Fatherhood has made Michael Lee a better man. The Founder and CEO of Hustle & Bustle (H&B), the homegrown edutainment company behind award-winning multi-experiential art exhibitions such as “Dale Chihuly: Glass In Bloom” (2021) and “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience” (2023), has two daughters—seven-year-old Aerin and five-year-old Aria.
The cover personality for a+ June 2025 smiles at the mention of his “AA baby batteries” (according to his post on Instagram): “It’s made me more patient with the people I work with. I started to ask, how would I want my child to be treated? How I treat others is how I want my kids to be treated. That’s the biggest change in me before and after becoming a dad.”
Aside from expounding on his upcoming projects—H&B’s Imba (Immersive Media Based Arts) Theatre opens in December at Gardens by the Bay—we also got him to share about his parenting style.
Between discipline and indulgence, he readily veers towards the latter. We hear an almost sheepish chuckle before he explains, “Last night, Aerin wanted to sleep with us. For my wife, it was a big ‘No’, but she persisted. When I saw that she was about to cry, I caved. My wife ended up having to sleep in the kids’ room!”
But this former mathematics teacher insists he doesn’t pamper the girls. Resilience is a value he makes an effort to impart because he wants them to understand that life comes with its own challenges. “They need to grow up being able to embrace failure and learn to overcome it when it happens,” Lee says.
With Father’s Day 2025 coming around on 15 June, we decided to get Aerin to interview her dad.
Daddy, what do you do for work?
Make a guess.
Paint! You painted the floor again and again. Because it rained, you painted it again!
[Laughs] That’s a funny guess. No, that was an artist we invited to paint a mural on the floor of our new Imba theatre, not me! What else?
Help to paint?
Hmm… not really, no.
What are you doing when you’re not with me?
Working hard. What do you think Daddy is doing when he’s not with you?
Working… painting the floor at Gardens by the Bay? I think of you every day when I’m in school. I wish I could stay home forever and never go to school!
[Laughs] I miss you too when I’m at work.
Daddy, what are your strengths?
You tell me.
Smart.
Can you think of two more?
Writing, and drawing.
[Laughs] Okay, I’ll take that.
Now, find out what Hustle & Bustle really does here.
Photography Wee Khim
Styling Chia Wei Choong
Hair Aung Apichai, using Tom Ford Beauty & Kevin.Murphy
Styling assistant Annalisa Lim
Photography assistant Ivan Teo
