Michelle Beck

Michelle Beck
Michelle Beck (right) with Jenni Barber at Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Born	Billings, Montana
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2007–present

Michelle Beck is an American actress based in New York City known for her performances in Shakespeare plays and other stage works. She has also appeared in film and television.

Beck was raised in Charleston, South Carolina, and attended the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts & Humanities, for acting. She continued her university training at the SUNY Purchase Acting Conservatory, where she graduated magnum cum laude with a BFA in Acting.

Beck began her career at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where she performed in The Winter's Tale and as Roxanne in Cyrano de Bergerac. She appeared as Sasha in Spinning Into Butter (2007), a film about racism starring Sarah Jessica Parker.

Beck first garnered attention in 2007 as Ophelia in Hamlet at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., directed by Michael Kahn. Later that year, she worked with director Daniel Fish, playing Marianne in his Tartuffe at the McCarter Theater and Yale Repertory Theater. In 2009, Beck appeared as Viola in a Chicago Shakespeare Theater production of Twelfth Night, directed by Josie Rourke. In 2008, she reprised her role as Ophelia in Hamlet.

Beck next appeared in The Bridge Project, a joint venture between the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City and The Old Vic Theater in London, directed by Sam Mendes. Beck played Celia in As You Like It and Ceres in The Tempest (both in 2010). She also appeared in Shakespeare productions at The Public Theater, including Karin Coonrod's production of Love's Labour's Lost as Lady Katharine (2011) and Amanda Dehnert's Richard III as Lady Anne (2012). She played Hero in the Theater for a New Audience's production of "Much Ado About Nothing", directed by Arin Arbus (2013).