Michael Hurst

Michael began his acting career in 1976 with the Court Theatre in Christchurch.  Following a two-year apprenticeship there, he moved to Auckland and in 1979, became a member of the resident acting company of Theatre Corporate, founded and led by Raymond Hawthorne.  In 1987 he began a freelance career that has seen him work with all of the major theatre companies in New Zealand as well as with both the Melbourne and Sydney Theatre companies.  He has performed in over a hundred productions, playing many significant roles including Hamlet, Macbeth, Mozart in Amadeus, Martin in Edward Albee's The Goat or Who is Sylvia and Josef K in Steven Berkoff's adaptation of Kafka's The Trial.

He also has many musical roles to his credit, including Luther Bilis in South Pacific, Koko in The Mikado, Riff-Raff in The Rocky Horror Show, The Emcee in Cabaret (a role he has created three times since 1983), Macheath and Tiger Brown in two separate productions of The Threepenny Opera and one of the four singers in Jaques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.

In 1993 Michael was cast as Iolaus, the sidekick to Hercules in the long running American television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and has starred in a number of New Zealand feature films including Desperate Remedies, The Footstep Man, The Tattooist, I'll make You Happy and We're here to Help.

Regarded as one of New Zealand's leading theatre directors, with particular recognition for his work with Shakespeare, Michael's recent productions include Hamlet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, She Stoops To Conquer, The Threepenny Opera (voted production of the year by Auckland's Metro Magazine in 2008) and Loot, by Joe Orton.  In 2010 he directed Robyn Malcolm in Samuel Beckett's post modern classic Happy Days for The Silo Theatre, followed by Cabaret, produced by the Auckland Theatre Company, which played to packed houses for a heavily extended season and was regarded as one of the best productions of the year by both Auckland Metro and the NZ Listener.

Having directed several feature films, Michael recently completed work as a principle director for two large scale US television dramas, the STARZ network's Spartacus: Blood and Sand and Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, and Disney's fantasy series Legend of the Seeker.  At present he is directing and producing for the new season of Spartacus and will be presenting his own solo theatre show at the NZ International Festival in 2012.

Michael is an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, a New Zealand Arts Laureate and a proud member of Actors' Equity.