Opening night of my playyyy :)

Paul Michael Thomson is a Chicago-based, Phoenix-raised, Amherst-educated artist and interdisciplinary scholar who is a lot more fun than this smirking three-quarter shot may suggest.

Originally from Mesa, Arizona, Paul Michael began acting at a young age, playing the titular role in Anton Chekhov's Ivanov at just four years old. Just kidding. He was seven, and it was The Wizard of Oz. By the time he was thirteen, he had signed with a major Arizona agency, filmed commercial work, performed on stages across the valley, and gotten the sex talk.

Paul Michael graduated summa cum laude with a BFA in Acting, a BA in Africana Studies, and minors in Spanish & Art History from the Honors College at the University of Arizona. Bear down! During this time, he developed both new plays and a complex about why cute guys never texted him first. He worked as the host of Campus Health TV, tutored student athletes through CATS Academics, served as the president of Theta Alpha Phi,  and volunteered with Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Tucson. Keeping busy helped Paul Michael to stay away from the dangers of college, like cocaine and OKCupid.

Paul Michael moved to Chicago two weeks after graduating undergrad, more for the winters than anything! In the years since, he has established himself as a leader in the Chicago theatre community by telling people that he is a leader in the Chicago theatre community. In 2018, he founded The Story Theatre, 501(c)(3) and has been instrumental in creating its Governing Ensemble model, expanding its board of directors, and begging people to come see its shows. The same year his best friend had her first child, Paul Michael had The Story.

After taking a little “pause” due to a “global pandemic” in “2020,” Paul Michael realized that in order to make the art he wanted to make, contribute to the fields he wanted to contribute to, and be the person he wanted to be, he needed to know more. (Paul Michael is a Virgo if that…wasn’t…clear…) He was fortunate enough to be accepted into the PhD program in Afro-American Studies through the W.E.B. Du Bois Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The Du Bois Department has a long, proud history of cultivating scholar-activists and scholar-artists, and now Paul Michael has a long, proud history of telling everyone he gets to study there. Truly, a win-win.

In his spare time, Paul Michael likes to…just kidding! What spare time?! He hopes you'll find this site both fun and professional, like a cool field trip, and that you'll forgive him for writing this bio in the third-person.