‘Water cooler viewing': Michelle Ang on the magic of McDonald's Young Entertainers

The Spinoff

16-05-2025

Actor, director and producer Michelle Ang looks back on her life in television.
Michelle Ang's career has taken her all the way from The Tribe to Top of the Lake to Star Wars: The Bad Batch, but it's her earliest TV role that many New Zealanders remember most fondly. Back in the late 90s, Michelle was one of the bright young troupe of all-singing, all-dancing stars on McDonald's Young Entertainers, who grapevined their way around New Zealand lounge rooms every Sunday night. Nearly three decades later, Ang is still approached by people who have a soft spot for the beloved light entertainment series.
'It's so funny because it was so long ago,' Ang laughs over Zoom, recalling a recent interaction with a fan at an Armageddon convention in Christchurch. 'Someone wanted a DVD set of Young Entertainers, and I was like, 'babes, I've got that on VHS at my parents' house'. I don't know if the quality would ever be good enough to burn onto DVD.'
Young Entertainers may well have been Ang's first on-screen experience, but it marked the beginning of an impressive career in television. As well as starring in New Zealand dramas like Outrageous Fortune, Vegas and My Life is Murder, Ang has an illustrious international acting resume, appearing in global hits like Grey's Anatomy, Fear the Walking Dead and The New Legends of Monkey. She was nominated for a Logie for her work in Neighbours, garnered an Emmy nomination for Fear the Walking Dead: Flight 462, and won a New Zealand Film and Television Award for her endearing performance in local film My Wedding and Other Secrets.
Ang's latest project brings her back to New Zealand screens with the return of romantic comedy Homebound 3.0. Ang plays Melissa, an Auckland dermatologist who decides to fake a romantic relationship as a way of stopping her matchmaking parents from interfering – only to fall in love with her fellow romance scammer Henry (Sam Wang). Season two promises more unpredictable hijinks, and Ang loves how Homebound offers a different take on New Zealand comedy.
'A lot of New Zealand comedy is understated and awkward, but I feel like there's something about Homebound that feels a little bit unusual for our local comedy tastes. We just don't pull back, we're encouraged to be deliciously ridiculous.'
Ang says it's rare to portray a character as fierce, free and complicated as Melissa, whose scheming and plotting goes up another level in season two. She also directed an episode this season, a challenge she relished despite also having to act in every scene. 'I loved it because as a co-lead, you internalise so much of the DNA of the show and you're aware of the kind of directing other actors thrive on,' she says. 'Working visually is something that I've always been quite drawn to, and not often had an opportunity to do.'
We relished the opportunity to sit down with Ang and look back on her life in television, including an early love of Fair Go, an unforgettable karaoke moment and the awkward time she accidentally hung out with her teenage TV crush.
My earliest TV memory is… I remember my mum and dad were both working, so I had to go to my babysitter's house after primary school. She would chain smoke and watch Days of Our Lives reruns. That's a pretty strong memory associated with the smell of indoor smoking.
The TV show I loved as a kid was… It's going to make my family sound funny, but we used to watch Fair Go together. That whole consumer rights thing was so helpful for our immigrant family, understanding the rights we had in New Zealand and how we were protected when things go bad. The hosts of Fair Go, like Kevin Milne, were big comfort figures.
My earliest TV crush was… I recently did a convention with the cast of Roswell. I was obsessed with that series. I was in Auckland Airport and thought, 'that looks like Jason Behr – but no, that's silly'. Then at the Christchurch Airport baggage claim, I realised, 'wait, that IS Jason Behr'. I was going down to be part of Armageddon, but I hadn't realised that the cast of Roswell was one of the key nostalgia guests for Armageddon. It was three days of being in very close proximity with them, but I was way too shy to introduce myself – even though we were in a group photo together and in a cocktail party together. That crush aspect was so overwhelming that I couldn't bring myself to say hi.
The TV ad I can't stop thinking about is… The Anchor butter ads. There were these beautiful little family tableaus with that gorgeous 'My Girl' theme song. It felt like we were part of their lives. You didn't feel like you were being sold butter.
My TV guilty pleasure is… Emily in Paris. It's a very Americanised version of France, but I love how frivolous and escapist it is, and the gorgeous fashion and the beautiful French accents even though everyone is speaking English.
My favourite TV moment is… I've loved every iota of Homebound 3.0. I've relished the gift of playing Melissa, who is so different from me. It was probably one of the scariest parts in season one when Melissa is doing her karaoke moment, because I'm way too scared to do karaoke sober. To do it as Melissa, in front of the crew, was so frightening and confronting, but the director and editor managed to make it into a moment that I really enjoyed watching on screen.
My favourite TV character of all time is… Natasha Lyonne's Charlie in Poker Face. She's similar to Melissa, with their own eccentricities about how they see themselves in the world. She's really, really fun. I love the messy characters.
My favourite TV project that I've been involved with is… Underemployed. It was an American series on MTV, I was the lead of the ensemble, and it was super important because I felt validated by an American industry that I'd been trying to get into for so long. We shot that in Chicago. I lived with my castmates, we bought bikes and biked to set and it was art imitating life, because it was about these young university graduates stepping into the world.
The show I loved and wished I was involved with is… The Studio. It's so whip smart, with great performances and so insightful about what the industry is really like. I think Seth Rogen's a genius.
My favourite memory from McDonald's Young Entertainers is… It was a real camp: every day after school we would practice, Saturday mornings was recording in the vocal booth and Tuesday nights was a live audience taping. The costume designer would say 'we're doing 'Blame it on the Boogie'' and they would turn out these 70s-inspired costumes for each of us and we'd have to learn the dance moves, learn our harmonies and record it, all in the space of a week. What a special time. It was water cooler viewing, because everyone would watch on Sundays. I think Young Entertainers was an early precursor to the Idol shows.
My most controversial TV opinion is… I love the choice that streaming gives, but I miss linear television. I miss when everyone saw the same episode of a show, and it would take up the conversation for the week. There's also something to be said about going outside our own comfort zones. You might watch something that you wouldn't naturally think would be entertaining or interesting, but you get to broaden your own opinions a bit.
The show I'll never watch, no matter how many people tell me to is… Married at First Sight. It's basically watching the undoing of something. You start off with goodness and watch the universe dissipate, as opposed to other dating shows, where it works up towards being a good feeling. I'm a bit tender-hearted to get enjoyment out of watching that unraveling.
The last show I watched on TV was… Adolescence. I knew I had to watch it, but holy moly. This is what happens when you put great writing in the hands of great direction, and really make acting the primary focus. There was not an untrue performance, and the technicality of it being a one shot makes that feat even more amazing. I would hate to be an extra that tripped on a cable in the background.