Biography
Born in Ottawa, Canada, Michael moved at age three to Calgary, Canada - where he made his stage debut as a Polar Bear in the kindergarten Christmas pageant. At age eight he moved to Brussels, Belgium, and then moved to Vancouver, Canada at age twelve. He attended South Delta Senior Secondary and then the University of British Columbia, becoming the first ever graduate of the new BFA Acting program in 1983. He had many notable performances at University, most memorably as 'Lucky' in 'Waiting for Godot'.
After graduation Michael was one of the core group responsible for making the Vancouver Theatresports League (Now 'The Improv Centre') one of the worlds leading improvisational theatre companies. He won World Theatresports Championships in Calgary, Canada in 1988 at the Winter Olympic Arts Festival and in Auckland, New Zealand in 1990 at the Commonwealth Games Arts Festival. He has also won North American, Canadian, and New Zealand championships. For several years, he performed with Colin Mochrie and Ryan Stiles.
He moved to New Zealand in 1990 and started his own improv company, The Court Jesters, in Christchurch. This company won the World Theatresports Championship in in Los Angeles in 1995. That company has many luminous graduates, including the late Cal Wilson. He also was the primary instructor to The Improv Bandits, in Auckland, which won the Super Cage Match long form World Championship in Chicago in 2002. In addition he taught improv at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts, in Sydney, Australia, where among his many students was Cate Blanchett.
Concurrently while performing and directing improvisational theatre, Michael also developed a television directing career, in Childrens, (Oi (1993), Comedy (Melody Rules (1994) and Flatmates (1998) and Factual (_"The Shopping Bags" (2001)_ , Tomorrow's World (1965), Dream Lives (2001), [link=tt0455279/ and Serious Amazon (2006) for the BBC.
He has won eight international awards for directing television for his work in Canada, New Zealand, and the U.K, including a Leo, a BAFTA, a Prix Jeunesse, and a Royal Television Society Award
He has also directed many theatre productions, particularly as Artistic Director of the Queenstown Shakespeare Festival in New Zealand, and the international touring hit and 'Best New Zealand Play' award winner "Bare". For many years was the senior improvisor and teacher to the Vancouver Theatresports League, and led the companies growth into long form improvisation, creating several long form formats and taking Vancouver improvisors to long form festivals in Miami, Calgary (x3), Chicago (x2), San Francisco, and Seattle (x6). In addition, he took up a teaching position at the Vancouver Film School, where he taught Advanced Directing to the Film students, and Improvisation, Acting, Character, Shakespeare, and Sitcom to the Acting Students, creating the curriculum for all these courses. He also helped design the curriculum and taught for the first two years at the Centre for Digital Media Masters degree program. In 2017 he pivoted back to his early love of outdoor recreation and gained his Level One CSIA Ski Instructors qualification, and taught at Mt. Seymour in 2018 and Cypress Mountain in 2019 where he gained his Level Two CSIA qualification, and where he continues to teach. He has also taught children as a Forest Educator at the Saplings Outdoor Forest school.
He continues to direct television and theatre, improvise internationally with the Improv Bandits., act in film, television, and theatre, teach and coach actors, ski instruct at Cypress Mountain, and educate children in outdoor recreation.
