Biografia
Michelle Clunie spent much of her childhood performing in plays, operas, and recitals as an actress, dancer, and violinist. She earned a scholarship to The Academy of Professional Ballet, where she studied and apprenticed during her teenage years. At 19, she sold her violin for $200 to move to Los Angeles to pursue her acting career.
Clunie is best known for her role as Melanie Marcus, a smart, determined, activist lesbian attorney in the groundbreaking, critically acclaimed series Queer as Folk. She also portrayed Ellen Beals on ABC Family's Make It or Break It and appeared as Mrs. Finch in guest roles on MTV's Teen Wolf.
In 1995, Clunie was cast in the Academy Award-winning film The Usual Suspects and soon after played a supporting role in Lost & Found alongside David Spade and Martin Sheen. She became a series regular on The Jeff Foxworthy Show and guest-starred on ER, The Tony Danza Show, NCIS, and others.
At 23, her Los Angeles stage debut in Dean Orion's Confessions of a Raging Male Heterosexual at the Skylight Theatre earned her a Dramalogue Award for Best Actress.
Other notable stage roles include Abby in Neil LaBute's West Coast premiere of The Mercy Seat at the Ford Theatre, which won her the Backstage Readers Best Performance Award, and the world premiere and Off-Broadway production of US, a piece she wrote and performed at New York City's Lion Theatre at Theatre Row. US is a 21st-century love story set against the 2008 Presidential election, exploring power struggles in politics and relationships, and examining how people connect, communicate, and fall in love amid constant media and technology.
Clunie has been an outspoken advocate for causes she believes in. During her five seasons on Queer as Folk, she became a vocal supporter of Human Rights and has spent the past 15 years fighting for Full Equality. She hosted the first fundraiser for the 2009 National Equality March on Washington and spoke to the 200,000 attendees. She has organized Get Out the Vote campaigns for key Democrats at both the national and local levels and became a global ambassador for Pride Nation's "Global March to Equality" in 2015. Clunie is also fostering a creative space for writers, directors, and actors to develop and workshop original projects.
She divides her time between Los Angeles and New York City and lives with her son and her French Bulldog, Jimi.
