebrook Theatre, in Ghostbusters: Answer the Call.2 The Stonebrook is hosting New York City's 14th annual Rock Revenge Fest, a twelve-hour heavy metal marathon headlined by Ozzy Osbourne, when the ghost Mayhem attacks a janitor named Fernando. Jonathan calls the Ghostbusters, then greets Erin Gilbert, Abby Yates, Jillian Holtzmann, and Patty Tolan in the lobby, asks if they are the Ghostbusters, and leads them through the theatre to the concert floor where the investigation begins. The principal scene falls in Chapter 8; Jonathan also appears briefly in Chapter 9.
Two deleted scenes from this chapter feature the character. In "The Beasts of Mayhem," an alternate cut of the Ghostbusters' arrival, Jonathan leads the team through the lobby as the heavy metal band Beasts of Mayhem heads backstage, and he comments on Fernando's condition. In the longer deleted scene "The Singer Gets High," Jonathan reacts with alarm when Mayhem lifts the band's lead singer above the crowd and shouts that the theatre is not insured for that.
The casting reflects McDonald's established working relationship with the film's director Paul Feig. By the time production began on Ghostbusters, McDonald had already appeared in two consecutive Feig features: The Heat (2013) and Spy (2015).1 Jonathan's role parallels the hotel manager characters in the original 1984 film, in the same way that the Stonebrook sequence echoes the Sedgewick Hotel bust.
