Mihkel Raud began his career as a child actor. In 1981, he played the role of Tõnn in the Helle Murdmaa-directed musical-family feature film Nukitsamees, based on the 1920 children's story of the same name by Oskar Luts. The same year, he appeared as Riho in the Raivo Trass-directed television film Keskpäev, based on the 1972 trilogy Lugu lendavate taldrikutega penned by his father.[4]
In addition to his interest in literature and music, Raud was a member in 2015, of the Cultural Affairs Committee and European Union Affairs Committee of Riigikogu, the Estonian parliament.[5][6] On 7 June 2016, Raud announced that he would leave politics and focus on his TV3 talkshow.[5] Raud was also host of the Estonian TV show Seitse Vaprat aired on Eesti Televisioon, the local weekly talk show on TV3,[3] a contributor to the local radio industry and member of the Board of the Estonian Public Broadcasting.[7][3] Recently, he has been member of the jury of Eesti otsib superstaari, a local version of Pop Idol.[8][9]
During his career, Raud published How To Build A Music Web Site That Sells in 2003 and later in 2008, an autobiography titled Musta pori näkku (Black Dirt in Your Face).[2] Then, in 2010, he wrote a novel titled Sinine on sinu taevas (Blue is Your Sky).[10] Later in 2012, Raud wrote a stage play titled American Monkey performed worldwide including in the United States, Finland and Russia.[11][12]
Raud is best known in Estonia as a musician who played as a guitarist, a singer-songwriter in several local bands including Golem, Metallist, Ba-Bach, Singer Vinger,[13] Mr. Lawrence,[14] and Lenna.[15] In 2002, he produced a medieval Black Sabbath tribute album Sabbatum, a collection of classic Sabbath tracks performed in Latin by medieval music band Rondellus.[16]
