Mim Paquin (MaryAnne Leslie Paquin) - was born on January 24, 1974, in the fishing town of New Bedford Massachusetts to Pierre A. Paquin, a high school languages [French, Latin, Spanish, Portuguese] Teacher, Classical orchestral audio engineer, and Radio announcer, and to Leslie Jane Nekuda, B.A. in Political Science, trained classical singer & actress, and mother of five. Mim is from a large middle class, academic and artistic family. She has three older siblings, sisters Angela, Corinne and brother Andrew, and ten years younger sister, Bethany. The family lived near Sassaquin pond in the north end of New Bedford until, one by one, each of the older Paquin children left for college. Eventually Pierre & Leslie decided to retire to Cape Cod where they would raise Mim's younger sister.
Mim was 4 years old when she first performed onstage in the musical The King and I, a show that her parents co-directed and produced at the high school where her father taught, Fairhaven High School. Throughout elementary school Mim performed in many local theatrical productions and choirs. While in junior high school, 12 year old Mim auditioned for the New Bedford High School production of Annie. After auditioning against over 250 kids, Mim won the title role "Annie". In that production she shared the stage with her older sisters Angela, as "Miss Hannigan" and Corinne as "Lily St. Regis". The production went on to win the 1987 Moss Hart Award as presented to Mim and her sisters by Kitty Carlisle Hart. Mim went on to attend New Bedford High School (student population of over 3,200) where she performed leading roles and solos in a great number of theater productions, choral concerts and vocal competitions. During her time there, the high school drama club won two more Moss Hart Awards, and choruses won first-place in the North American Music Conferences. Mim went on to earn a reputation as being the best of the best, when she auditioned for a jury of her peers and educators and won the one soprano solo at Massachusetts All-State Music festival. During this time Mim began to teach herself how to play piano and guitar.
Always encouraged to use her creative mind, Mim was hired by her father to produce four, hour-long classical music programs for Cape Cod Classical radio station WFCC. There she used her knowledge of classical music, audio-editing, along with her writing and voiceover talent on various local commercials. She and her father won first place Massachusetts Broadcasters Award for their station commercial I.D., and Mim's programs received 4th place Honorable Mentions. Mim received scholarship offers to a number of colleges in New England, but had to work full-time after high school saving her money in order to afford to attend college. In 1993, Mim auditioned for, won a full-scholarship to, and attended The Boston Conservatory, where she majored in Musical Theater. She dropped out after freshman year due to financial struggles.
Mim worked various corporate jobs supporting herself and paying for her artistic training. She lived with her grandmother Eileen (O'Malley) Nekuda, in the town of Clinton, MA while working full time and studying acting with Michael Shurtleff and Andrea Southwick. She also traveled extensively and in 1996 eventually found her way to Ireland to explore the country and visit with friends. While there Mim was given a job offer as a production assistant for a documentary being shot by the production team that produced the award winning documentary The Dying Rooms. She returned to the U.S., quit her job to consider the offer seriously, she decided instead to move back to Boston and focus on gaining professional experience and training.
While in Boston, Mim began working full-time in various corporate jobs, software and tech, investment banks, colleges and pharmaceutical start-ups. It was during that time she Mim was hired as a songwriter and writer by The Rendon Group. Mim wrote the music, lyrics and video plays, as well as, produced both the music and accompanying videos for FOX New England program Think Twice, It's Your Life. The program featured 3 video segments, 2 of which were Mim's: "I Don't Have to Say Goodbye" (featuring sister Corinne as the lead) and "The Child".
Mim moved to New York City in 1999 to pursue acting. Upon moving, Mim reconnected with a life-long friend and performer who was casting an off-off Broadway production the Neil Simon stage play: The Odd Couple (female version). Mim was cast as the supporting character, "Mickey the Cop," a performance for which Backstage, NY described her as an actress with "noteworthy comedic turns, with a heart of gold." Mim also scored music for the show that played throughout scene changes. She remained in New York and went on to perform in several original stage plays, directed and choreographed musicals, and continued to write and compose music. In order to make ends meet, Mim found herself working full-time in marketing as web developer, project manager, and marketing communications, all while simultaneously pursuing artistic endeavors e.g. managed her own original 5 piece soul-rock band Neeto, for which she wrote all of the music and produced 2 full-length albums; became Music Director for a church children's choir; worked as Music Supervisor and consultant with Pale Moon Productions. In 2004, she composed and produced the score for film-short The Observer which was part of the Nantucket Film Festival. -A score which Mark Hamill aka "Luke Skywalker" heard while waiting in his agent's waiting room (the same agent as the film's writer/director) while The Observer was being played on a loop. Mark said the score was "awesome!" In 2005, Mim went on to self-produce and engineer her first full-length solo-album "Uprooted".
In 2006, Paquin had the desire to further develop her classical singing voice and went on to study operatic repertoire & vocal pedagogy with Ms. Christina Henson, and coached with the ghost of Hollywood herself, Marni Nixon who described Mim as "not just a vocalist, but an artist." She also studied briefly with assistant MET conductor "maestro bandito" Gregory Buchalter.
Mim officially left the corporate world in 2007, and by that time she had established her reputation as a dynamic stage and voice over actress, a versatile singer, songwriter and composer. For the past 7 years Mim supported herself by working as a professional classical and R&B soloist performing with symphony orchestras and choruses in New York, and New England. Mim is described by the senior editor of Opera News as a "brilliant soprano!", she also became a coach for singers, actors and voiceover artists of all ages--from hobbyists to professionals.
As a way of giving back, Mim is known for volunteering her time and expertise as a: marketing & brand strategist, graphic designer, web developer, writer and audio-engineer. She can be found assisting and helping to establish various local non-profit artistic organizations, whose mission are to contribute culturally and spiritually to their communities and the world. She also volunteers as a consultant to individual artists, who show a dedication and desire to make the world a better place through their art.
In summer of 2013, Mim found herself working as the Senior Director of Brand Strategy & Creative for a film production company where she used her years of corporate experience and expertise, along with her film production experience where she hands-on developed the company brand, [logo, image design & development, mission statement, voice, online media presence.]
On the first day of fall 2013, her grandmother Eileen passed away. Mim describes this moment as "pivotal", because it inspired her to begin screenplays. Soon after, she made the decision to start a family-run film production company, Frogcatcher Films, with a mission to produce: live action, adventure-filled, family focused films. In 2014, Mim co-established Frogcatcher Films with her husband Jason Robinette. Mim still performs, and she works & lives in New York with her husband Jason and their son Zephyr Thomas Robinette.
