Benjamin Scott Maio Mackay (born 9 September 1999) is an Australian actor, director, writer, comedian, podcaster and musician. He is the artistic director of Preachrs Podcast OnLine & OnStage and hosts the entertainment podcast Benjamin Maio Mackay's Talk 2 Me!

Career

Mackay is the founder and artistic director of Preachrs Podcast OnLine & OnStage; a production company that specialises in producing innovative digital and theatrical content. Preachrs Podcast started as a

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

podcast, which was successful and lead to Benjamin working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The podcast turned into 4 live touring shows, produced, directed, written by and starring Benjamin. The shows were well received by audiences and critics alike. The shows toured

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The live shows also featured comedian Rob Lloyd. Mackay went on to produce, adapt, direct and perform in the world premiere of

Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Live ''Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Live'' is an Australian Comedy-Mystery radio show that debuted in 2015. The original production was performed in the Adelaide Fringe Festival 2015 and premiered at the Capri Theatre. The show was set in th ...

. The show opened in the Adelaide Fringe 2015. A revised version of the show began its Australian tour Australia in 2016 to 5 star reviews. The tour will again star, be directed, produced and adapted by Benjamin. The tour has played Sydney, Adelaide, Mount Gambier and is returned to Adelaide in the 2017 Adelaide Fringe for Adelaide Oval. Benjamin was nominated for "Best Actor in a Play," "Best Director of a Play" for his work on Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Live. The show was also nominated for "Best Play" in the 2016 Broadway World Sydney Theatre Awards. The show is reportedly finishing its tour after the Adelaide return season in early 2017. His podcast, Benjamin Maio Mackay's Talk 2 Me! is an entertainment chat show and has featured a wide range of celebrities. The podcast has a large following and also reviews films, theatre and DVDs on the podcast. The podcast has featured Zoë Wanamaker,

David Yates David Yates (born 8 October 1963) is an English film director, producer and screenwriter, who has directed feature films, short films, and television productions. He is best known for directing the final four films in the Harry Potter (film se ...

, Harry Lloyd, Arthur Darvill,

Midge Ure James Ure (born 10 October 1953) is a Scottish musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. His stage name, Midge, is a phonetic reversal of Jim, the diminutive form of his actual name. Ure enjoyed particular success in the 1970s and 1980s ...

, Clive Standen, Kourtney Hansen, David Stratton, Vincent Rodriguez III, Brandon Victor Dixon, Anthony Rapp, Greg Grunberg, Claudia Wells, Enver Gjokaj, Ian Bohen, Natalia Tena, Will Smith (comedian),

Stephen Hall (actor) Stephen Hall (born 17 May 1969) is an Australian actor, writer and producer. Career Television Hall's career in television includes acting, writing and production duties. He was the host of Under Melbourne Tonight, a weekly live variety hour t ...

, Brian Krause, Jason Watkins (actor), Mark Collie, James Marshall (actor), Hudson Leick, Cody Christian,

Steven Williams Steven Williams (born January 7, 1949) is an American actor in films and television. He is known for his roles as Captain Adam Fuller on ''21 Jump Street'', Lt. Jefferson Burnett on '' The Equalizer'', Det. August Brooks on '' L.A. Heat'', X on ...

, Wil Travel, Kevin Brown (actor), Hugh Fraser (actor), Rob Mills, Daran Norris, Phil Davis (actor), Adam Hills, Jerome Flynn and many more. In 2015 Preachrs Podcast OnLine & OnStage alongside

Matthew Reilly Matthew John Reilly (born 2 July 1974) is an internationally bestselling Australian action thriller writer.
". Retrieved 10 ...

announced an audio drama adaptation of Reilly's best-selling novel Ice Station. A live version, directed, adapted and produced by Maio Mackay was performed in 2016. "Matthew Reilly’s Ice Station Live" was performed in the Adelaide Fringe Festival 2016 and the live show piloted the first 3 episodes of the audio drama. Four cast members, including Maio Mackay appeared at Supanova Pop Culture convention to promote the project. It was well received by audiences and critics. It played 17 sold-out shows, but was ultimately not picked up for series. Benjamin has worked extensively in theatre and musicals outside of his company, performing in more than 30 musicals and more than 50 plays. He is a trained pianist, singer and voice over artist. Benjamin between 2016 and 2018 produced an audio drama version of the Australian series

The Phoenix Files The Phoenix Files is a young adult science fiction adventure series written by Australian author Chris Morphew. The series consists of six books: ''Arrival'', ''Contact'', ''Mutation'', ''Underground'', ''Fallout'' and ''Doomsday'', the latest ...

. He announced the project in conjunction with the author

Chris Morphew Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian (given name), Christian, Christina (given name), Christina, Christine (name), Christine, and Christos (given name), Christos. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, ...

in 2017. All 3, 3-hour instalments were released to audience and critical acclaim. A soundtrack album with an original score composed by Sean Braithwaite followed in late 2018. Maio Mackay produced, directed adapted and performed in the series. Paul McGann, Stephen Mahy, Kurt Phelan and Andrew Hansen starred alongside frequent Maio Mackay calibrators Jennifer Barry and Julia Sciacca. John Jarratt was cast and starred in the first two instalments, but was removed from the project as of August 26, 2018 following assault charges. He was replaced by

Ben Sorensen Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett or Benson, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben (in he, בֶּן, ''son of'') forms part of Hebrew surnames, e.g. Abraham ben Abraham ( he, � ...

in the final instalment. Benjamin directed the professional premiere of Anne of Green Gables: The Musical in December 2018, starring West End performers Adrian Barnes and Deborah Caddy. Maio Mackay in 2019 traveled to Fringe World to work for several weeks, before returning to Adelaide for the Adelaide Fringe Festival. He directed and produced the original show Great Detectives 2!, a sequel to Great Detectives, the show received critical acclaim. He is also set to appear in a number of other shows across the 2019 Adelaide Fringe Festival, including a co-producing project with Radio personality

. Across the 2019 Adelaide Fringe Festival he performed in a record 55 shows.

Personal life

Mackay is an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

. He is

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

and has discussed his sexuality both in diversity panels and on an episode of his podcast with Maria Lewis. He has acknowledged the lack of bisexual representation is mainstream media and is a supporter of Stephanie Beatriz's

Brooklyn Nine-Nine ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine'' is an American police procedural comedy television series that aired on Fox, and later on NBC. The show aired from September 17, 2013, to September 16, 2021, for a total of eight seasons and 153 episodes. Created by Dan G ...

character, as well as the positive representation on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

Selected theatrical highlights

* '' Peter Pan'' (2011, Actor) * '' Shakespeare for Kids By Kids'' (2011, Actor) * '' Seussical'' (2011, Actor) * ''

Oliver! ''Oliver!'' is a coming-of-age stage musical, with book, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the 1838 novel '' Oliver Twist'' by Charles Dickens. It premiered at the Wimbledon Theatre, southwest London in 1960 before op ...

'' (2011, Actor) * '' 100 Lunches'' (2011, Actor) * ''

All My Sons ''All My Sons'' is a three-act play written in 1946 by Arthur Miller. It opened on Broadway at the Coronet Theatre in New York City on January 29, 1947, closed on November 8, 1949, and ran for 328 performances. It was directed by Elia Kazan (t ...

'' (2012, Actor) * '' 13! A New Musical'' (2012, Actor) * '' The Not 24hr Show '' (2012, Actor) * ''50 Years of Doctor Who: Preachrs Podcast Live!'' (2013, Actor, Writer, Director, Producer) * ''50 Years of Doctor Who: Preachrs Podcast Live 1.5!'' (2013, Actor, Writer, Director, Producer) * '' Celebrating 50 Years of Dr Who.'' (2013, Actor, Host, Writer) * ''50 Years of Doctor Who: Preachrs Podcast Live 2!'' (2014, Actor, Writer, Director, Producer) * ''50 Years of Doctor Who: Preachrs Podcast Live @ Comic Con!'' (2014, Actor, Writer, Director, Producer) * ''

'' (2015, Actor, Adapter, Director, Producer) * '' The Cripple of Inishmaan'' (2015, Actor) * '' Matthew Reilly's Ice Station Live'' (2016, Actor, Adapter, Director, Producer) * ''

'' (2016/2017/2018 Tour, Actor, Adapter, Director, Producer) * '' Anne of Green Gables: The Musical'' (2018, Director) * '' Great Detectives 2!'' (2019, Director, Producer, Adapter, Actor) * ''Sex and the Musical'' (2019, Actor) * '' Late Night Panel Show'' (2019, Guest Comedian) * ''Gameshow of Thrones'' (2019, Guest Comedian) * ''#BunnyPastards - Hardly Trivial Trivia'' (2019, Comedian, co-director, Co-Producer, Co-Writer) * ''Tales of Adventure'' (2019, Guest Improviser) * ''Hutt St Centre Charity Variety Hour'' (2019, Host)

References

External links

*
Benjamin's ABC Host Profile from 2013
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackay, Benjamin Maio 1999 births Living people Male actors from Adelaide Writers from Adelaide Australian radio writers Australian theatre directors Australian producers Australian podcasters