Michael Hamish Budd is an Australian film actor, director and producer. He is best known for playing Esmael, alongside Henry Cavill and Sigourney Weaver in The Cold Light of Day. The film also starred Bruce Willis. Budd is the first Australian born of African American descent to direct and produce a feature film in Australia. In 2012/13 he directed and produced Love of My Life a horror thriller which he also stars in alongside Peter O'Brien and Diarmid Heidenreich. On 9 November it premiered in America at the 2013 second annual Mt. Hood Independent Film Festival in the state of Oregon U.S.A.. The film went on to win Best Horror/Thriller at the festival. The film was released 29 April 2014 Video on Demand release with Gravitas Ventures. His second feature, Life of the Party, starring Christopher Kirby completed filming December 2016. It premiered on the 14th of September 2018 at the Los Angeles in the U.S. state of California. The screenplay that was co-written by Budd was picked up by the Oscars Foundation to display in the Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for the permanent Core Collection. Budd's third feature film, a science fiction thriller titled Enter Sanctum starring ACCTA award-winner Lara Robinson, is in post Production. In 2020 michael started filming his 4th feature film, Ruby's Choice an Australian drama touching on the important subject matter of dementia, For the and the Sir Owen Glenn legacy, The film stars Jane SeymourOBE and Jacqueline McKenzie.With 50% of all the profits going back to dementia,The production was halted due to covid 19.
Life
Budd was born in Paddington, Sydney, New South Wales. His mother is an Australian of French descent, his father is African-American, and he has a sister. Michael's cousin is Shawn Budd, Australian professional Snooker player and 4 times Australian Open Snooker Champion. On 30 January 2014, Michael had his first child, a son named Harris Alister Budd, with longtime partner and fashion designer, Allison Berger.
Career
In 1995, Michael Budd was a resident supporting artist in Australian TV program Heartbreak High. Budd's initial break in Hollywood came in 2001 when the Wachowski brothers selected him as a body double and stand in for Laurence Fishburne in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. After 200 shoot days the directors cast him in his own role as Zion Controller. In 2008 Budd starred a in a music video for roll deep called Moving in Circles which featured Goldie. Budd studied Acting and Staging in London where he was mentored under a second generation Meisner tutor and the teachings of William Ball. After nearly three years with the conservatory, he graduated from the Meisner technique with the Impulse Company in 2010 he then went on to play on stage in works of Chekhov and Shakespeare and Mamet plays, in particular playing Othello in a shortened version of Othello in the Tristan Bate Theatre in London's West End. In 2011 Mabrouk El Mechri cast Budd as Esmael in The Cold Light of Day, set and shot completely in Spain. He played a Mossad agent, with dialogue in both Hebrew language and English.
