about Rick Miller

RICK MILLER is a Dora and Gemini award-winning writer/performer based in Toronto, Canada.  He trained in Montreal as an architect, actor, musician, and playwright, and has performed in five languages on five continents. For 3 years, Rick hosted ABC’s hit primetime series “Just for Laughs”, and Entertainment Weekly has called him “one of the 100 most creative people alive today”.  As artistic director of WYRD Productions, an internationally-acclaimed company devoted to multi-disciplinary theatre, he has created and performed shows such as Art?, Slightly Bent, Into the Ring (co-created with Dawson Nichols), and the worldwide hit MacHomer.  Two recent WYRD Productions have been co-creations with award-winning director Daniel Brooks and Necessary Angel Theatre Company: Bigger Than Jesus and HARDSELL, which Rick recently reworked as HARDSELL 2.0.  He is also a frequent collaborator with renowned director Robert Lepage, having worked on such plays as La Géométrie des Miracles, Zulu Time (co-created with Peter Gabriel), on the film Possible Worlds, and on the 9-hour play Lipsynch, still touring internationally.  Here are some of the shows Rick and WYRD are touring and/or developing:

MacHomer:  16 years, 160 cities, 800+ performances, over 500 000 fans! Few solo shows have enjoyed the runaway success of Rick Miller’s MacHomer, a hilarious mash-up of “the Simpsons” and Macbeth. Coming up in 2012: the long-awaited release of multimedia educational modules, and touring that includes a premiere in New York City and a month at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. MacHomer is now available on DVD!  Order here.

Bigger Than Jesus:  Miller and Daniel Brooks' "sinfully funny" multimedia mass has become an international success story, playing in 6 countries and 4 languages. After a Toronto ‘resurrection’, Jesus is back again with more big plans - a New York City premiere (NYU, Easter 2012!), followed by a 3-week return to Montreal (Théâtre Denise Pelletier, en français, avril 2012). As for the highly anticipated film adaptation, WYRD has begun negotiating with Rhombus media and we hope to begin development soon.  Visit BiggerThanJ.com

HARDSELL 2.0:  Miller’s recent reworking of the Miller/Brooks play at Factory Theatre has pushed it into exciting new directions: a French-language premiere at Festival Le Carrefour in June 2012, a BravoFact! short film with Toronto’s Foundry Films (which will hopefully lead to the development of a new satirical TV series.), and an in-school information literacy program that premiered in Jan 2012. Check out the new 3-minute and 10-minute YouTube videos, plus the video of Rick's IdeaCity performance in Toronto in June 2011.

LIPSYNCH:  Robert Lepage, Rick Miller and 8 other actor/writers from around the world have created this monumental 9-hour production that has toured Canada, the USA, the UK, France, Spain, Australia, Russia, Austria, Italy and Taiwan.  Upcoming dates in 2012: Melbourne, Australia.

In development:

BOOM:  Part explosive performance, part riveting documentary (and part nostalgia trip), this solo show currently in development will feature Miller in a tour-de-force performance that captures and recreates the defining moments of the baby boom era (1945-67). The stage play will premiere in 2013 (at a very prestigious festival-TBA!), and is part of a larger "Rick Miller's HISTORY" transmedia project that aims to bring history to the next generation of Canadians. 

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea:  The classic Jules Verne adventure re-imagined for the 21st Century.  Miller will lead a collective of talented multi-disciplinary artists from across Canada and around the world in the creation of an amazing piece of multimedia theatre, premiering at Manitoba Theatre for Young People in 2013. As with BOOM, the play is only one component of a larger network of transmedia properties each with a focus on empowering youth to act on water issues.  One drop can make a difference.  Development in 2012-13, and touring in 2014-15.

MONEY:  A multi-disciplinary ensemble piece exploring the concept of money.  Drawing from his many collective collaborations with Robert Lepage, Miller will lead a multi-talented cast of writer/performers to create an original play themed on money:  what it is, what we do for it and what it does to us.  Development will continue into 2013 and 2014.        

Rick is one of Canada’s most respected multi-disciplinary performers, with credits ranging from classical theatre to the avant-garde, from musicals to live comedy, from voice work to film & television. He has been called “one of Canada’s most dazzling performers” (Toronto Star), and the “most virtuosic voice in the country” (Edmonton Journal). Rick’s many voices can be heard in hit cartoons such as Skatoony (Hedley-Diddly-Dee), Atomic Betty (Sparky), My Big Big Friend (Bongo) and Magi-Nation (Orwin, Freep, Ashio).  He lives in Toronto with his wife Stephanie Baptist and their 2 daughters.