Barbados Today

He has been dancing and singing from age four.

But it wasn’t until six years ago when Mishael Haynes joined the performing group Operation Triple Threat (OTT) that his acting skills really began to blossom.

“I always knew that I liked all three, but I never knew that I would do it all at the same time,” he told Bajan Vibes, while emphasizing that “it was only coming to OTT in 2012 that I realized that I could sing, dance and act”.

In 2014, Mishael decided to try out for the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) in the United States and was surprised with the response he got to his single audition.

“[It was] weird because they [usually] take like two to three weeks to call [but] they called me in nine days. So, I felt really good because I was sick, and I screamed so hard because I could not believe it. My parents were so happy,” said Mishael, who graduated from AMDA two years ago.

After returning to Barbados in 2016, he was invited to be a part of the Marlon Legall Voice Project, an experience which he described as amazing.

“Words can’t really express [it]. I knew Marlon from the time I was ten years old, we had that background. I knew him for a while. He was known for directing Coleridge & Parry’s choir, but he wanted to do his own separate thing with people that he thought had something to offer as artistes. When I realized the people that I was working with and surrounding myself with, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I am so in’,” he said.

The 23-year-old performer is currently preparing to leave the island on February 18 to join the Let’s Broadway Cabaret Series in West End, New York.

How that came about was that, Misheal recently got an email from one of his former classmates at AMDA asking whether he would be interested in doing the cabaret show.

After turning down a similar opportunity in 2016, he jumped at the offer this time around.

“I was like, ‘yes, this is the right time. I can do this.’ So I’ll be going in February,” an excited Haynes told Bajan Vibes.

To follow his journey, you can follow him on Instagram @mishaelhaynes and on Facebook at Mishael Haynes or on his website at https://www.chattelabode.com/