Michael Hurst

He plays a lead role in the 2025 Australian satirical dark comedy film Birthright.

Michael Eric Hurst was born in Lancashire, England. When he was seven his family moved to Christchurch, New Zealand. He enrolled at Papanui High School, then University of Canterbury, but for only one year.

Hurst is known as a Shakespearean actor. In 2015, after runs in New Zealand and at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Hurst directed The Generation of Z: Apocalypse at a purpose-built venue in East London between 4 April 2015 to July 2015. The performance gave the audience choices which could affect the outcome of scenes, then quite new. He has also appeared in several solo stage productions, including No Holds Bard (based on several Shakespearian characters) in 2018, and An Illiad in 2019. In 2023, he presented his solo show The Golden Ass at several locations around New Zealand. At the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in New Zealand in April, he performed The Golden Ass and No Holds Bard. In the same year, he directed the play Waiting for Waiting for Godot by Dave Hanson, and directed and starred in King Lear for Auckland Theatre Company.

In 1984, Hurst won the lead role of David Blyth's Death Warmed Up, New Zealand's first splatter movie. The plot saw Hurst's character weathering institutionalisation, sundry wackos, and a motorcycle chase in the tunnels below Waiheke Island. The film won the grand prize at a fantasy film festival in Paris. The same year Hurst began playing drummer Dave Nelson over two series of Heroes, about a band searching for fame. Crime thriller Dangerous Orphans (1986) is the first film in which Hurst co-starred with real-life partner Jennifer Ward-Lealand (he had already acted with her on-stage). Hurst's role was one of three grown orphans caught up in a mission to one-up various criminal figures; Ward-Lealand played romantic interest to one of the other orphans. Hurst would work with Ward-Lealand again on his next three features, 1992's The Footstep Man, 1993's Desperate Remedies and 1999's I'll Make You Happy. In 1993, he starred alongside Australian Sophie Lee and Brit Greg Wise in the TV thriller Typhon's People. Hurst played a European mystery man uncovering the truth behind corporate genetic meddling. The script was by author Margaret Mahy. Hurst went on to co-star in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys with Kevin Sorbo, playing sidekick Iolaus to Sorbo's Hercules. Hurst made his feature debut as a director with Jubilee (2000), based on the 1994 novel by Nepi Solomon. The film stars Cliff Curtis as a kind-hearted procrastinator who gets the chance to prove himself by organising a 75th jubilee. Hurst followed Jubilee by directing Love Mussel, a one-off satire for television. Written by Stephen Sinclair and starring Kevin Smith, Love Mussel is a mockumentary about a fictional township which erects a monument to a shellfish with Viagra-like properties. He plays a lead role of Richard, a baby boomer father, in Zoe Pepper's feature film directorial debut, the dark satirical comedy Birthright, which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in New York City in June 2025.

Hurst married New Zealand actress Jennifer Ward-Lealand and they have two sons.

The numbers in directing credits refer to the number of episodes.