Bess Kalb is an Emmy-nominated comedy writer and the bestselling author of “Nobody Will Tell You This But Me,” a New York Times Editor’s Choice. She wrote for eight years on Jimmy Kimmel Live. She also writes for The New Yorker's "Daily Shouts." She received a WGA Award in 2016. She has written for the Emmy Awards, the Oscars, and the 2020 DNC. She is the head writer and EP of Yearly Departed on Amazon Prime.

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Arian Moayed is an Iranian-born award-winning actor and

the co-founder of Waterwell, a civic-minded and

socially conscious non-profit art and education

company.

With Waterwell, recent productions include The

Flores Exhibits, a series of videos in which artists,

lawyers, advocates, and immigrants read the sworn

testimonies of children held in detention facilities at

the U.S./Mexico border (flores

exhibits.org), The Courtroom: a re-enactment of one

woman’s deportation proceedings, named "Best

Theater of 2019" by The New York Times, and a

dual-language Hamlet (Arian played the title role).

Waterwell also created Fleet Week Follies, an

annual festival of music, food, and kid-friendly

activities, free to military service members and their families.

At the Waterwell Education Program, over 250 students per year receive world-class arts

training and education in advocacy at the Professional Performing Arts School, all free of

charge. He has been a faculty member for nearly 15 years, currently teaching the Artist as

Citizen and Senior Capstone classes.

As a writer/director, Arian has created the Emmy-nominated thriller, The Accidental Wolf,

produced by Topic, starring Tony-winners Kelli O’Hara, Laurie Metcalf, Sahr Nguajah, and

many more. Current writing projects include 28 Mordad (upcoming), a film version of The

Courtroom (Archer Gray/Topic) and a film adaptation of The Man in Red. He is currently

writing an autobiography about his family’s immigration story.

Notable acting credits: Broadway's The Humans (Drama Desk Award), Bengal Tiger at the

Baghdad Zoo (Tony nomination), Guards at the Taj (Obie Award), Emmy-winning Succession

(HBO), and an upcoming Shonda Rhimes’ series, Inventing Anna (Netflix).

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TODD ALMOND is known for his singular songwriting in addition to his work as an accomplished performer. He recently toured the U.S. in his original musical Kansas City Choir Boy starring alongside rock icon Courtney Love, and starred in three of his original musicals at the famed Delacorte Theater in Central Park (The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, and The Odyssey). His musical Girlfriend – based on the Matthew Sweet album of the same title – is a perennial favorite for theater companies around the country, and he is currently collaborating with producer David Foster on a new, original musical. He has previously collaborated with Sarah Ruhl (Melancholy Play: A Chamber Musical), Jenny Schwartz (Iowa), Laura Benanti (In Constant Search for the Right Kind of Attention), Sherie Rene Scott and Norbert Leo Butz (“Twohander”), Kelli O’Hara (“Live at Carnegie Hall”), and Andrew Rannells (“Live from Lincoln Center”).

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ANDRÉA BURNS received an Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination for her portrayal of Gloria Fajardo in Broadway’s On Your Feet! She is a winner of a Drama Desk Award for her creation of the role of Daniela, the saucy hairdresser in the Tony Award-winning musical In The Heights. 

Ms. Burns began her career touring the opera houses of Europe as Maria in West Side Story when she was 18 years old. She has appeared on Broadway as Belle in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, as Vicki Nichols in The Full Monty, as Googie Gomez in The Ritz and has sung concerts at Carnegie Hall. She starred opposite Nathan Lane on Broadway in the Lincoln Center production of The Nance which subsequently broadcast on PBS' "Great Performances". Ms. Burns was in the original company of Jason Robert Brown’s critically acclaimed Songs for a New World and has since become one of the foremost interpreters of his work. Burns portrayed Lucille Frank in the national tour of Jason Robert Brown's Parade, directed by Harold Prince, for which she received a Touring Broadway Awards nomination for Best Actress. She was also selected by Stephen Sondheim to create the role of Celeste in his musical Saturday Night in its New York premiere. 

Ms. Burns' debut solo album A Deeper Shade Of Red was described by Playbill as "superb on all counts”. “100 Stories," a single she co-wrote with her brother, music producer Mike Burns, rose to the #2 spot on the 2006 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play charts. A favorite at 54 Below Broadway Supper Club, Andréa performs her one woman show all of over the world, which has been hailed by the New York Times as “ uproarious, ebullient and playful”.

Television credits include Mad About You (Reboot), Jessica Jones, Kevin Can Wait, Blue Bloods, Law & Order: SVU, Rescue Me, The Electric Company (2009 TV series), and Wonder Pets. She can also be heard on the original cast recordings of On Your Feet!, In The Heights, Songs for a New World, This Ordinary Thursday - The Songs of Georgia Stitt, Saturday Night, It’s Only Life, Dear Edwina, Shine, Broadway Bound, and Broadway Musicals of 1953.

Ms. Burns can be heard as the voice of Elaine Stritch in Alexandra Jacob’s new biography, “Still Here - The Madcap, Nervy, Singular Life of Elaine Stritch.” 

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Darby Stanchfield stars as ‘Nina Locke’ in the Netflix hit show  Locke and Key.

Stanchfield is well-known for her role as ‘Abby Whelan,” the spunky and outspoken investigator on all seven seasons of the Shonda Rhimes hit ABC show “Scandal” alongside ‘Olivia Pope’ (Kerry Washington). She also r stars in  the Disney+’s film “Stargirl” which was adapted from the best-selling novel.

Prior to “Scandal,” Darby was featured in season two of AMC’s Emmy ® Award winning drama “Mad Men.” In the hit series, Darby played the role of Helen Bishop, a liberal single mother who relishes in stirring up controversy with Betty Draper, the wife of an iconic advertising guru. Other television credits include starring opposite Nathan Fillion in ABC’s crime thriller “Castle,” a recurring role as Shannon Gibbs on CBS’s military drama “NCIS,” and a spot on CBS’s action packed series Jericho where she played “April Green.” In addition, Darby has appeared in roles across a host of successful television series including “Burn Notice,” “CSI: Miami,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “CSI: New York,” “The Mentalist,” “Private Practice,” “Bones,” “Nip/Tuck,” “Without a Trace,” and Monk .

Her feature film credits include Adrienne Shelley's critically acclaimed “Waitress,” opposite Nathan Fillion and Keri Russell, and an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's “The Picture of Dorian Gray” co-starring opposite Josh Duhamel.

Darby can be heard in a recording of Neil Simon's “Biloxi Blues” with Josh Radnor and Justine Bateman, part of an ongoing series of radio plays that LA Theatre Works produces for NPR.

Originally from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, Darby is a graduate of The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco where she received a Master Of Fine Arts degree

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Emma Nelson’s powerful performances have established her as a young actress on the rise.

Nelson can be seen in the Netflix drama film The Unforgiveable alongside Oscar winners Sandra Bullock and Viola Davis. The film follows a woman who attempts to rebuild her life after serving time in prison for committing a violent crime. 

Nelson made her big screen debut in the film adaptation of the best-selling novel Where’d You Go Bernadette, helmed by Academy Award nominee Richard Linklater. Emma played the character of Bee, the daughter of the eponymous Bernadette, portrayed by Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett and also starred Billy Crudup, Laurence Fishburne and Kristen Wiig.

A native of the Chicago area, Emma has participated in many local theater productions including a lead role in the pre-Broadway production of Trevor! The Musical, which was produced and directed by the renowned Marc Bruni.

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Caissie Levy most recently seventh Broadway show, as Rose Stopnick Gellman in Roundabout’s revival of Caroline, Or Change, after originating the role of Elsa in Disney's blockbuster hit, Frozen. She recreated the iconic role of Fantine in the 2014 revival of Les Misérables on Broadway, and is known to New York and London audiences for originating the roles of Molly in Ghost, and Sheila in the Tony Award winning revival of Hair. Her other Broadway credits include Elphaba in the Broadway and Los Angeles productions of Wicked, Penny in the Broadway, 1st National Tour and Toronto companies of Hairspray and Maureen in the national tour of Rent. Off-Broadway, she played Patti Davis and Julie Nixon in the world premiere of Michael John LaChiusa's First Daughter Suite at The Public Theater, and Sara in the Off-Broadway production of Murder Ballad. She has starred in the short films Options and Ms. Bula Banerjee, and guest starred opposite Sean Pertwee on Fox's Gotham. In concert, she headlined Carnegie Hall with the NY Pops, backed up Sir Rod Stewart during his Las Vegas residency, guested with The United States Military Academy at West Point, and performed solo shows to sold-out audiences across the US and the UK. Recordings include Frozen, Ghost, Hair, First Daughter Suite and over twenty singer/songwriter's albums, including her own EP, With You, available everywhere.

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Marc J. Franklin is a New York City-based photographer specializing in portrait and editorial photography, currently working as the Photo Editor and Principal Photographer for Playbill. His photos have been featured in The New York Times, The LA Times, Vogue, Elle, The Paris Review, Out Magazine, The Boston Globe, Mashable, People Magazine, and more. Highlight subjects include Hilary Clinton, Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Tina Fey, Jeremy Pope, Darren Criss, Lauren Ridloff, and many others.

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JAMES CALLERI along with his partners Paul Davis and Erica Jensen own Calleri Jensen Davis, a creative casting partnership. They have been awarded 16 Artios Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Casting. James proudly served on the Board of the Casting Society of America for many years. He is an Associate Professor of Theater at Columbia University School of the Arts where he co-heads the Graduate MFA Acting Program. He is the co-author with Robert Cohen of ACTING PROFESSIONALLY: RAW FACTS ABOUT CAREERS IN ACTING published by Palgrave MacMillan, in it’s eighth edition it is one of the leading books in the country for young actors. He also runs his studio www.calleristudio.com where he coaches and explores the craft with professional actors. He resides in New York City and Saugerties, New York.

Broadway Theater: Broadway credits include the current running Thoughts of a Colored Man and his office will cast the upcoming revival of For Colored Girls…this Spring. Other credits include Burn This starring Adam Driver and Keri Russell, Fool for Love starring Nina Arianda and Sam Rockwell, and Hughie starring Forest Whitaker, The Visit starring Chita Rivera and Roger Rees, Renee Fleming in Living on Love, the Tony winning revival Hedwig & The Angry Inch starring Neil Patrick Harris and Lena Hall, the revival of The Elephant Man starring Bradley Cooper, Patricia Clarkson and Alessandro Nivola which traveled to London's West End as well and Of Mice and Men with James Franco, Chris O'Dowd and Leighton Meester. 

Other Favorite Broadway credits include: Venus in Fur with Tony-winner Nina Arianda and Hugh Dancy, 33 Variations starring Jane Fonda, A Raisin in the Sun with Sean Combs, Audra MacDonald, Phylicia Rashad, Chicago with Usher, and James Joyce’s The Dead starring Christopher Walken.

Off-Broadway includes Ives Lives of Saints and his revival of All in the Timing, Buyer & Cellar, Murder for Two, The Hilltown Plays, Satchmo at the Waldorf, My Name is Asher Lev, the long-running Fuerza Bruta and The Revisionist with Vanessa Redgrave and Jesse Eisenberg.  

Most proud of long terms collaborations with : Playwrights Horizons (10 seasons) including such premieres as Betty’s Summer Vacation, Lobby Hero, Small Tragedy, Goodnight Children Everywhere, Violet to name a few. Over 10 years with Classic Stage Company- including A Month in the Country with Peter Dinklage & Taylor Schilling, Peter Sarsgaard as Hamlet, Passion, New Jerusalem, Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya with Maggie Gyllenhaal & Peter Sarsgaard and The Seagull with Dianne Wiest & Alan Cumming.

and was Resident Casting Director ... for CSC, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Long Wharf Theater, The Flea, Keen Company, Williamstown Theater Festival, and Playwrights Realm. Other: City Theater, Berkeley Rep, Oregon Shakes, Naked Angels, New Georges, stageFARM, Epic Theater Ensemble and many seasons of SPF (Summer Play Festival) and NY Stage & Film Company.

Some long running past productions... include Fuerza Bruta, Lobby Hero, The Guys, Fully Committed, Dinah Was, and The Vagina Monologues Nat’l Tour.

TV: Love Life for HBO, Dickinson for Apple+, Queens for ABC , NY casting for When They See Us for Netflix, The Path for Hulu, Army Wives, Lipstick Jungle, Z Rock on IFC, the critically acclaimed A Raisin in the Sun on ABC also the hit series Ed, Hope & Faith, and Monk.

Film: Beautiful Darkness, I Origins, Emoticon ;), Saint Janet, Another Earth, Refuge, Merchant Ivory’s The City of Your Final Destination, Heights, and The White Countess, Yearbook, Lisa Picard is Famous, The Jimmy Show, Ready? OK!, Trouble Every Day, Peter & Vandy and Armless.

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Kimber Elayne Sprawl originated the role of Marianne in Girl From The North Country at The Public Theater and on Broadway. Other Broadway credits include A Bronx Tale, and Beautiful:The Carole King Musical. She performed in the National tour of The Lion King and regionally she appeared in The Niceties at the Milwaukee Rep and Memphis at the Walnut Street Theater. She is a graduate of CCM.

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