Alyse Michelle is a 23 year old actress, singer, and playwright based in New York City. She graduated from American University in Washington, DC in the spring of 2023, with a Bachelor of Arts in Musical Theater and a Special Education certification.
Alyse began acting at age 8, performing in many educational and community theatre productions. At 10 years old, she joined Voices Boston, training in opera under the direction of Andy Icochea Icochea, former master of the Vienna Boys Choir. She had the honor of touring New England and the Tri-State area with Voices Boston, performing in Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony. She performed at many venues including Boston Symphony Hall, Tanglewood with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and Carnegie Hall with renowned opera singer Anne Sofie Von Otter and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
During the spring of her senior year of college, Alyse wrote, directed, and acted in a short play with music called “I Wasn’t Strong; I Just Kept Walking.” She plans to continue working on this piece, and share through it her voice as a mental health advocate.
When Alyse was 13, she founded Seams of Hope, making blankets, pillows, and care packages for children all around the world fighting DIPG, an inoperable and terminal brain tumor. To date, she has sent over 300 care packages to 36 U.S. states as well as multiple provinces in Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, Malawi, and the UK. In September of 2022, she was given a table at CureFest in Washington DC, an advocacy event for childhood cancer that draws people from all around the world. You can learn more about her organization on the Seams of Hope page. Alyse is also a teaching artist, having worked in various capacities with children in the theater over many summers. Recently, she was hired to revamp the children’s theater program at her local Equity theater, directing their summer programming. She also has experience in different areas of behind the scenes work in the theater and has run social media for multiple nonprofits. When she is not acting, Alyse loves to make care packages for children with cancer through Seams of Hope, write pen pal letters through Save the Children, work as a Promise Leader activist promoting gun control and gun safety in schools for Sandy Hook Promise, and volunteer at her local animal shelter.