Mike is a playwright, dramaturg, director, actor, educator, and researcher. His research is oriented around the pedagogical benefits of devised theatre.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Mike was introduced to writing for stage and film as an extracurricular while attending McGill University in Montreal. Since then he has traveled extensively and lived several years in Dublin, Ireland where he became acquainted with The Attic Studio, the city’s largest film and theater collaborative.  It was with this group Mike received his first series of readings and professional productions.

In 2010, Mike moved back to New York and joined the management of Backyart, a multi-disciplinary arts collaborative based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. With this group he produced The New York Monologues, Antenora and Flaccid Penis Seeks Vaginal Dryness.

In 2013, Mike earned his MFA in Playwriting at Trinity College’s Lir National Academy of Dramatic Art in 2013.

To date, Mike has had two plays published, seven full-length scripts, numerous one-acts, and a few short films performed and screened in six countries. He founded two ongoing writing and film competitions and regularly teaches workshops on writing, performance, and other aspects of theater and film.

He worked for four years as the Director of New Script Development at The Foxboro Company, an independent Broadway and feature film production company based in New York City. He has also taught creative writing to teenagers at Manhattan’s Writopia Lab since 2016 and regularly assists playwrights and directors with dramaturgy.  

In 2022, Mike earned his PhD in Theatre from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. His dissertation was developed into the monograph Student Agency in Devised Theatre Education: Creating Collaborative Theatre in Virtual and In-Person Classrooms, available from Routledge here.

He is currently an Assistant Professor of Devised Theatre at Texas A&M University.

You’re NOT Sick, Honolulu, 2023. Written by and starring Mike Poblete.