Hey Mavs, it's time for another Mayfield Highlight! Today we present to you Michelle Melanson (Cuperus). Michelle is a Mayfield class of 1987 alumni and a television veteran with over 25 years of experience, various awards and nominations for her various shows, and was even named into the Ryerson University Alumni Wall of Fame last year! Please enjoy Michelle's Mayfield Highlight.
Michelle graduated Mayfield in 1987, she said her favourite memory of her time at Mayfield "[was] playing Frenchie in our Grade 12 Production of Grease…and because it was the 80’s we actually smoked cigarettes and drank beer on stage. LOL. My favourite teacher by far was the late great Drama Teacher Mr. Singh who believed in all of us and was instrumental in my having a career in the arts."
Emmy and Bafta Nominated, Michelle has over 25 years’ experience in the television production business with hundreds of episodes produced and over 50 awards and nominations.
Most recently, Michelle was President of Radical Sheep Productions, executive producing such shows as the worldwide hit The Next Step, as well as Fangbone!, The Bagel & Becky Show, Tee & Mo, Stella and Sam, The Yup Yups and Ollie The Boy Who Became What He Ate.
Michelle has won the Canadian Screen award, the Grand Prize of the Youth Media Alliance, multiple Kidscreen Awards and Cynopsis Awards. She also has a Juno Award for producing the Stella and Sam Album.
In 2018 Michelle co-founded Headspinner Productions with her Showrunner/Writer Husband Ken Cuperus (Hudson & Rex, The Stanley Dynamic). Currently they have several high profile productions in development including a reboot of the Canadian classic Hilarious House of Frightenstein.
Michelle is also the Founder of Women Drawn Together-an free organization that fosters learning, networking, and mentorship for Women in the Animation community. In the past five years, the group has grown to 5 cities and over 1500 members.
In 2019, Michelle was named to the Ryerson University Alumni Wall of Fame.
We hope you're all doing well and are enjoying the announcements we've pushed out recently. Don't worry, we're not stopping there, we've got more to come so keep an eye out for us in your feed! Until next time, -The Mayfield 50 Communications Team