Biography ::
"I’ve got an English degree with a creative writing concentration. I’m qualified to be unemployed!"
- Hammer, from the play Victorious - The Battle for Sanity by Mike Messier
TV SHOW HOST
Mike Messier is the host of the late night Rhode Island cable access program The Mike Messier Show, winning a P.E.G. Award for Best Series and earning an audience that appreciates the variety, comedy and “ragged edge” that Mike provides. Mike has two pilot episodes of The Mike Messier Show on www.MikeMessier.com in an effort to gain a national audience.
DIRECTOR
As a Screenwriter/Director, Mike won three awards for Wrestling With Sanity: A Short Film Trilogy: Imagine News Audience Choice, Ruff Cutz Audience Choice and Image Gazer Best Drama.
Mike created the short films to promote his feature film screenplay of the same title, a proactive move to gain hands-on experience and to create a buzz for the project.
The Rhode Island International Film Festival Award winning production team of The 989 Project (for their film Sleather) have added their support to Mike's vision and “name” talent Pro Wrestler/Actors (Raven, Escape from New York's Ox Baker) are interested in the project, given sufficient funding.
Visit www.WrestlingWithSanity.com
SCREENWRITER
Mike's completed feature screenplays include:
- OH GOD, LAST PLACE (commissioned co-writer for William Callahan)
- WRESTLING WITH SANITY
- BAD GIRLS WITH GOOD TATTOOS
- GOD IS MY BEST FRIEND
- IS GEORGE GAY? (with co-writer Tom Paolino)
- BLOOD! VODKA! SID! ACE!
Mike is also open to screenwriting assignments, with an eye towards edgy comedy.
ACTING COACH
During one summer at Maine Media Workshops, Mike had a life-changing experience, being mentored by character actor Barry Primus (Cagney & Lacey) in Barry's Acting for Director's class. It was Barry's inspirations that lead Mike to teach acting, beginning with Acting 101, a class designed to teach new actors the craft of film auditioning. Mike further developed his principles into C.O.R.E. Acting, a unique hybrid of scene study, audition techniques and monologue work. The tenants of C.O.R.E. are Character, Origin, Response and Environment, influenced by Mike's own experiences and his personal study of the methods of Stanislavski, Uta Hagen, Michael Shurtleff among others.
ACTOR
Cybill Shepherd sees talent in Mike Messier, hand selecting Mike to play her son in the USA Network film Hard Luck. Mike (as “Eugene”) has scenes with Cybill, Wesley Snipes and the film's director Mario Van Peebles in the gangster redemption action film.
Mike's love of acting started humbly in elementary school; one valuable experience being in a presentation of the Stone Soup fable. In high school, Mike wrote and co-starred in the prophetic World War III, Part II, a “futuristic saga” of a Saddam Hussein vs. “George Bush Junior” conflict. In college, Mike wrote, produced and starred in Man In You – A Providence Love Story, a movie about an unlikely and ultimately tragic romance.
Mike went on to study acting at Perishable Theatre, Community College of Rhode Island and with LDI Casting's Anne Mulhall and Sandra Feinstein Gamm Theatre's Wendy Overly. Mike's quick wit and raw intensity became focused weapons, leading Mike to an audition for Candidate 2012, a television pilot for HBO. As a semi-finalist for the political reality experiment, Mike auditioned for director Jay Roach (Austin Powers, Meet the Parents) leading to Mike's own short film Rejected by Reality.
In working with Murder On Us Dinner Theatre, Mike found the wild interactions with audience members and the challenge of a revolving ensemble cast to be an invigorating “boot camp” experience.
Mike was able to put his Pro Wrestling expertise to good use in a play titled Baby's Changing as the lead heel character of Fate – the defending rogue champion.Mike also took on student film projects, working with students from Harvard, Brown and Rhode Island School of Design in various lead and supporting roles. Mike developed a relationship with Maine Media Workshops as an Actor in Residence, providing his talents in exchange for room, board and valuable experience with instructors like cinematographer Steve Fierberg (Entourage) and director Alan Meyerson (Laverne & Shirley) Mike earned the nickname “Magic Mike” for his willing talents.
Mike cites Robert De Niro, Nicole Kidman, Denzel Washington and Vince Vaughn as inspirations.
Most recently, Mike plays the lead in Michael J. Zammito's The Mortified, a dark character study about a spiritually haunted mortician who unwilling finds life and death balancing in his own hands.
PRO WRESTLING
Mike's life long passion for Professional Wrestling culminated in Mike's inducting “The Living Legend” Larry Zbyszko into the New England Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame. Mike has acted in and directed short films featuring Killer Kowalski, “Eliminator” Kronus, Balls Mahoney and The Sandman. Mike wrote a Pro Wrestling column titled The Foreign Object, with a heavy emphasis on local promotions and Extreme Championship Wrestling. Mike served as commentator and ring announcer for the likes of “The Boogie Woogie Man” Jimmy Valiant, Tony Atlas, and “Fantastic” Bobby Fulton. Mike is also rumored to have wrestled as Smudge Baby and “Mad Dog” Mike Messier, although those rumors have yet to be confirmed. Mike once interviewed for the WWE Creative Writing team.
MIKE MESSIER – THE HUMAN
Mike's interests include playing chess, buying hats and size 3X shirts, following the NBA, the NFL and Ultimate Fighting Championship, and collecting Brian Pillman action figures.
