Whether playing the supportive mom, the bossy stage diva or the all-knowing head of a convent, I’ve brought my messy life experience to my many roles on the stage and on camera. Whether a new project or classic tale, I’m passionate about collaborating with other artists and building complex characters to share timeless, universal stories.

My first career was as a School Music Teacher, andI’ve worked with kids in VA and NYC. My students included kids who lived on a Virginia farm as well as kids who called The Plaza Hotel  their home in NYC. From the three-year-olds to the high school seniors, those amazing kids were always a tough audience. They could tell when a teacher was “winging it.” Lesson #1: Work hard and be truthful with your audience.

I left teaching to train and perform in opera. With opera, it didn’t matter whether you truly meant what you sang (which was usually in Italian), if you couldn’t be heard over the 60-piece orchestra. You couldn’t rely on your microphone because you didn’t have one! After a challenging three hour workout of singing a beautiful story on stage, an opera singer must protect the voice to rest and prepare for the next show. Staying in tip top vocal shape is the priority for one’s opera career. Lesson #2: Good training, daily workouts and knowing one’s limits are musts for career longevity.

Then came the kids. My husband and I actually raised two kids (now young adults) in New York City and lived to tell the story. And the kids survived, too! Public schools, a limited budget, and an apartment filled with music (sorry, neighbors…) meant a lot of creativity went into my approach to parenting. And I am one proud mamma! Those humans walk around with a piece of my heart attached. When you love someone with everything you are, their failures are yours, but so are the lessons of the failures, and of course, so are their successes. Lesson #3: The rewards of deep personal investment in others are infinite.

How lucky am I, to get to bring these life lessons to my work!

Michelle Jennings has been called “a command-ing and attractive presence on stage with an expressive voice of great beauty and power,” (Baltimore Sun). In 2024 Michelle played Genie Klein in White Plains PAC’s Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, where she later returned to be Lady Beaconsfield in Jekyll & Hyde; Mrs. Fairfax in Off-Brand Opera’s Jane Eyre (NYC); and finished the year playing perky HR Director Cheryl in Playhouse On Park’s The Ugly Xmas Sweater Musical (CT).  Other recent performances include Dee Dee Allen in The Prom at Media Theatre (PA), Ariel in Fireside Theatre’s Grumpy Old Men (WI); Fiordiligi in Cosi fan Tutte, with Ninth Avenue Opera in NYC and Cleveland; Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music with Black Rock Theatre (CT);  an off-stage swing for four roles in Milwaukee Rep’s production of Titanic, (going on as Ida Straus); and Donatella in the NYC premiere of Mike and Mindy’s Wild Weekend Jam, at The Players’ Theatre.  In film/TV, she originated the role of Thjodhild in the film, Freydis and Gudrid, a musical film, which was released on Amazon Prime Video in 2024, and she was Abbi’s mom in Evil Lives Here, releasing early 2025 on Investigation Discovery TV and HBOMax. Other favorite lead roles in opera and musical theater performances include SweeneyTodd, The Music Man, La Cenerentola, Die Fledermaus, La Boheme, and South Pacific, performed in Virginia, Florida, Hawaii, Connecticut, New York, Oklahoma, and Washington, DC. She is also a member of the comedic opera duo, Divas Unleashed, who wrote and perform their operatic comedy show, The Benefit, around the U.S.

Michelle has performed and recorded concerts of jazz, oratorio, musical revues, gospel and pop for television shows, commercials, studio recordings, and movie underscoring, heard in the US, Great Britain, Japan and Italy.  An over-the-top NY Yankees fan,  Michelle lives in Manhattan with her husband, pianist-composer Dr. Tom Jennings.

For me, the major delight of this production was discovering soprano Michelle Jennings, who played the role of Marian. Jennings has an     expressive voice of great beauty and power that would be at home on any stage, and she is an accomplished actress whose every word was clearly intelligible.  – Baltimore Sun

Jennings’ Yum-Yum is a remarkably flighty, self-absorbed creature, full of giggles and herself. But when she sings, the effect is close to magical.   -Tulsa World

A young singer of exceptional talent, pretty Michelle Jennings used her lovely soprano effectively … her vocal ease and tone quality in the coloratura ornamentation were extraordinary.  – Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Michelle Jennings (Nellie Forbush) is a perfect fit as the optimistic young nurse from Little Rock, establishing herself as our heroine in her first number.                                           – Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Michelle Jennings was a sparkling, tempestuous Musetta who could flirt outrageously and fight passionately, and her more serious moments were a model of first-class acting and singing. – Asheville Citizen-Times

Jennings as Nellie is an excellent contrast to Loyd’s Emile. She moves about the stage with a kind of gawky grace, as if literally feeling her way through the world.                        – Tulsa World

For a change, I could actually understand the words sung by the sopranos, particularly those of Michelle Jennings. The latter is marvelous as the spunky Mabel, whose bel canto trills in ‘Poor Wandering One,’ qualify her for grand opera.                          – Town & Village (NYC)