Mercedes (“Mouse”) Bahleda is a New York–born actor and theatre-maker based in London.

Her recent stage work includes Patrick Marber’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, a London production nominated for an Olivier Award. Her West End credits include The Lehman Trilogy (dir. Sam Mendes, Piccadilly Theatre) and The Glass Menagerie at the Duke of York’s Theatre (dir. Jeremy Herrin).

Screen credits include Eric (Netflix, dir. Lucy Forbes), Avenue 5 (HBO, dir. Armando Iannucci), The Son (Sony Pictures, dir. Florian Zeller), and Lockerbie (BBC/Netflix).

Mercedes is a founding member of the performance collective Black Lips, led by Mercury Prize recipient Anohni. After graduating from NYU, she joined the Bessie Award–winning Big Dance Theater, whose work from that period was later archived at Lincoln Center for its historical significance in contemporary performance.

Separately from her theatre work, Mercedes has released recorded music; in 2025 her catalogue surpassed 1.8 million streams on Spotify.

Between the ages of 24 and 41, she spent 17 years living in extended retreat across India, Ladakh, and the Chiricahua Mountains. That period now informs her work as lived experience, shaping performance concerned with authority, identity, and personal autonomy.

She holds a BFA with Honours from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and an MA from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.