Live action hero

Michael Cassel has always been one step ahead of the pack. At 12 he wrote to the promoter Harry M Miller asking for a job; at 15 he put on his first public event – Carols by Candlelight in Kiama Quarry; and at 16 an impressed Alan Jones introduced him to Miller, the radio personality’s manager, who employed him while still at school. At 17, he had his own office and contract with the local government authority, and then at 33 he started his own management company, the Michael Cassel Group, with just two people (now it has 31 employees).

More recently, he was one of the first people in Australia to contract Covid-19. While he was fortunate to be able to isolate at home, he struggled with the lethargy and after-effects and had to make the difficult decision to halt business, with his overseas operations in the eye of the pandemic.

“We are early adopters! We had an exceptional end to 2019, and then Covid started,” says Cassel. “We had rounded off our opening of The Lion King in five new countries – the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea and Taiwan, Harry Potter had opened in Melbourne [second after