Michelle Meyrink (born September 1, 1962) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

teacher and former actress.

Early life

Meyrink was born on September 1, 1962 in

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, Canada, and began acting at an early age.

Acting career

She performed roles during the 1980s in both television and in

feature films A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

, mostly playing roles as offbeat teen girls. She appeared in many

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

films, including 1983's ''

Valley Girl A valley girl is a socioeconomic, linguistic, and youth subcultural stereotype and stock character originating during the 1980s: any materialistic upper-middle-class young woman, associated with unique vocal and California dialect features, fr ...

'' as Suzi Brent and '' The Outsiders'' as Cherry Valance's best friend, Marcia. In 1984, she guest-starred on the television show ''

Family Ties ''Family Ties'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on NBC for seven seasons, premiering on September 22, 1982, and concluding on May 14, 1989. The series, created by Gary David Goldberg, reflected the move in the United States f ...

'' as Mallory's friend (and neighbor Skippy's latest infatuation). She is best remembered as the female

nerd A nerd is a person seen as overly intellectual, obsessive, introverted or lacking social skills. Such a person may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, little known, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly tec ...

Judy in the 1984 comedy ''

Revenge of the Nerds ''Revenge of the Nerds'' is a 1984 American comedy film directed by Jeff Kanew and starring Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards, Ted McGinley, and Bernie Casey. The film's plot chronicles a group of nerds at the fictional Adams College trying ...

'' and as the

hyperactive Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inapp ...

whiz-kid Jordan Cochran in

Martha Coolidge Martha Coolidge (born August 17, 1946) is an American film director and former President of the Directors Guild of America. She has directed such films as ''Valley Girl'', ''Real Genius'' and '' Rambling Rose''. Early life Coolidge was born in N ...

's 1985 film ''

Real Genius ''Real Genius'' is a 1985 American comic science fiction film directed by Martha Coolidge and written by Neal Israel, Pat Proft, and PJ Torokvei. Starring Val Kilmer and Gabriel Jarret, the film, set on the campus of Pacific Tech, a science ...

''. Her last

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

role was in the 1988 film '' Permanent Record.''

Post-acting

Meyrink gave up acting as a career in 1989, stating she wanted more out of life than the profession was offering. During this transition period she became interested in the practice of

Zen Buddhism Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

. She moved for a time to the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

to be near family members living there. Meyrink later returned to her hometown of Vancouver, where in 1996 she met her future husband John Dumbrille at the Zen Centre of Vancouver. Following their wedding, she and John began raising a family of three children. Meyrink and Dumbrille currently live in Vancouver. Her family was the subject of a 2004 episode of the Canadian television series ''Quiet Mind'' which focused on their embrace and practice of Zen Buddhism. In 2013 Meyrink started her own acting school named Actorium in Vancouver. It is modeled, in part, after the Loft Studio, which she attended with other Hollywood actors while she worked in Los Angeles.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Meyrink, Michelle 1962 births 20th-century Canadian actresses Living people Canadian film actresses Actresses from Vancouver Canadian Zen Buddhists