Michele Selene Ang

Michele Selene Ang is a Chinese-American actor and writer. She was born in Surabaya, Indonesia and immigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area with her family in 1998, eventually becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen. She is known for starring as Courtney Crimsen in the 2017 Netflix series "13 Reasons Why." Ang was raised in Fairfield, California and auditioned to attend the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts in San Francisco for high school. She was accepted and completed four years of training in the Theatre Arts, conservatory-style program. During her senior year, she auditioned for and was accepted into the prestigious National YoungArts program, becoming a 2012 Spoken Theater Winner. Through YoungArts, she was nominated to the U.S. Presidential Scholars program, and was chosen as a 2012 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts. During her youth, she studied classical piano for six years, and classical ballet for seven years. When it was time to consider plans after high school, Michele decided to pursue acting without a plan b. She applied to several acting programs, made it past the first round for Juilliard, was crushed she didn't make it to the New York round, and eventually celebrated her acceptance to Fordham University, NYU, and UCLA with scholarships attached to the offers. She chose to attend Fordham's BA Theatre Performance program, for which she received a full scholarship, and graduated in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and an array of student productions under her belt. She has performed on stage in full productions at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, and at East West Players. Ang was in the last few weeks of her senior year at Fordham when an open casting call was sent out to the students about a mystery teen drama series called "13 Reasons Why." She submitted a tape to the open call and received a callback request a few months later. After meeting with Paul Schnee of Barden/Schnee casting, Tom McCarthy, and head writers Diana Son and Brian Yorkey--she was offered the role of Courtney. Her role on the show contributed to the rising cause for Asian/Asian American representation on screen, and she is determined to continue uplifting this cause through her work.