Umai Shantharajah is an American-born artist who grew up in Canberra, Australia. With a deep-seated passion for music, Umai spent her formative years singing and playing the piano and trumpet. Today, she writes and produces her own music.
Umai’s journey in the performing arts began in her late teens, leading her to Actors Centre Australia, There, she played the title role of the Young Woman in Machinal, as well as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Mariya in Uncle Vanya, Madame de Rosemonde in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Dabby Byrant and Captain Watkin Tench in Our Country’s Good, Olga and Father in Fireface, Agata in Simmer, and Rosalind in As You Like It.
In addition to acting, Umai has a passion for writing and contributed to ACA’s inaugural writer’s group show, No Feedback, Please, where she both wrote and performed. At ACA, she honed her musical skills by playing piano and trumpet for various productions and took the lead in creating and teaching vocal arrangements to ensembles for several shows.
Passionate about education, Umai has assisted in teaching the Accessible Acting Program at ACA and aspires to teach both music and acting while continuing her work as an actor in the industry.
