Actor • Coach • Mentor
Michael Caruana
Founder and creative force behind bongo productions
For more than four decades, Michael Caruana has built a life in the arts as an actor, acting coach, mentor, and educator — helping performers discover not only how to act, but how to connect more deeply to themselves, their work, and the world around them.
A professional actor since 1978, Michael’s career has taken him from theatre stages to film sets to television screens across Canada and the United States. His credits include The Handmaid’s Tale, Murdoch Mysteries, Ghosts, Owning Mahowny, The Time Traveller’s Wife, Naked Lunch, Queer as Folk, The Santa Clause, Bone Daddy, Red, and Maggie and the Ferocious Beast, among many others.
Michael has also appeared in more than 100 Canadian and U.S. television commercials throughout his career, developing a deep understanding of the commercial industry from both sides of the camera. For many years, he worked as a director of television commercial auditions with some of the industry’s leading casting offices, including Powerhouse Casting, Jigsaw Casting, Gloria Mann Casting, Fade To Black Casting, and Bryan Levy Casting — experience that has given him rare insight into the audition process and what truly makes actors stand out.
Over the years, he has worked alongside celebrated artists including David Cronenberg, Harvey Keitel, Bruce Willis, Rachel McAdams, Tim Allen, Elizabeth Moss, Eric Bana, Morgan Freeman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Helen Mirren, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, John Hurt, Minnie Driver, Colm Feore, Tom McCamus, and Stephen Ouimette — experiences that have deepened his understanding of both the craft and the humanity required to sustain a creative life.
As a respected acting and dialect coach, Michael has also worked behind the scenes on major Canadian and U.S. productions, collaborating with acclaimed directors such as Catherine Hardwicke and Robert Schwentke, and with producers including Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment.
Beyond the industry, Michael has devoted more than twenty years to teaching and mentoring the next generation of artists. He is a longtime professor at Humber College’s School of Creative and Performing Arts, where he teaches Acting for Film & Television and Comedy. He has also taught at The Second City Training Centre and George Brown College.
At the heart of everything Michael does is bongo productions — a studio built on truth, courage, discipline, imagination, and compassion. His coaching is deeply personal and highly individualized, grounded in the belief that great acting is not about performance alone, but about honesty, vulnerability, presence, and connection.
Whether working with beginners discovering their voice or seasoned professionals refining their craft, Michael creates an environment where actors feel challenged, supported, inspired, and seen.
Because at bongo, the goal is never simply to become a better actor.
It’s to become a more open, fearless, expressive human being — on camera, on stage, and in life.
Gabriel Moreno
Administrator
Introducing our new Administrator!
Gabriel was a student at the Acting for Film & Television program at Humber Polytechnic, where he demonstrated and incredible passion for acting, writing, directing, and art in general.
We are happy to have him join us!