Bio

Michèle Kaye is an actor, director, producer, and musician based in Tkaronto. In much of her work as a director, Michèle has explored denial, gender, trauma, and desire through an anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchal lens. Her first film, a multi award-winning one minute micro-short entitled “He & Me,” is a critique of heteronormative relationships in which men have been replaced by household appliances. Her most recent film “A Dinner Party” is a surreal satirical thriller which takes on climate change denial and has been acquired by CBC. Last summer Michèle directed a Toronto Arts Council-funded short called “The Elusive Purpurea Vulpavis” in collaboration with Polaris Prize-shortlisted musician Daniel Monkman (Zoon, Ombiigizi) and visual artist Claire Viccari, and this winter she directed a short horror/dance film called “3pm Thursdays” also funded by Toronto Arts Council. The film is in collaboration with dancer/choreographer Allie Blumas. This fall, under the mentorship of Tracey Deer, she will shoot a surreal horror short film entitled “Nosocomephilia” with the support of Canada Council for the Arts in collaboration with musician Mary Ancheta. She co-wrote & co-directed an episode of “Haunted Hospitals” this spring, and shadows directors 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 in the category of “Best Pop.” 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 film, TV and commercials as well as in theatre. She loves folk music, traveling, reading, learning, dismantling the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, and spending time with her two delightful kids.