Michelle Candela

Michelle Candela, a Transgender Actress was born Michelle Luisa Walsh. Her parents are Patrick V. Walsh, an Advertising Award Winning Television Commercial Director/Producer and Elaine M. Schultz-Walsh, First, a Kindergarten Teacher, then a Registered Dietitian. Her parents divorced when she was four and she moved to various places in the United States with her Mother including the states of: New Jersey, Arizona, and Washington. She spent her summers in New York City with her father and stepmother Judie Stone. She lived in three states before the age of six. At age two she knew she was different. But wasn't completely aware until she was thirteen. She has attempted twice in her life to transition, but it wasn't until she was forty-six that she permanently began HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy)

She changed her name to Candela, due to an HIV nurse she admired for her kindness and influence during the AIDS epidemic at Cabrini Medical Center in New York, where she worked as a medical library assistant. She went to High School in Walla Walla, Washington and moved back to New York when she was twenty; studying at HB Studios. Two years later, she left acting and studied art at School of Visual Arts and went into the Animation Industry. When she returned to acting, she studied with Jeff Corey in Los Angeles, She also is a writer and comedian. Wrote one screenplay and has other projects in the works.