Michelle V. Huynh is a multidisciplinary feminist artist, scholar, and educator.

A theatre practitioner and performance studies scholar, she specializes in traditional Asian performance, intercultural theatre-making, and practice-as-research methodologies. Her artistic work includes directing, choreographing, and performing in productions that translate and adapt Asian theatre forms for Western stages. She has trained with master artists around the world in multiple Asian performance genres, including Thai and Balinese dance; Japanese nohgaku and kabuki; and Chinese jingju and chuanju. Michelle has presented at academic conferences and performed at theatre festivals across the U.S., Asia, and Europe, sharing both her scholarship and creative practice. Her writing has appeared in journals and magazines such as Practicing Anthropology and Horizons.

Michelle’s research lies at the intersection of Southeast Asian performance, cultural studies, global Asias, and affect theory. Using an interdisciplinary approach that integrates autoethnography, memory studies, and performance studies practices, her current book project examines how acts of partying shape the complex and distinctive affective landscape of South Vietnamese life. She is particularly interested in how party and pleasure are embodied within transnational South Vietnamese urban spaces and nightlife cultures to illuminate and define expressions of South Vietnameseness.

Born and raised in Hawai‘i, Michelle earned her BA (Honors) in Theatre and English and her MFA in Asian Theatre Performance from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She later completed her PhD in Theatre and Drama at the University of California, San Diego. Her awards include the U.S. Department of Education FLAS Fellowship, the John Young Foundation for the Arts Scholarship, the Po‘okela Award, and the James R. Brandon Award for Excellence in Asian Theatre.

Michelle has returned home to Hawai‘i and currently serves as a faculty specialist in the Arts, Community & Engagement Department at UH Mānoa’s Outreach College. She was recently named the 2025-26 Hawai‘i fellow for Creative West’s inaugural National Arts Future Fellowship.