Michelle works in print, screen and stage.
Her highly acclaimed play SINGLE ASIAN FEMALE, commissioned by La Boite, transferred to a sold-out season at Belvoir in 2018, followed by the Arts Centre Melbourne in 2019. In 2021, Auckland Theatre Company staged an original production of the work. The following year, State Theatre Company South Australia also staged an original production.
Michell’s newest commission MISS PEONY premiered at Belvoir Street Theatre to rave reviews. Her other recent play, TOP COAT, was commissioned and performed by the Sydney Theatre Company.
Michelle is television credits include the award-winning drama series SAFE HOME (SBS/Kindling Pictures); comedy GET KRACK!N (Guesswork Television/ABC TV); kids series THE BUREAU OF MAGICAL THINGS (Jonathan M Shiff/Network 10); and, ROSEHAVEN (Guesswork Television/ABC TV).
Michelle co-created, co-wrote and starred in HOMECOMING QUEENS, the first web series commissioned by SBS On Demand. The series won Best Web Series at the AWGIE Awards, Best Screenplay at Melbourne Web Fest, and Best Performance in a Comedy series at the Equity Ensemble Awards. It was also nominated for Best Online Series at the Australian Academy (AACTA) Awards.
Michelle is also an advocate for social causes and has presented a TEDx talk, as well as being a prolific speaker about issues concerning intersectional feminism, cultural identity and race. She wrote the short documentary SUCIDE AND ME (ABC2) which aimed to create more conversations about suicide prevention in Australia.
Beyond performance writing, Michelle is a successfully published author. In 2016, she won the Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award. She has written for many magazines, journals, and broadsheet newspapers including frankie magazine, The Griffith Review, and The Saturday Paper. Her stories and essays have been anthologised in books such as After Australia, Best Australian Comedy Writing, Destroying the Joint, Women of Letters, Growing up Asian in Australia, and more. In 2014, she co-wrote a comedy book called SH*T ASIAN MOTHERS SAY with her equally accomplished brother Benjamin Law.
Michelle is currently working on several theatre commissions, as well as feature and television projects. Her latest book, ASIAN GIRLS ARE GOING PLACES, was published through Hardie Grant in 2022.
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Books & Plays
Your Asian Mother Says: “You look just like Mummy when she was your age.”
Your Asian Mother Means: “You will secure love and happiness thanks to my genes so essentially you owe me everything.”
Benjamin Law and Michelle Law, the long-suffering children of an Asian Mother, bring you the hilarious Sh*t Asian Mothers Say, featuring the wisdom of Asian Mothers the world over, from “Eat every grain of rice, otherwise that’s how many pimples your future spouse will have” to “She’s just jealous – and racist”. The book also includes quizzes (“Have You Failed Your Asian Mother?”), an interpretation guide to “What your Asian Mother is really saying”, Ten Asian Mother Commandments (Thou shalt not sleepover) and an Asian Mothers’ Guide to Beauty (bad perms, colour, eyelids). With illustrations by Oslo Davis that bring the disapproving Asian Mother to life, this is the perfect gift for the Asian Mother in your life – or perhaps her children.
Published by Nero, available for purchase through Publisher
The Golden Phoenix, a restaurant on the Sunshine Coast. The last customers have left for the night, and Pearl can unwind. She’s the quintessential matriarch – balancing family, business, and her love of karaoke. Enter her daughters: Zoe, in the throes of online dating, making big life decisions. And Mei, a teenager, grappling with her identity in modern Australia. Of course they see the world differently to their mother. Pearl is the classic (hilarious) onslaught of embarrassing observations, constantly questioning her Westernised children. Tonight she reveals a secret that threatens to tear their family apart.
To purchase Single Asian Female, click here
The second in the Girls Guide to the World series, Asian Girls are Going Places is a gift book with a difference: it features practical advice (and more) from author Michelle Law and her interviewees that specifically targets the joys, fears and obligations unique to Asian women travelling the world.
Separated into chapters that deal with solo travel, family travel, the best places to celebrate Lunar New Year, where to find good Asian food around the globe, romance or relationships, safety and privilege, the sage and entertaining advice is all told through Michelle’s signature offbeat, comedic style, and accompanied by eye-popping illustrations and design. It’s a book that’s at once cool and collected, yet not afraid to take on the weird, funny and, at times, gross aspects of travel. But you don’t need to have any concrete travel plans to get a lot out of this book.
Each chapter includes anecdotes from Michelle, interviews with other experienced Asian female travellers, handy lists, stunning illustrations by Hong Kong artist Joey Leung Kay-yin, and comes with a page of beautiful stickers, making it either an impressive gift to be treasured at home or a luxurious ‘treat yourself’ item that can be read on the go. Asian Girls are Going Places is a handy, laugh-out-loud and deeply relatable travel companion for Asian women that will be at the top of their packing list.
Lily’s grandmother was a beauty queen back in Hong Kong. She doesn’t care that times have changed and that Lily lives in a new country and a new century. She sees that Lily’s caught between worlds, and wants her to enter the Chinese community beauty pageant, the highly competitive Miss Peony. She won’t take no for an answer.
And to makes matters worse, she’s a ghost.
