Australian Story - Leading Man: Michael Theo - Monday 30 September

Monday, 30 September, 8pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.

How Love on the Spectrum and Austin's Michael Theo found his voice and became a global star.

When Michael Theo was diagnosed with autism as a boy, his parents were told to set their expectations low for what he could achieve. Initially non-verbal, Michael developed an early fascination with animated film and TV and that helped him learn to talk. He would sit for hours reciting scripts, with a particular love for the villains, and he began to harbour an unlikely dream to become an actor. 

His teenage years were difficult. He was marginalised by his peers and developed terribly low self-esteem, referring to himself as a “double scoop of dog crap”.  

But everything changed in his mid-20s when his search for a girlfriend propelled him onto the TV series Love on the Spectrum. Audiences in Australia and around the world fell in love with the straight-talking romantic. Then a TV director came knocking to see whether Theo could act, and an unlikely dream became a reality.