Yellow Creative Management

Michele Lee is a Hmong-Australian writer working across television, film, stage, books, audio and live art.

Michele co-wrote an episode of Matchbox/ SBS limited episode series HUNGRY GHOSTS (2020) and co-wrote episodes for the ABC lockdown comedy RETROGRADE (2020). She co-wrote the pilot for SECRET THREADS for producer Rebecca Ingram and wrote the pilot for CLOUD NINE, a Film Vic funded project, co-created with Trudy Hellier. She has also written two stories for a 6 x 1-minute Tik Tok series for release in 2022 through Blacklab Productions. Michele is currently developing her own half-hour comedy TV show, NEXT BIG THING, with Screen Australia development funding.

Michele’s latest play SECURITY was a finalist for the Patrick White Award in 2020 and is slated for a world premiere in 2022. Her play SINGLE LADIES premiered at Red Stitch in Melbourne in March 2021.

GOING DOWN was presented by Malthouse Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company in 2018. It was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, the NSW Premier’s Literary Award Nick Enright Prize, an Australian Writer’s Guild Award and five Green Room Awards.

RICE was presented by Queensland Theatre, Griffin Theatre and Hothouse Theatre in 2017. It won the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, an Australian Writer’s Guild Award, and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Award Nick Enright Prize. RICE had its UK premiere with Actors Touring Company and Orange Tree Theatre in 2022.

Michele is currently adapting the novel THE HEALING PARTY for a stage commission with Malthouse Theatre.

Michele’s 2012 radio play SEE HOW THE LEAF PEOPLE RUN won an Australian Writer’s Guild award for Best Original Radio Drama. Her  episodic podcast series, HOW DO I LET YOU DIE?, is optioned by Audiocraft and previously developed through On Air, an Audible/Screen Australia initiative.

Other theatre and live art works include: SQUISHY TAYLOR AND THE CITY-WIDE GHOST PLAGUE, at at-home audio-led adventure adapted from a YA series and premiering in Melbourne Fringe Festival (2021); BROTH BITCH, a fictional podcast and Melbourne Fringe Festival commission (2020); HOUSE SISTERS a Monash University stage commission (2019); AN ASSISTANT’S NOTES FOR A PANDEMIC, an Arts House Refuge commission (2018); THE NAKED SELF, commissioned by Arts House and presented in the Festival of Live Art (2016); OFF CENTRE, a short play as part of Sydney Theatre Company’s POWER PLAYS season (2016); and GOING AND GOING, a radio commission for Radio National (2015). In 2012 she wrote six short audio plays, TALON SALON, which were presented at Next Wave Festival in 2012, You are Here and Darwin Festival in 2013, and was broadcast on Radio National in 2014.

Michele has been in residence at The Playwright’s Centre in USA, Radio National and in Laos on an Asialink residency and has featured twice in the main program for the National Playwriting Festival. She has mentored younger artists through Shopfront, Melbourne Theatre Company, The Wheeler Centre, Australian Theatre for Young People, Union House Theatre and City of Melbourne’s Signal Program.

Michele’s creative non-fiction memoir BANANA GIRL is published by Transit Lounge.