Maxine Linehan (born July 9) was raised in Cork, Ireland (pronounced Kahrk for the uninitiated). She led a parochial life, like so many a lass before her, guided by a traditional family, a convent education and that staunchest of Irish institutions, the Church. She found early and lasting pleasure in the discipline of ballet, and became an accomplished dancer by a young age. Having had her first taste of the performance arts, she rapidly devoured other forms of the same, such as jazz and tap, choir and theater. Having a voice to match her dancing talent, and not happy with the requisite eating disorder in the world of dance, she quickly became interested in the expanded talent which musical theater required.

After starring in her first professional production at 17, The Sound of Music for the Irish Operatic Repertory Company, she went on to such other notable roles as Polly in Crazy for You, Nancy in Oliver and an award-winning portrayal of Sr Mary Leo in the Irish National Tour of Nunsense. Ms Linehan now found herself nearing adulthood and the inevitable departure from fancy that journey is thought to encapsulate. Encouraged by all around her to get a “real job”, and being an excellent student, she applied herself in university, then again in law school, successfully passing the London Bar exam on her first attempt.

Maxine went on to become the president of the US office of a major television marketing company which brought her eventually to New York City. A plusher role she had yet known, and what with a high-falutin' corporate apartment and salary to match, she very quickly developed a love for the most obscenely-heeled shoes imaginable. Being thus well-heeled, she lived the high life in New York City some years before realizing that the hollowness that threatened to consume her stemmed from the cessation some years earlier of pursuing her one true love: the theater. Throwing caution and hefty paycheck to the wind, she labored arduously to obtain the elusive greencard and remain in New York . And so it was time as a performer to pay her dues in the service industry and begin in earnest to satisfy her calling in the performance arts.

In 2006, Maxine made her New York cabaret debut at Helen’s with her autobiographical show, So Far..., which wove the tale of an Irish girl determined to make her way in NYC against all odds. The hilarious and poignant show received a 2007 MAC Award nomination. Again in 2007, Ms Linehan launched the alloy theater company (alloytheater.org), a not-for-profit theater company which seeks to present new works and exciting revivals for the New York audience.

In 2008 Maxine starred in the cult Andrew Lloyd Webber one-woman musical Tell Me on a Sunday. The revival ran to critical acclaim at The Laurie Beechman Theater on 42nd Street.

In 2009 Maxine led an original American cast in the première of The Mushroom Pickers by Irish playwright Jacqueline McCarrick. The Irish Voice described Maxine's performance as "never less than pitch perfect" and predicted that she would be "a major star of the theater".

Maxine is currently the Artistic and Executive Director for the alloy theater company and is recording her first album, What Would Petula Do? at Tainted Blue Studios.

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