Roz Michaels

Short Biography

Roz Michaels' parents were first-generation Americans, with grandparents having immigrated from Italy and Hungary. Her father, Michael, made a comfortable living as a painting contractor, and as an avid gardener, won many awards for his roses. Her mother, Myra, (nee Pusty) was born in Pennyslvania and when just 6 months old, her father was killed in a coal-mining accident. Raised in Bayonne, she met and married Mike, and worked in the retail fashion trade as a buyer and manager. Roz has one sibling, a sister, Carolyn. She attended Our Lady of Victories Catholic Grammar School and followed with a public school education at Henry Snyder High, graduating in 1965. Following high school and her parents' alternative choice to 'acting school', she attended the Katharine Gibbs Secretarial School in New York City. Her first marriage to a childhood sweetheart produced three children, Michael, Scott and Bruce. Divorced after eleven years, she then married a Canadian and moved north with her children to Ontario, living just east of Toronto. Performing had been a burning desire since childhood, but she didn't act on it until her mid-thirties, when she was encouraged by a friend to audition for a local play, landed a role and found the missing ingredient to her personal fulfillment...performing. The plays eventually evolved into film work, which eventually evolved into a profession. A late start, a slow beginning, but a hell of a joy ride. Remarried since 1991 to her 'soulmate', Tony, they moved into Toronto in 1997.