Mike McLeish • Bruce Woodley
Mike is best known to Australian audiences for his portrayal of Paul Keating in Casey Bennetto’s hugely successful production of Keating! The Musical, directed by Neil Armfield.
Since Keating, Mike has appeared in both incarnations of Eddie Perfect’s Shane Warne: The Musical; internationally acclaimed contemporary dance company Chunky Move’s Two Faced Bastard as part of the Luminato Festival in Toronto; and in Casey Bennetto’s A Largely Fanciful History of The Spiegeltent as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival. Mike co- starred in the recent revival of Nick Enright and Max Lambert’s Miracle City as part of the inaugural season at the Hayes Theatre in Sydney, and more recently in the world premiere of Big hART’s project, Blue Angel as part of the Tasmanian International Arts Festival.
He has performed locally and internationally with renowned musical improvisation troupe Spontaneous Broadway and around Australia with subversive cabaret trio The Beautiful Losers, as well as forming a musical comedy partnership with Rusty Berther (ex Scared Weird Little Guys).
Mike is also continually collaborating with his wife, actor and writer Fiona Harris, on a range of diverse projects for stages and screens of any size.
Mike’s solo cabaret shows, including The World Is Winning and Message To My Girls, have been performed to great acclaim at the Adelaide and Melbourne Cabaret Festivals.
Off stage, Mike is in demand as a voiceover artist and has probably made you buy something you didn’t really need. He has appeared in television guest roles on Utopia, Offspring, The Librarians, Bed of Roses, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and Lowdown. He was also employed as a songwriter, music adviser and actor in both series of the ABC drama, The Time of Our Lives. Mike is the new artistic director of the Melbourne Cabaret Festival for 2016.