Mikey Berzatto

Michael "Mikey" Berzatto is a fictional character on the FX Network television series The Bear. Mikey, played by Jon Bernthal, left a legacy that made possible the construction of the show's found family, not to mention the Bear restaurant itself. He haunts the narrative. Mikey's suicide was the inciting event that led his younger brother Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) to move back to Chicago and take over the family's misbegotten Original Beef sandwich shop, putting Carmy forever at odds with Mikey's best friend, their play cousin and de facto foster brother Richie Jerimovich (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). Mikey appears in roughly one major flashback in each season thus far (namely, and chronologically, "Ceres," "Fishes," "Napkins," and "Groundhogs"), and he is a continuing presence in memory, dialogue, photographs, flashback montages, dream sequences, and voiceovers throughout the series, most notably in "Braciole," "Tomorrow," and "Forever." Bernthal has been nominated for three Emmys and won once for his guest starring work on The Bear as Mikey Berzatto.