Today we’d like to introduce you to Michaela Miller.
Hi Michaela, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Well, I was born and raised on Oahu, Hawai’i, and grew up with my mom, some pets, and a whole lotta neighbors. My first best friends lived right next to, and above me- and every day, every night, every moment we could, we would be playing in the yard: playing tag, hide and seek, playing “family”, and once my mom won my very first iPad Mini in a raffle, we started making vines, silly random videos, and eventually little movies in the backyard. This isn’t where my love of Acting started, but it is the origin of being so excited about creating art and acting that i just had to do it and figure it out. One that stuck with me, was a recreation of Alice In Wonderland, that me and my best friend, Malia, had decided to make at age 10 or 11, I think. We assigned characters to each friend of our neighbor community and we filmed on the docks of the pier by the beach, on our staircases, in the yard, in the mango trees, anywhere we could. I then edited it , and forced all our parents to watch what we had. Now, granted, this was likely not the best telling of Alice In Wonderland, but it was the first time I felt a passion to film and create my own work. My love of acting however, started when I was 5, taking summer school acting classes. I don’t remember the exact moment I knew I wanted to explore acting or take classes , it was always just kind of what was gonna happen. I didn’t choose it , really, it was just the only thing I ever wanted to do, even before I consciously chose it as my career. I performed in a play about the Greek Gods and Goddesses at the end of that summer, and it stuck with me so much, I wrote about that moment and the feeling of performing for my college essays. I got into film and tv acting when i was
12 after being an extra in a movie and tv show a few times, and completely fell in love with that process. That is when i chose Acting as my career. I saw a girl my age with a speaking role on the show I was an extra in, and I asked everyone how she got there, because I wanted it too. And 3 years later, I got my first guest star role on a show. I graduated college with my BFA in Acting recently, and have been hitting the pavement trying to juggle a million things so i can focus on the one thing I want to do. Besides acting, I love to be at the beach/pool, anything near water(i’m a cancer so it’s vital lol), reading, going on walks, being with my people, singing, dancing(mostly in my room), and probably some other things I can’t think of now that i’ll remember in the middle of the night. It’s so hard not to talk about just Acting when people ask me about me, because it’s so interwoven into who I am as a person, and why I am the way I am. It answers a lot of questions about me. I also love frogs and chocolate cake.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I have yet to find a completely smooth road , I hope they exist out there. I was diagnosed with ADHD and some other learning challenges when I was 8, which I’ve had to learn(and am still learning) how to manage. With that, Ive had teachers tell me I wouldn’t/couldn’t go to college, family members tell me i’ll never be successful in Acting, working through having an absentee parent, and so many other smaller things. I’ve also had a few disaster moments, literally and metaphorically. But the universe works in mysterious ways. A significant one to my personal growth was, In my junior year of high school our house flooded and we had to move out of our house within a week into a little hotel room, expecting them to fix the house in 6 weeks, yet 2 years , a legal case, and lots of unknown house damage later, we ended up having to just sell the house and move into an apartment. So saying goodbye to the house that I grew up in without warning , leaving my entire community of best friends, and the place where i’d filmed all those moments and movies, was bumpy to say the least. It’s not the worst thing in the world , but it wasn’t fun. However, moving into the apartment in a different part of town opened up my world of acting opportunities, I got to be in plays, go to auditions, get my first agent, and be in my first tv show . If i hadn’t moved, i wouldn’t have known about any of those opportunities. So im grateful for it all.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m an actor, writer, director, filmmaker, lagree fitness instructor, bartender, manager, babysitter, and anything else I feel like! I’ve been an instructor for about a year, I found lagree through a friend who wanted to start Pilates with me , and it was definitely not pilates, it’s like pilates meets weightlifting, it’s incredible, and it’s the only workout i’ll get outta bed for. But I specialize in acting, it’s my first love, but found a love of it all later on. I always loved writing stories, so translating that to script writing was incredibly fun- i took writing and directing classes in college, and absolutely loved it . Cinematography is another huge love of mine, i’m not trained in it , but when i’m filming a short or videos or even just taking photos of my friends, I love to find creative, different, and stylistic ways to shoot that makes sense to the story , or just to have fun. I would say i’m most proud of the things that I write, direct, and act in- it feels SO fulfilling to accomplish it. i’m also extremely proud of a play i was in called She Kills Monsters, it was a dream show to be in, and i got to exercise my stage combat, im trained and certified in multiple weapons, and being able to play with that in a show was beautiful. I’m also extremely proud of a covid play i did called the birds, where we had people sit in their cars in a circle , with mics that connected to people’s radios in their car, and it was a wildly relevant show at the time , so it was super amazing to be part of that, and of course, for the very first TV project i did, i remember those 3 days from top to bottom- it was so magical. I think what sort of sets me apart from others is my knowledge and passion of stage combat, now SO many people do combat, and i am not a master of it all yet, but every time i mention it , its always what people want to know more about , and i love to talk about it – so its great. But that’s a hard question, because sometimes i do feel like im just part of the hamster wheel, so consider that a work in progress answer, im always trying to grow into whoever i wanna be everyday, so I hope to find more and more things that set me apart .
How do you define success?
Emotional fulfillment. My own, and others. It sounds corny and like a cop out answer, but I want to be great. I want to feel like i’m becoming better every single time I perform and know that i’m positively affecting and connecting to someone. I want to reach emotional fulfillment in each thing i do, which honestly isn’t hard because im so passionate about it , that I love to do everything. But success is complicated in this industry, we know that, so I think if you can find a way to perform , at all , that’s a success. I want to be respected for my work, and I want people to connect to my work.
I also define it with the people i surround myself with, my friends, cousins, and my mom are my biggest supporters. I’m in a group of women who are also actors and we get together once a month, with our mentors, Brianna Brown Keen and Elizabeth Boykewich, and it’s so fulfilling to have groups of people I feel safe in to explore and just to exist- so to me, i feel successful because of the supports I have in my life. My people are absolutely everything to me. I truly have the greatest friends in the world, who have taught me so much about myself and about life, that it feels okay to feel lost in the game of being in your 20s, because they get it too.
But also, gotta be honest, once I get to a point in my life where acting is the only thing i’m paying my bills with , that is an immense win, and a huge version of success to me.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mmichaelamiller?igsh=MXd2NmkwdGQ2b3B6bw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@mmichaelamiller13?si=XZP4Lqu7_ay9CNSx
- Other: https://resumes.actorsaccess.com/michaelamiller
Image Credits
Chris Jon Photography – for all the professional shots
