Michele Greene

TV-Film-Theatre/Books/Music

For links to all of Michele's Social Media Accounts, https://linktr.ee/micheledominguezgreene

A multi-faceted career in Performing and Language Arts

Acting

Michele began her career in the arts the summer before she started college, in the prestigious BFA Theatre Program at USC, established by John Houseman and later run by Duncan Ross, from Seattle Rep. It was an audition only program that accepted twenty students per year, from applicants all over the country. She booked her first television job the summer before her freshman year began but she opted to stay in school and complete her education.

She studied acting, voice, singing, dance, dramatic analysis and performance, appearing in numerous productions of Ibsen, Strindberg, Orton, O'Neill, Chekhov, Brecht and Shakespeare. While developing her skill and craft, she continued working in television and indie films, becoming the breadwinner for her family and balancing school, work and real life responsibilities.

"It was a hectic and challenging period in my life. I was under a lot of pressure to drop out of school and just work but I refused to. Everything was riding on me to book as many jobs as I could while carrying a full load of classes and rehearsals for on-going USC productions.The faculty at that time frowned on professional work but I had no choice but to pursue and accept jobs. I completed my BFA degree in four years with my classmates. I don't honestly know how I survived with my sanity intact but it did foster a serious work ethic and determination to keep moving forward and succeed."

Upon graduation, Michele landed the coveted role of Judy Knuckles in the Steven Bochco/MTM series, Bay City Blues, with Ken Olin, Sharon Stone, Patrick Cassidy and Dennis Franz.

The show was shortlived and three years later, she was cast as Abigail Perkins in the NBC mega-hit, L.A. Law, starring Harry Hamlin, Susan Dey, Corbin Bernsen and Jimmy Smits. The series went on to win multiple Emmys, Golden Globes, People's Choice and Humanitas awards. Michele was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in Season 4.

She then went on to star in numerous television movies on Lifetime, NBC, CBS, ABC, USA Network as well as independent films. She appeared in many series guest shots (CSI, CSI Miami, Criminal Minds, Cold Case, etc.) and had recurring roles on the critically acclaimed series' The Unit, Brothers and Sisters, Big Love. She also appeared in many theatre productions in Los Angeles including the monumental "Life? Or Theater?'', an autobiographical operetta by Charlotte Saloman, the German-Jewish painter and artist.

Music and Writing

She expanded her artistic career into music with the formation of the Global Music band, Sangre Sabia. She then collaborated with Grammy nominated guitarrist and composer, Ciro Hurtado, releasing two critically acclaimed, bilingual CD's, Ojo de Tiburón and Luna Roja, on Appleseed Recordings, the premier indie label for social justice music and politically progressive artists. She was a guest artist on Spain in My Heart, a collection of songs from the Spanish Civil War and on Grammy Nominated Seeds: The Songs of Pete Seeger.

"A lot of people had no idea that I am half-Mexcian/Central American on my mother's side. My son was actually born in the same city in Guatemala as my grandfather, Arturo. My father passed away when I was an infant; his family were Irish/Scottish Okies, which is where I get the light eyes and fair skin from.

For the launch of my writing career as a novelist, I chose to use my maternal grandmother's maiden name in my pen name. My acting career began so abruptly, I never had a moment to consider how to present myself, what to include in my professional identity. By the time I started writing books, I felt like my life was finally my own and I could make a conscious choice. And I am extremely proud of my Latino heritage. And of course, the progressive fighting spirit of the Irish!"

Michele had been writing plays, short stories and screenplays since she was in college, winning film grants and film festival awards with her her work. Her short screenplay, Fly Cherry, was produced by PowerUP, starring Shirley Knight and Sharon Lawrence. Her next screenplay, Mozart's Magic Seven, won the Moondance Film Festival Best Short Screenplay award with a staged reading in Boulder, Colorado.

Michele sold her first young adult novel, Chasing the Jaguar (re-release as Martika's Magic on Banrion Books in 2026) to Harper Collins in 2004 and then Keep Sweet to Simon and Schuster in 2008. Both books received excellent reviews and Martika's Magic was nominated for an American Library Association Award and included in the New York Public Library's list of Recommended Reading for teens.

Upon the adoption of her son from Guatemala in 2008, she took a step back from working and the demanding schedule of television to focus on parenthood and taking on the caregiving responsibilities for her mother, Dorita.

"It was near impossible in those years to develop and write more books, even though I had tons of ideas. And working in TV was too difficult, as it required very long hours with unexpected travel and being absent from home life. As a single parent and the only one caring for my mom who was in poor health, I just put one foot in front of the other each day to stay on top of life maintenance. My son had also lived in five different situations before he was two years old in Guatemala, and he needed a very present parent, every day, all day. It had to be me doing the pre-school drop off and pick up, bed time and bath time. He needed a sense of security and permanence after a very rough beginning in life. It couldn't be a nanny or a babysitter; it had to be me. And I loved doing it. No regrets whatsoever!

Taking a break from TV was actually a wonderful thing. It gave me a chance to be very intentional about this third chapter of my career. As far as writing, I really wanted to move book genres into adult thriller fiction, which is big jump. In music, I realized I wanted to go back to the foundations of my former band, Sangre Sabia. An an actress, in the many years that I was an ingenue and leading lady, I always wanted to play the heavy, complicated female roles that are for older actresses. I wanted to play Medea, Lady MacBeth, Queen Margaret...or the evil matriarch of a conglomerate family, the corrupt politician on TV. I've waited my whole career to play these types of roles!"

In that "break" from work, Michele ran an emerging theatre company, established her non-profit performing and language arts program, Adelante Arts Collective, and appeared in numerous theatre productions in Los Angeles at The Annenberg, The Moss Theater, The L.A Shakespeare Center, and The Met. She co-starred in the 2023 PBS short film, The Kill Floor, directed by Carlos Avila, which has won numerous awards at film festivals all over the country. She also began formulating the ideas for the two thriller book series that she would sell in 2024 to Storm Publishing in the U.K (The Special Agent Emily Ray Series) and to Thomas and Mercer/Amazon in the U.S., (The Cassidy Clarke Series).

Now stepping back into her professional life as a multi-faceted storyteller, Michele is busy writing the subsequent novels in her two book series' and developing a curriculum for AAC to work with kids in the foster care system and in underserved communities. In 2026, Michele is starting work on a new music project with veteran musician/producer/engineer Margaux Gilberto Morales, a former band mate from Sangre Sabia, who has worked with Laufey, Beck, Linda Ronstadt and other major artists. 2026 promises to be a busy year!