Michele Shay

Michele Shay is an American actress and stage director born in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1955. Her father worked as a veterinarian and her mother as an accountant who later became a probation officer. Shay initially planned to pursue a career in social work before a successful appearance in a school variety show redirected her toward acting. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University and subsequently received an honorary Master of Fine Arts from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.

Shay launched her professional career at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, making her debut in Jean Genet's The Balcony. She then spent three years as a member of the Guthrie Theater stage company before expanding her work to Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional theater productions. In 1981, she received an Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress for her work in Meetings.

Her Broadway career spans from 1976 to 1996 and includes appearances in for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf and Home, in which she starred. Her most prominent Broadway credit came with Seven Guitars, the August Wilson play that debuted on Broadway in 1996. Wilson personally selected Shay to portray the role of Louise, and her performance earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play. In 2023, she appeared as Mama in the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's production of Stew.

Beyond performing, Shay has worked in television and film, directed numerous theatrical productions, and taught acting at several institutions, including the University of Michigan, the California Institute of the Arts, the American Conservatory Theater, and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.