Macshane didn't overcome his ADHD. He weaponised it. Over a decade behind the microphone, he has turned the very thing that made him feel lost into a creative superpower that fills rooms, changes minds, and gives others permission to do the same.
Stian Macshane, known professionally as Macshane, is a Perth-based freestyle rapper, comedian, educator, TEDx speaker, and one of Australia's most dynamic and in-demand performers. Raised in a household where his musician father filled every room with sound and his mother sharpened the wit of everyone around her, Stian grew up understanding instinctively that creativity and connection were not separate things. He began with guitar, drums, bass, and music production, formed original bands as a teenager, and eventually found his true calling behind a microphone, where freestyle rap became not just a skill but a philosophy.
His performance career reads like someone who has never been able to sit still, in the best possible way. Over more than a decade, Macshane has performed at Perth FRINGE WORLD, Adelaide Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, and Northern Bass in New Zealand, earning a reputation for lightning-fast improvisation, razor-sharp wit, and a genuinely rare ability to turn any audience suggestion into a seamless, hilarious, musically compelling verse on the spot. He has collaborated with DJs and live musicians across hip-hop, drum and bass, dubstep, jazz, and electronic music, and built a Spotify catalogue surpassing 2 million plays. His original music earned him the WAM Award for Best Hip Hop Song in 2017, and his MCing has taken him on international tours alongside some of the world's most recognisable acts.
On radio, he became a regular guest on Hit 92.9FM, earning the title of Resident Rapper, and has appeared on ABC Perth, 96FM, and Triple M Breakfast Perth. His comedy show Attention Deficit Rap Disorder earned a 4.5-star review at Adelaide Fringe, blending razor-sharp freestyling with improvised comedy into a format that showcases both his lyrical prowess and his comedic timing in equal measure. Whose Rhyme, the wildly interactive freestyle game show he co-created with comedian Daniel Delby, has captivated audiences across Australia and internationally since its 2021 debut, including corporate bookings on mine sites and major event stages.
In 2022, Macshane delivered a TEDx Talk at UWA titled "Channelling ADHD as a superpower through the infinite creativity of rap," sharing his personal journey with Attention Deficit Disorder with characteristic openness and humour. For most of his life he had felt perpetually lost, not understanding why his brain worked differently. The moment he chose to embrace his neurodivergence rather than fight it, everything changed. He found his flow state, a zone of heightened creativity and focus that sits at the heart of freestyle rap, and recognised that the very traits the world had told him were liabilities were actually the engine behind his ability to improvise, connect, and perform. He has since fundraised for ADHD WA, become a genuine spokesperson and community ambassador for the organisation, and built an active partnership with My Spirited Child, a community dedicated to supporting neurodivergent children and families in identifying and nurturing the unique gifts that come with a spirited mind.
That advocacy sits at the centre of his educational work, which is among the most distinctive mentoring offerings on the Mentor Academy platform. Macshane delivers tailored incursions and workshops across schools, corporate teams, and community groups, using freestyle rap as a vehicle for building confidence, focus, resilience, creative thinking, and self-expression. At Hale School in Perth he has worked with classes of over 200 students, using the structure and rhythm of rap to help neurodivergent kids find focus and flow in ways traditional classroom formats rarely achieve. His workshop approach reframes the school poetry curriculum entirely, repositioning rap as the living, breathing, contemporary form of the poetic tradition and giving students a way into language, rhythm, and self-expression that actually meets them where they are. Students walk away not just with knowledge of rhyme schemes, but with greater confidence, a clearer sense of their own voice, and in many cases a newfound understanding of their own creative gifts.
Teachers, school leaders, and corporate clients alike have described his sessions as transformative, noting his ability to listen to a brief, read a room, and deliver something that feels genuinely personal to the people in it. The same skills that make him an extraordinary performer, quick thinking, deep listening, cultural adaptability, and the ability to make anyone feel included in the creative process, make him an equally extraordinary educator and mentor. Macshane is proof that a creative career built on an unconventional foundation, neurodivergence, improvisation, comedy, and an obsessive love of rap, can be both deeply purposeful and commercially sustainable.