Michael Terry was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Will Terry, an English teacher at the Germantown Friends School and Holly Terry, a third grade teacher at Plymouth Meeting Friends School. He is the youngest of three children. He studied cinematography and drama at Emerson College in Boston. He is a Germantown Friends School graduate. In the summer of 2002, Michael was an apprentice at the prestigious Williamstown Theatre Festival, where he worked on many main sta