Bio

Michèle Kaye (she/they) is a multi award-winning director, writer, producer, actor, and musician based in Tkaronto. In much of her work as a director, she has explored denial, gender, trauma, desire, and illness through an anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchal lens.

After an early career as a musician, she made her first short film, a multi award winning one minute micro-short entitled “He & Me.” Her second short film “A Dinner Party” which is a satirical critique of climate change denial, was acquired by CBC in 2019. Michèle collaborated with Polaris Prize-shortlisted and Juno nominated musician Daniel Monkman (Zoon, Ombiigizi) and visual artist Claire Viccari on a Toronto Arts Council-funded short called “The Elusive Purpurea Vulpavis” in 2021, and in 2022, she collaborate with dance artist/choreographer Allie Blumas on an award winning short horror/dance film called “3pm Thursdays.” The film premiered at Fantasia Film Festival and was funded by Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council and was supported through the CFC/Netflix calling card accelerator. In 2024, her short film “Nosocomephilia” premiered at Canadian Film Fest, and her short film “For Rent” premiered at Fantasia Film Festival. Nosocomephilia was funded by Canada Council for the Arts as well as Toronto Arts Council and will be broadcast on CBC’s Canadian Reflections in 2025. Michèle is an alumni of the Reykjavik International Film Festival Talent lab, the BITS Horror development lab, and was mentored by Tracey Deer in 2022.

Michèle co-wrote & co-directed two episodes of “Haunted Hospitals” (Sphere Media), and director-observes on set whenever possible (Detention Adventure, Haunted Hospitals, Pink Is In). Michèle has two feature films currently in development. One, a surreal horror, has development funding from Telefilm as well as Canada Council for the Arts. As a musician, Michèle has released two EPs under the name Mischa Kaye. Her debut album was nominated for a Toronto Independent Music Award in 2007. She has performed extensively in venues all over the world including Tokyo, Mumbai, Delhi, Taipei, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Beijing. As an actor she has appeared in multiple TV shows, films, and commercials. She loves folk music, traveling, reading, learning, dismantling the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, and spending time with her two delightful kids.