Michelle Bucci is an artist raised in Cary, North Carolina, and based in New York City. She moved to the city following graduation and working 72-hour weeks at a country club in the mountains to chase her dreams of being on Broadway and in movies. It’s always been in her soul to go after what she’s forever loved…
​
She has been singing and playing pretend ever since she can remember—whether it was leading her friends on epic adventures through the woods playing fairies, or bringing a legit boom box down to the basketball court and choreographing musical numbers while shootin’ hoops (before High School Musical was a thing…) She saw her first musical, Beauty and the Beast and fell in love with theatre. Michelle soon discovered she had a true talent herself when she was cast in her first ever role: a poodle in the Kindergarten Circus. She gave a Tony Award winning performance jumping through hula hoops and barking so believably like a dog. When she was eight, she was so into character playing 'Teacher' to her stuffed animals, that she fell off a chair and broke her arm, but didn't realize it was broken until the next day because she continued performing (and because of her high pain tolerance). The arts were a way of expressing herself and coping with difficult times she went through growing up.
Michelle graduated Cum Laude from Appalachian State University with an Interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts in Theatre, Communication, and Psychology, with a Spanish minor. Her accomplished collegiate acting career featured the roles of: Roxie in Chicago, ‘Squeaky’ in Assassins, Katherine in Love's Labour's Lost, Rumpleteazer in Cats, Martha in Spring Awakening, and Gigi in indie feature film, Fantasma.
Since recently moving to NYC to pursue her career in Film and Theatre, Michelle performed an eight-month run at Off-Broadway's acclaimed New World Stages in the hit musical comedy The Imbible, made her network television debut on Investigation Discovery Channel's Homicide City as a principal role, played a quirky singing baker in the live action premier of The Polar Express, acted in numerous new play readings, sang in cabarets and jazz clubs, and collaborated on short films. She is also a regular invited actor for The Village Playwrights workshop readings.
With a fierce appetite for growth and continued learning, Michelle auditioned and was accepted to train with renowned nyc acting coach, Anthony Abeson (a student of Stella Adler and Lee Strausberg, as well as a member of The Actors Studio who has served as Jennifer Aniston's coach, Dominique Fishback, Kerry Butler & more). She currently takes class and coaches with Abeson, and trains with Broadway vocal coach Dr. Bryan Wade.
Michelle is also a leader and teacher. She leads ‘playshops’ with good friend and Forbe’s 30 under 30, Victoria Song. The company, which she helped to launch, C.A.M.P – (creativity/arts/movement/and play), aims to bring out the inner child in adults through play and mindfulness. C.A.M.P has been brought to companies such as Google, and she has hosted a variety of classes, Building Your Own Terrarium being her favorite.
Outside of the arts, you can find Michelle traveling the world, writing, hiking, practicing yoga, meditating, playing piano, shootin hoops, and being in nature (especially by the water, she’s a Pisces). She loves cinematography, a24 films, soul & jazz, dogs, connecting with others, being a plant mom, and cheese.
Michelle’s ultimate goal is to incorporate social justice and advocacy for mental health into the arts for social change. She wants to use her talents to inspire future dreamers the same way they inspired her when she was a little girl, marveling at Beauty and The Beast. She believes that the arts teach empathy, and knows how therapeutic they were in her difficult times in life. Like her coach Anthony Abeson says, “We as artists are the communicators of great ideas, and that shit is powerful!”
