Education/Training
2015-2019
University of South Carolina,
B.A. in History and Theatre,
Summa Cum Laude
Go Gamecocks! At (the real) USC, I double-majored in Theatre and History. From my History degree, I received a wide ranging knowledge of the history of the world and its peoples, and took many classes focusing on the ancient Mediterranean world as well as medieval and Early Modern Europe. My B.A. in Theatre helped form me into a well-rounded theatre artist, both in terms of performing and in technical aspects. Most of all, my college experience (in the classroom and out of it) was very important in my development as a human being, and for that I will always be grateful to my alma mater and the people I met there.
2018
Shakespeare and Company,
Summer Training Institute
This four week training intensive in the Berkshires with Shakespeare and Company's world-renowned training program was transformative for me as an actor. I had always loved Shakespeare, and Shakes and Co allowed me to truly immerse myself in that work. Through the intensive, I began my journey of allowing myself to be my most vulnerable, truest self onstage, which I believe applies not just to classical text, but to performing as a whole. I was blessed to get to work with wonderful people such as Tina Packer and the late Dennis Krausnick, whom I still count as a mentor and friend.
2018
American Shakespeare Center, Weekend Workshops
My junior year, I took a Shakespeare class from one of my acting professors and mentors, Sarah Barker, that she taught every year through South Carolina's Honors College. Part of the class is taking a weekend trip up to Staunton, Virginia's Blackfriars Playhouse at the American Shakespeare Center. While there, we watched the shows of their annual "Actor's Renaissance" season, in which the same company of actors employ Original Practices to perform five shows in Rep at once. Aside from the amazing theatre we watched, we also got some acting/text workshops from the likes of Ralph Cohen, co-founder of the ASC.
2019-2020
Kelley Hinman,
Film Acting Coaching
After college, I took some workshops and one-on-one coaching sessions with another mentor of mine, Kelley Hinman, who has spent decades in the industry and has an extensive film acting resume. Along with film acting classes I took in school, Kelley helped me refine my craft further such that I feel confident in my skills whether on the stage or in front of a camera.
About Me
Ever since I was three years old, I have been a diehard South Carolina Gamecock football fan (a life experience not for the faint of heart). I ended up attending the University of South Carolina, not because of my football fandom, but because (along with having programs I liked) it just felt like home.
Double-majoring in History was a perfect complement to my theatrical passions. In college I found myself constantly drawing on my history classes' discussions for rehearsals and acting class. More importantly, studying the history of humanity has helped me grow into constantly becoming a more well-rounded citizen of the world. It has taught me to appreciate and revel in diversity in all its forms, and made me truly recognize and grapple with my own white/cis/straight/male privilege. I aim to always continue this lifelong process of learning, in order to live an informed life of striving for justice for everyone, and fighting systemic oppression in any way I can.
In the four years since college, I've been living and working in Asheville, North Carolina, where I spent half my childhood, but the town has become a home for me as an adult in a way that I never felt it was when I was growing up.
I found that sense of home largely because in (very early) 2020, I started working part time at the Funkatorium, which is one of the tasting room locations for a local brewery, Wicked Weed Brewing. It was my first food/bev job, so I started at the lowest front of house position, and just learned all I could about the industry. Within a year and a half, I was promoted to bartending, and I also lead Tours of the brewery once a week. I've learned so much about beer, brewing, and making cocktails, but through this job I have also increased my people skills and ability to work quickly under the "pressure" of a busy bar. These are skills I didn't even know I needed until I learned them, but I cannot imagine life without them now. Coincidentally, I also think they apply to acting: I feel much more cool, calm, and confident onstage after I've been bartending for a year than I ever did before.
I believe in storytelling in all its forms. I have a special passion for the words of Shakespeare. This is because telling those specific stories with those specific words--that have remained culturally relevant for hundreds of years--gets me in touch with an almost primal state of human nature that can only be unlocked by outlets like storytelling and music. To me, that means multiple people coming together (audience and performers alike), and becoming something larger than the self through the shared experience of allowing ourselves to feel and think, together. Through this experience, I believe we as humans come to understand ourselves and each other better, which can help bring about positive change in the world. Shakespeare, for me, does an especially good job of unlocking that primal state, but it can be found in all kinds of storytelling all over the world, onstage and on the screen. My dream and mission as a performer is to experience as many of those forms as possible, in order to allow opportunities for as many people as possible to feel, together, and make the world a place where we can all live as our most joy-filled, truest selves.
I'm currently living in downtown Asheville, but I have family in Charlotte, Charleston, Savannah, and Atlanta, so I will always have places to stay there and count myself available for local work in any of those cities. I live with my girlfriend and our two year old lab/pit mix puppy named Callie J (short for Calamity Jane, which is, if we do say so ourselves, a quite apt name).