The coles notes…
Mikaela Lily Davies is an actor, director and creator of new work. On screen, she can be seen on Law & Order and Murdoch Mysteries, as the lead in Samantha Reynolds’ No Right Way, and supporting roles in In Search of Lost Time and Christmas in Switzerland. Her directorial debut, Hockey Mom, premiered at the Canadian Film Festival and won awards on the festival circuit; she is now developing it into a half-hour comedy with Monica Rodriguez Knox.
On stage, she recently appeared in the critically acclaimed The Caged Bird Sings at Tarragon Theatre. She has performed in eight shows with Soulpepper Theatre and spent four seasons at the Stratford Festival, where her Beatrice-Joanna in The Changeling was called “the best acting work on view at Stratford” (Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune). She is the inaugural recipient of the Jon Kaplan Canadian Stage Performer Award and has received Sterling, META and Dora nominations.
A graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Actors Conservatory and the Soulpepper Academy, Mikaela is currently storyteller in residence at Replay Storytelling.
The full novel…
Mikaela was born and raised in Montreal where she graduated with honours from Dawson College's Professional Theatre Program (Dome Theatre) winning the Outstanding Achievement Award and the Brian Cloutte Memorial Award for dedication, generosity and respect for the profession. Soon after graduation, Mikaela directed Neil Labute's The Shape of Things and David Harrower's Blackbird in Montreal. Mikaela also performed in the critically acclaimed production of The Exonerated by Erik Jensen and Jessica Blank, Nothing Never Happens in Norway at the Centaur Wildside by Joanne Sarazen (Tammy’s Always Dying) and as Duckling in Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good.
In 2013, she moved from Montreal to Toronto to join the Soulpepper Academy as one of eight actors in residence after a nationwide search. She trained and shared the stage with some of Canada’s finest theatre artists like Joseph Ziegler, Nancy Palk, Stuart Hughes and Diego Matamoros. At Soulpepper she was in the original cast of Spoon River (DORA nomination for Best Ensemble) which would later go on to win “Critics Pick” in New York and performed on the cast album. She played Mary Warren in The Crucible, Rossignol in Marat/Sade (DORA nomination for Best Ensemble), Mrs. Cherry in Idiot’s Delight, Young Robin in Alice Munro’s Tricks, Natasha in an adaptation of War and Peace, The Thirst of Hearts, Molly Ivors in The Dead, Flipote in Tartuffe and Gittel in The Dybbuk. While not on stage, Mikaela co-directed another production of David Harrower’s Blackbird this time with David Ferry (National Post Top Ten Productions of 2014) and directed Polly Phokeev’s play Seams, first at the Paprika Festival, starring Nancy Palk and then again at Summerworks starring Clare Coulter (NOW Magazine: Outstanding Direction, Outstanding New Play, Outstanding Production, Outstanding Design, Outstanding Ensemble).
Biography
In 2016 Mikaela joined the Stratford Festival, becoming the first actor to play both the Dauphin and Katherine the princess of France in Breath of Kings, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henriad. In her second season at Stratford, she took on the leading role of Beatrice Joanna under Jackie Maxwell’s direction of The Changeling (“Davies is doing the best acting work on view at Stratford right now.” - Chicago Tribune), as well as Irma the Kitchen Girl in Donna Feore’s Madwoman of Chaillot and performed in Timon of Athens directed by Stephen Ouimette. While Mikaela was performing at Stratford, she paired with Phokeev to create two original site-specific award-winning plays, How We Are and The Mess which performed to critical acclaim in Toronto, Kingston, and Halifax.
In 2017 Mikaela was awarded the Director Development Residency at Canadian Stage where she workshopped her solo show, Facebook Anonymous, which she wrote, directed, and acted in. She then adapted and directed a cross-gender cast production (with female pronouns) of Richard the Second for The Secret Shakespeare Series starring Kim Nelson, Virgilia Griffith, Christine Horne, and Sydney Ozerov-Meyer.
Mikaela returned to Stratford to join the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction to assistant direct Robert Lepage on his production of Coriolanus. At the Citadel Theatre she played the titular role of Miss Bennet, a sequel to Pride and Prejudice by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, to critical acclaim. Her performance was noted as one of the remarkable theatre experiences of 2018 (Edmonton Journal) and she was nominated for a Sterling for Outstanding Comedic Performance.
Mikaela returned to Stratford for a fourth season to be the associate director to Jill Keiley on The Neverending Story which performed at Stratford and The National Arts Centre. She was nominated for a Stratford Festival Tanya Award for Outstanding Work for her contribution to the production and was awarded the Amelia Hall Guthrie award by her peers. She then played Bess in Eda Holmes’ production of The Last Wife by Kate Hennig at the Centaur Theatre and was nominated for a META for outstanding supporting performance. That year Mikaela directed a production of The Winter’s Tale at the St Lawrence Shakespeare Festival and was nominated for the Rolex Protégé Arts Initiative.
In 2019 Mikaela was awarded the inaugural Jon Kaplan Canadian Stage Performer Award and was accepted into the prestigious Canadian Film Centre’s Actors Conservatory. During her days off at the Canadian Film Centre, she traveled to Ottawa as the consulting dramaturg on Keiley’s production of Copenhagen at the National Arts Centre and was commissioned by Crow’s Theatre to develop an original musical adaptation of The Master and Margarita (with original funding from The Stratford Festival) with Hailey Gillis and Phokeev.
In 2020, Mikaela launched her official coaching business and has helped actors book work for projects on MGM, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, CBC, and many more. Her short Cassandra that she created, co-wrote, and performed in was a finalist for the Cayle Chernin Media Award and was produced by the Canadian Film Centre.
In 2021, Mikaela directed the workshop production of The Master and Margarita at Crow’s Theatre starring Jonathon Young and Sara Farb. She performed as Flannery Oats in Murdoch Mysteries, a character loosely based on Valerie Solanas in an episode directed by Mina Shum, and voiced Lila in The Relatives, a beautiful Canadian novel by Camilla Gibb on Audible.
In 2022, Mikaela was cast alongside Jodie Sweetin and Tim Rozon in the Lifetime movie Christmas in Switzerland and performed in numerous development workshops across the country. In addition, Mikaela was the acting coach and consulting dramaturg on Beautiful Renegades directed by Eda Holmes produced by Peggy Baker Dance Projects.
In 2023, Mikaela took some time off to travel the world and have her incredible son, Samuel-James.
In 2024, Mikaela performed in the critically acclaimed three hander, The Caged Bird Sings, with Modern Times. “That this dense text manages to both entertain and provoke introspection is also a testament to Davies, Sandhu and Silogix, all of whom are superb.” (The Toronto Star) She developed a short with Phokeev that was nominated for a Cayle Chernin Media Award.
In 2025, Mikaela played the lead role in No Right Way, Samantha Reynolds’ directorial debut about a woman faced with an impossible choice. As well as a supporting role in the film In Search of Lost Time. In addition, Mikaela was invited by Replay Storytelling to be one of their featured artists.
In 2026, Mikaela premiered her directorial debut at the Canadian Film Festival with Hockey Mom, a short film that toured the festival circuit and picked up a few awards along the way including Best Pilot for a Web Series. Mikaela was on stage again as part of the 2026 Tarragon Theatre’s season in a remount of the critically acclaimed The Caged Bird Sings. “Davies has only deepened her portrayal, imbued with a quiet, aching gravitas” (The Toronto Star)
She was cast in Law & Order directed by Sudz Sutherland and another episode of Murdoch Mysteries directed by Sherren Lee.
Currently, Mikaela is developing Hockey Mom with Monica Rodriguez Knox into a half hour comedy, working on her solo show and is Replay’s Storyteller in Residence.