Michelle Maxson makes her MTC debut in The Whale. Originally from the Bay Area, she lived for many years in New York, where she performed at venues including Cherry Lane Theatre, Culture Project, INTAR, Ensemble Studio Theatre, 78th St. Theatre Lab and Bleecker Street Theater. She has created original works at HERE Arts Center and Richard Foreman’s Ontological-Hysteric Theatre, as well as acted in developmental workshops and readings with New York Theatre Workshop, Lark Play Development Center and American Repertory Theatre. In the Bay Area, Maxson was a resident artist at the Climate Theater and received a Theatre Bay Area CA$H Grant to develop the original piece They Are Bad People. Upcoming projects include the independent film The Fixer, starring Melissa Leo and James Franco, directed by her longtime collaborator Ian Olds. She is an adjunct professor of acting at the University of San Francisco.