Wendy Bryan Michaels is an actress, playwright, and professional observer — and sometimes participant — in human dysfunction. For more than twenty-five years, she has built a career telling stories about love, family chaos, sexuality, heartbreak, emotional survival, and the strange things people do while trying not to fall apart.

​

Her film credits include I Love You, Phillip Morris opposite Jim Carrey, Bachelor Party 2 with Harland Williams, and Sex Drive starring James Marsden — proving she can successfully exist in both emotional drama and complete insanity. She also co-created, wrote, and starred in the award-winning comedy series My Sister Is So Gay alongside Loni Anderson, Debra Wilson, and Rae Dawn Chong. The series collected seven LAWEBFEST nominations, won two awards, and later streamed episodically on Amazon Prime.

​

On stage, Michaels received a Carbonell Award — South Florida’s highest honor for theatrical excellence — for her performance as Anne in Last Summer at Bluefish Cove and later earned a Carbonell nomination for Rabbit Hole, because apparently emotional devastation is part of her brand.

​

As a playwright, Michaels is drawn to what she calls “the elephants in the room” — the uncomfortable truths families spend years avoiding until someone finally explodes during dinner. Her ten-minute plays have appeared in festivals, while her first full-length play, God and Sex, premiered at the Santa Monica Playhouse in 2017 to strong reviews and an extended run. Her newest play, Loving Mathew, explores addiction, mental illness, broken families, and one stolen toaster.

​

In 2025, Loving Mathew received a standing-room-only staged reading at Area Stage in Miami, proving audiences will absolutely show up for emotional trauma if there’s humor involved.

​

Michaels is a member of the Dramatists Guild, an active participant in Miami’s Plays on Purpose writers group, and a firm believer that if something heartbreaking, bizarre, or wildly inappropriate happens in life, it probably belongs in a play.

She attended an artist residency in France in 2025 with grant support and is currently developing a documentary project focused on elephant welfare, advocacy, and institutional accountability — because apparently writing emotionally complicated humans was not enough chaos for one career.