Michelle Giroux

Michelle Giroux (born c. 1975) is a Canadian stage, television and film actress whose credits include numerous productions at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival over nine seasons.

Called "one of the best young talents at Stratford," Giroux had been accepted to the Stratford company immediately upon graduation from the National Theatre School of Canada in 1997.

In his book, Romancing the Bard: Stratford at Fifty, Martin Hunter writes:

Michelle Giroux has shown a particular aptitude for willful, witty, and elegant young women in her portrayals of Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal, Gwendolyn in The Importance of Being Earnest, and Olivia in Twelfth Night. "The chance to work with other young actors and at the same time incredibly skilled and experienced players is fantastic," she says. "You absorb so much and at the same time you're out there and doing on that incredible stage. It's work and it's a dream and it's a whole life.

Her featured roles include the 1998 production of The Miser, which also played at the New York City Center, Lady Teazle in a 2001 production of The School for Scandal, which went on to play at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, a 2003 production of Noël Coward's Present Laughter, a 2005 production of The Brothers Karamazov, as well as Julia in a 2007 production of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance.

Her non-Stratford stage credits include starring in Claudia Dey's Trout Stanley at the Factory Theatre. Giroux also starred in the Toronto Fringe Festival production of Kate Hewlett's Humans Anonymous. Her recent stage credits include the 2009 production of Karoline Leach's Tryst at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts in Montreal, a 2011 adaptation of The Misanthrope at the Tarragon Theatre, and a 2012 return to the Segal Centre in Montreal for Same Time, Next Year, opposite R. H. Thomson.

Giroux stars in the 2013 release Blood Pressure, directed by Sean Garrity. A friend of cast member Jonas Chernick, Giroux was originally brought in simply to read with the male actors during pre-production. But she so impressed Garrity that she was chosen for lead role over other actresses with more film experience.

Filmography

A resident of Toronto, she married Stratford colleague Graham Abbey in August 2008.