Michael Valdes is a New York–based actor–singer, writer, theatre-maker, and multidisciplinary storyteller creating work across performance, writing, and digital media. A Cuban-Iranian Jewish American originally from Long Island, he is drawn to stories about identity, belonging, culture, memory, and the complicated ways people understand one another.

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His performance work spans theatre, musical theatre, concerts, cabaret, and live performance. As a writer and theatre-maker, Michael created ANEMONE, a bilingual English-Hebrew play that premiered at The New School’s APEX Festival in 2026 and explores friendship, grief, distance, and belonging in the immediate aftermath of October 7.

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Beyond the stage, Michael is the founder of Hot Jewish Media and creator of Hot Jewish Energy, a digital platform bringing personal storytelling, cultural commentary, podcasting, interviews, and original content into conversations surrounding Jewish identity and representation.

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Across mediums, the throughline is storytelling: work that is emotionally grounded, culturally engaged, and unafraid of contradiction. Whether performing someone else’s words or creating his own, Michael is interested in the human experience underneath the story—and in leaving audiences with more questions than they had coming in.