Michelle Blair Management

Michelle Blair Management is a London based talent agency and complete personal management service, representing actors and musical theatre performers for work across theatre, musical theatre, film & TV in the UK, Europe, and internationally.

The agency was launched in 2012 by Michelle Blair, a professionally trained and experienced dancer and musical theatre performer. She’s also a veteran dance teacher who has worked at many of the UK’s top performing arts training institutions.

The team working for Michelle Blair Management includes agents, assistants, PR advisers, professional coaches and marketing experts.

Michelle Blair Management is a member of the PMA (Personal Managers’ Association), a network of agents representing actors, writers and clients who strive to uphold quality professional standards, and work with Equity for the same reasons.

Seeking Representation?

If you want Michelle Blair Management to consider representing you, apply via the dedicated form accessed from  their website.

The form is found at https://www.michelleblairmanagement.co.uk/representation-requests

Make sure you include at least one link to footage of you performing. If you’re looking for musical theatre work, they also need to see you perform a short dance, and hear at least one song from your repertoire.

They are happy to accept self tapes of you singing and/or delivering a monologue if you don’t have professional showreel. Or it can be a short edit of a live performance.

Set out what you are looking for with your career too.

Unusually, the agency does try to respond to each application. 

But if you don’t hear, just assume it is a no and do not chase it up with the agency. Sometimes they are too busy and they need to concentrate on their existing clients.

Casting directors and potential agents will look at social media.

Make sure your Instagram really reflects who you are. Headshots, training, and experience should reflect you as a professional performer, but give some sense of your personality.  

Make sure every one of your Tweets puts you in a good light.

Hidden social media profiles make agents and casting directors wonder what you have to hide.

Michelle Blair

Michelle Blair, owner and agent at Michelle Blair Management, trained at the London Studio Centre. She loved ballet, and saw her future as a ballet dancer. 

But the classes and inspirational teachers at London Studio Centre drew her into the world of musical theatre.

When she graduated in 1994, performers were still under the old Equity rules of needing 40 weeks of professional performance work to get the Equity Card, which was the gateway to…professional work. (Yes, it was a strange and circular system which meant only the most determined newcomers could access the profession, but it could be argued that it kept a lid on the number of people vying for each job). 

So Michelle Blair worked her way up through the ranks of panto and less glamorous productions for two years, to get the Equity card. And with perfect timing, Equity changed the rules to remove the 40 week restriction!

But she doesn’t regret those two years of learning many different aspects of putting on theatre productions, which gave her an in-depth and wide knowledge base on which to build her career.

In addition to appearing on the London stage, Michelle Blair has taught dance for more than 20 years. She was only 21 years old when she taught her first class at London Studio Centre. She’s gone on to teach at Sylvia Young, Italia Conti, the Royal Ballet School, Central, ENT and Elmhurst.

Michelle stresses the need for every performer to have self belief, be self motivated, and be responsible for their own business management. It isn’t enough to sit and wait for the phone to ring.

Students coming out of college have a lot to pick up in the first year. Even the experience of navigating around London to attend unfamiliar theatres for an audition can be daunting. And it’s important to keep up with dance classes and maintain fitness all the time, to be top of your game at every audition.

Michelle also emphasises that fame is exceptional, and most performers are diligently working hard from job to job in a very hard industry which only 10% of performers are still pursuing five years later.

Agents and casting directors ring colleges to find out more about performers under consideration. As you get older you’ll watch other students do interesting things in their career. 

Michelle Blair is a strong advocate of regional theatre, and people should consider getting experience in them if they are interested in acting on stage.

Having an agent is a much better way to be seen by casting directors. The casting directors like to audition performers they know from previous work, young people they have seen showcase at college, or performers recommended by agents they trust. That really matters when thousands of submissions roll in for every single role.

Michelle Blair Management Clients

The roster of Michelle Blair Management clients in 2021 included: