Michal Sinnott is a renowned voice, likeness, and performance capture artist, famously recognized for her portrayal of Tracey De Santa, the lead crime boss's daughter, in the billion-dollar video game, Grand Theft Auto V.
Born Michal Shalom Leamer in Rock Island, Illinois, as the eldest of three children to Brad and Griselda Leamer, her parents divorced when she was just six years old. She and her brothers grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, where they were raised by their mother, who initially pursued acting before transitioning into casting and teaching acting for kids. Michal began her acting career at the tender age of seven, when her mother was asked to bring her along for a commercial audition and they both landed the job. This marked the beginning of a long list of local roles in commercials, radio, and theatre.
As her acting career progressed, Michal landed a small role in the movie of the week Ironclads (1991) starring Virginia Madsen and directed by Oscar-winning Delbert Mann. She continued to appear in occasional film and television roles whenever a SAG production came to Virginia.
Michal graduated from The Governor's School for the Arts (GSA) Drama Department, a prestigious five-city-wide Performing Arts High School based in Norfolk. Having long watched her mother struggle in the business, Michal initially loved acting but never intended to pursue a career in the field. However, a play she wrote at GSA won Theatre Virginia's Young Playwrights Festival, and she attended a three-week program in Richmond, where her play, "The Waterbabies", was subsequently mounted and had a staged reading with Equity Actors.
Michal attended The University of Virginia for a year before transferring to Catholic University, where she graduated with a degree in Drama. After college, she worked briefly as a flight attendant for a charter company, traveling the world and visiting more than 25 countries on six continents before moving to New York City to pursue an acting career.
While in New York, she studied at the now-closed GATE acting conservatory, a 40-hour-a-week, nine-month program with an 8:6 student-to-teacher ratio. The program was run and taught by Stella Adler-trained actor and teacher Gregory Abels and focused largely on the classics, with classes also in Tai Chi, mask, and yoga. She also studied the Sanford Meisner technique under Paul Le Mos and Maggie Flanigan. Michal is featured in the book "Acting Teachers of America" as a student of Gregory Abels.
She and Catholic alum Mary M. Parr wrote the initial draft of their Sundance Screenwriting Lab Finalist feature, "Born That Way", while driving cross-country on a six-day road trip from Philadelphia to Los Angeles.
Today, Michal splits her time between New York City and Los Angeles alongside her husband, Joseph, and their puggle, Jasper. She is a proud Resident Artist of the award-winning theatre company, The Vagrancy in Los Angeles.
