Sebastian Michael

Sebastian was born in Manchester, UK, into a Swiss family and grew up in Basel, Switzerland, where his first two plays were staged while he was still at school and university.

Since moving to London at the age of 21, he has written several stage plays, among them The Power of Love, Love Hurts and Time After Time, which together now form the Love Trilogy and each of which individually reached the shortlist, long list and final ten respectively of Soho Theatre's Verity Bargate Award in separate years. His play Top Story was presented as a rehearsed reading at the ICA in May 2008 as part of the Accidental Festival and his latest play, Baur au Lac received a rehearsed reading starring Susannah York in Spring 2010. Both are now earmarked for production in 2012 and 2013 respectively.

Earlier plays of Sebastian's were seen on the London and Edinburgh fringe and include QED, Sisters and All the World. He also wrote the book and lyrics for the musical Monstersound which made it into the final round of the Musical of the Year Competition in Copenhagen and the book for Alvaro's Balcony, which premiered in September 2008 at the Landor Theatre.

Sebastian has written and directed two short films: Twenty-Six Takes on Life Without Allen which was screened at festivals in Chicago, Los Angeles, Lisbon and Padua, and The Study of Bunkers & Mounds in a Temperate Climate (Relatively Speaking) which was in the official selection for the International Film Festival Locarno 2007. His first feature film as a writer/director is The Hour of Living which was completed in February 2012. Sebastian is now working towards realisation of his second feature film, Soho, Night 9X9.

Sebastian has so far written one novel, Angel, and he is the writer of Genius Planet, a collaboration with Professor Ludger Hovestadt and Vera Bühlmann of ETH Zürich, which postulates a new, networked energy model for the Digital Age, and is due for publication in 2012.