Bill Nikolai has lived most of his life in Vancouver, British Columbia, except for two stints as a college English instructor in Japan, where he also moonlighted doing some narration and TV commercial work. His interest in acting and film production began in high school and continued at UBC, where he majored in International Relations, but took mostly film courses as electives. In 1988, Bill found himself in period costume, working at a National Historic Site (Fort Langley), when kids on school tours pointed at him and called him "Macgyver." Shortly thereafter, he discovered Macgyver was about to be filmed in Vancouver and soon he joined the crew as a stand-in and photo-double for Richard Dean Anderson. Years later, he reprized this gig on Stargate SG-1, this time also doing the occasional episode, with a few speaking lines, as Sergeant Vern Alberts. Bill subsequently returned to school and completed a second Master's Degree. He now works as a mild-mannered college librarian in Vancouver.