Raised in the mining village of Thurcroft, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, Michael had his first taste of acting when he was 11. He played the March Hare in "Alice in Wonderland", a performance which significantly slowed the healing of a recent appendectomy incision! The production also included a young Steve Watts as the Mad Hatter. Watts, a strong early influence on Michael and now an admissions tutor at Cambridge University, would go on to tutor both Sam Mendes and Tom Hollander.

Michael received training from both John Bird and Colin George of the Sheffield Crucible Theatre. Alumni of the Crucible Theatre include Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot (2000) and The Hours (2002)) and Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) and Topsy-Turvy (1999)). In 1973, at the age of 19, Michael was selected to narrate a celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Oxford University Music Press held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's South Bank. Michael's fellow performers included John Dankworth and James Maxwell. The production, which was subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3, was Michael's final professional performance prior to embarking on a 29 year career in business.

While in the 1980s and 1990s Michael would give several award winning performances on the community theatre stage in Southern Ontario, he would not return to the professional stage until 2002!

Since his return to professional acting, Michael has performed in over twenty film and television projects, many of which have found distribution in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Recently,Michael was a co-lead in the soon to be released independent caper feature (The Artists (2006), and in the short film (Butterfly Child (2005)) which was one of only four films out of 600 submissions to be included in the Best of Canada Short Film Showcase. In addition. Michael is building a reputation as a voice artist and narrator of documentaries. He narrated "Behind: The Camera," a short film that was a winner in Canada's MocDocs competition and subsequently screened at the Atlantic Canada Film Festival and on the Comedy Network.

Michael, lives in Southern Ontario with his wife Joy.

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Michael C. Newsome

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