Bio
Michelle du Plessis is a South African actress best known for her starring role as Barbie Botha, the home schooled older sibling, in the kykNET sitcom Vir Beter of Baie Beter (For Better or Much Better). It was her television acting debut.
She graduated from Rhodes University in 2012 with a BA in Drama and English summa cum laude. She specialised in acting, directing, and physical theatre and was awarded the Mattie Shuttleworth Prize for the most outstanding Drama graduate.
Michelle performed in several plays at the National Arts Festival during her studies, most notably Mothermilk (produced by Andrew Buckland) and Wintersweet, which received a Standard Bank Encore Ovation award in 2012.
In 2013, she made her television debut as Barbie in Willie Esterhuizen's sitcom Vir Beter of Baie Beter. She was also to be seen in Ompad, one of the shortfilms at the kykNET Silwerskerm Festival that year; as well as Shotgun Garfunkel (directed by Johnny Barbuzano), which was awarded Best Feature at the Jozi Film Festival.
In 2015 she co-wrote and performed in the short film Boat Girls (directed by Roger Young) which was screened at the Durban International Film Festival.
A short film called Sheila she performed in was screened at the British Urban Film Festival and was part of the official selection for the 2015 BAFTA Qualifying Aesthetica Film Festival.
She also had a small role in the film Dis Koue Kos, Skat (directed by Etienne Fourie and starring Anna-Mart van der Merwe).