Our Faculty

Trained by People
Who Actually Work.

Our faculty are working directors, casting professionals, and actors

with real credits — not career academics. They know exactly what it

takes to build a career in film and television.

TechniqueScript BreakdownOn Camera

Laura Leyva

Technique I · Script/Character Breakdown · Adler On Camera

Laura Leyva is a proud member of AEA, SAG, AFTRA and of the theatrical community, with a performing career that spans over fifty years. Her credits include work on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in regional theatre, on film, television, radio, voice-over work, print work and in commercials; serving as head juror for the UMKC Film Festival in Kansas City, MO, 1990–1995, as managing producer for the Actors Platform at the Los Feliz Playhouse, 1992–1997, and as producer for the NYU Tisch / Adler Summer Session, 2007–2008.

Laura studied with Stella Adler and Ron Burrus at the Stella Adler Conservatory in NYC, 1977–1979. In 1979 she became the private student and protégé of Mr. Burrus and they began the work of deepening the training of the Actor for the 21st century, which continues to the present.

Her teaching career began in 1981 at Michael Moriarty's Potters Field Shakespeare School in NYC and coaching privately. In Los Angeles, she taught for the Ron Burrus Studio at the Los Feliz Playhouse, 1990–2006. Currently at Stella Adler Los Angeles, she teaches TECHNIQUE I, SCRIPT BREAKDOWN and ADLER ON-CAMERA, and is available for private coaching.
TechniqueScene StudyAudition Skills

Christopher Thornton

Technique II · Scene Study Advanced · Audition Skills

Christopher Thornton is an actor, writer, and Alumnus of Stella Adler – Los Angeles. Theatre performances include: Jack From Above by Ethan Silverman, Off-Broadway's Pyretown by John Belluso; The World Premiere of Pyretown at the Geva Theatre in Rochester, NY; The World Premiere of The Body of Bourne at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles; Lion or This Corpse Will Not Stop Burning at the Lillian Theatre in LA; Up the Hill; Me and My Friend; I'm a Professional; The World Premiere of Small Days by Timothy McNeil; Vaclav Havel's Private View; London Calling; Misalliance; Waiting for Godot (Drama Logue Award); Three Sisters; C.P. Taylor's Good, A Midsummer Night's Dream; Romeo and Juliet; American Buffalo; Zastrozzi; Sheperd's Play; The Skin of Our Teeth; The Poor Itch at The Public Theatre in New York; Going to a Place Where You Already Are by Bekah Brunstetter at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa; and The Men by Tom Fontana, workshop at Primary Stages in NYC.

Television credits include NBC's My Name is Earl, Fox's Unhitched, Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm, Homefront, Players, and Just One of the Girls. He has had recurring roles on Family Law, Lifetime's Any Day Now, and ABC's Alias. He filmed pilots for ABC, FOX, and Comedy Central. Recent television work includes Magnum P.I., Santa Clarita Diet, Speechless, Grey's Anatomy, Battle Creek, Lie to Me, and Brothers & Sisters. Films include Universal Pictures' State of Play, Pretty Persuasion, Bug, and Welcome to California, Sympathy for Delicious, Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot, directed by Gus Van Sant, and Anything, written and directed by Timothy McNeil.

Christopher wrote the original screenplay Sympathy for Delicious, (directed by Mark Ruffalo, starring Orlando Bloom, Juliette Lewis, Laura Linney, and Mark Ruffalo), which was an official selection in the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Chris currently appears as Dr. Caleb Jefferson on the hit series, The Pitt. He also recently joined the cast of the new Netflix series, All the Sinners Bleed. Past work includes the recurring role of Shammy on the new Magnum P.I. He also appeared in Presumed Innocent with Jake Gyllenhaal, The Lincoln Lawyer, FBI: Most Wanted, the second season of Vice Principals on HBO; Speechless on Showtime; Grey's Anatomy and Santa Clarita Diet on Netflix. Film work includes Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot, directed by Gus Van Sant; and Anything, written by Tim McNeil.
TechniqueScene Study

Timothy McNeil

Technique · Scene Study

Timothy McNeil has had a wide and varied career since arriving in Los Angeles. He began as a young actor having the great privilege of studying with Stella Adler herself and Joanne Linville at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting Los Angeles. Tim has written and had produced over 28 plays in Los Angeles including The Twilight of Schlomo (Elephant Theater), Supernova (Elephant Theater), The Charm of Making (The Theater Lab), Anything (LADCC Best Play of 2008), Los Muertos, Crane Mississippi, Margaret, and Small Days, among others. He was a member of the Center Theater Group Writing Program for 2013–14.

He has directed his first film feature of his play Anything starring Matt Bomer, John Carroll Lynch, and Maura Tierney, produced by Great Point Media, One Zero Films, and Chaotik Media. As an actor, he has done over 50 film and television roles. Film credits include Sympathy For Delicious, Small Days, Forrest Gump, Speedway Junkies, Starship Troopers, Contact, Poodle Springs, Wicked, Spark, Ice, Ordinary Madness, and Player 5150. Television credits include Joan of Arcadia, ER, The Night Stalker, House MD, My Wife and Kids, Stand Off, Seinfeld, Murphy Brown, Star Trek Voyager, Diagnosis Murder and many more.

Theater highlights include Hector in the History Boys, Flan in Six Degrees of Separation, George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf at Stella Adler, Early in Anything at the Lillian Theater, Yevgeny in Los Muertos at the Elephant, Claudius in the Page 93 production of Hamlet at the Lillian, Pozzo in Waiting for Godot, also at the Lillian, and many more. Tim has been on the faculty of the Stella Adler Academy Los Angeles since 1999, a tremendously rewarding experience.
Play Production

Bonnie McNeil

Play Production

Bonnie McNeil is a longtime Stella Adler alumni. She's been a part of the Adler family for more than twenty years. As part of the original "Company," she performed in The Three Sisters and The Seagull, directed by Joanne Linville; and A Private View, Missalliance, Entertaining Mr. Sloane, and the world premier of Heartbreak, all directed by Milton Justice. She was a founding member of Page 93, a company of alumnus such as Tim McNeil, Mark Ruffalo, Christopher Thornton, Susan Vinciotti, May Quigley and Jack Rodgers who she had the pleasure of working with on Hamlet, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Happy Birthday Wanda June, A Stye in the Eye, For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls, and Margaret, written by Tim McNeil and directed by Mark Ruffalo.

She is now a member of the Elephant Theater Company and most recently was nominated for an LADCC award for her performance as Mabel in her husband Tim's award winning play, Supernova, directed by Lindsay Allbaugh at the Elephant Theater. Her directing credits include Side Man, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Rosemary With Ginger, The Divorce Party, Laundry and Bourbon, and Unfinished. Recent work includes Dead Women Walking; As High As The Sky, written and directed by Nikki Braendlin; and Anything, written and directed by Tim McNeil.
Play ProductionOn Camera

Rick Peters

Play Production · On-Camera

Rick Peters is a working actor, writer, and teacher. His childhood and education include years in London, England and Melbourne, Australia. He began acting on stage at the age of 8, and has been a professional actor since 1991, and a teacher at the Stella Adler Academy and Theatre – Los Angeles. Rick enjoyed the good fortune of working with Stella Adler in her master class, as well as years studying with Joanne Linville, Milton Justice, and Tim McNeil at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting and Theatre – Los Angeles, and Richard Greene at the Coronet Theater.

Rick's television career includes work as a series regular on a number of television series, as well as recurring work on the shows Dexter, Masters of Sex, and numerous guest star credits which include most of the shows in the NCIS family.
TechniquePlay Production

Victoria Kemsley

Technique I · Play Production

Victoria Kemsley has had a wide and varied career over the past 30 years in Los Angeles. She studied at the Stella Adler Conservatory under Stella Adler, Arthur Mendoza and Milton Justice. She has taught English, writing and acting in private schools, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, and in private classes.

She has performed and directed in plays throughout Los Angeles including Welcome to the Moon, Anne Frank, El Grande de Coca Cola, Hot L Baltimore, Beirut and Naomi in the Livingroom.
On Camera Craft

Timothy Craig

On Camera Craft

Timothy Craig studied acting and script analysis personally with Stella Adler through the NYU Undergraduate Drama Program in New York City for three years and headed her conservatory voice and speech program for an additional six. His professional acting credits include roles in regional and summer stock theater, Off- and Off-Off-Broadway, industrials and many national, network commercials.

It was also during this time that he studied acting and directing for two years with Evgeny Lanskoy, a master teacher and recent émigré from the Soviet Union, and learned the revolutionary, model-based updating of the Stanislavski System of Acting.

Mr. Craig left New York City to attend USC's Graduate School of Cinema in Los Angeles and formed Cairn Productions, a successful partnership for producing and directing independent films, videos, commercials, industrials, and music videos. A published and produced playwright and screenwriter, his play Oregon Dawn was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award for Drama. Mr. Craig is a member of SAG-AFTRA, AEA, and the Dramatists Guild of America.

VoiceShakespeare

Peter Wittrock

Voice · Shakespeare

Peter Wittrock was first introduced to the Linklater Voice work in 1979 when he attended the first January Acting Intensive hosted by Shakespeare & Company, the Shakespeare theater company co-founded by Kristin Linklater and Tina Packer. He became a member of the company in 1983 and immersed himself in the Company's ethos of actor training, performance, and service to the community. He worked directly with Kristin Linklater for several years and trained under her to become a Designated Linklater Voice teacher in 1987.

Peter taught voice and Shakespeare text for many years at Shakespeare & Company's January and July intensives as well as appearing as an actor in numerous roles including Romeo, Hamlet, Iago, Banquo, Bassanio, among others. Subsequently, he taught voice and speech at the University of Massachusetts, Bennington College in Vermont, Simon's Rock of Bard College in Great Barrington MA., DePaul University in Chicago, and later at USC and UCLA in California.

Active in the small theater scene in Los Angeles, Peter was theater director at The Celtic Arts Center in North Hollywood where he produced The Lepers of Baile Baste, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Lonesome West, Celtic Tiger Me Arse and directed The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde. He recently earned his 200-hour Yoga Alliance teaching certificate and has begun to teach a combination of yoga and voice, furthering his interest in the intersection between personal growth and participation in theater.
Speech

Tim Kopacz

Speech I · Speech II · Speech III · Private Speech Intensives

Tim Kopacz has been a voice and speech teacher since 2014, when he first started taking private clients in New England. He has served as a private teacher for actors and professionals alike who desire to take a conscious approach to their speech patterns, as well as the dialect consultant for full theatrical productions. He is a classically trained actor, having earned an MFA in Acting from Brown University, including three years of voice and speech under the tutelage of Thom Jones.

Movement

Caitlin Apparcel

Movement

Caitlin Apparcel is from Fresno, CA and received her Bachelor's Degree in Theater and Minor in American Studies from California State Fullerton before studying at Stella Adler Academy of Acting and Theatre-Los Angeles. At Stella Adler, Caitlin apprenticed under Kennedy Brown and began teaching Group Warm-up. After being introduced to the Lucid Body Movement work, in 2008, Caitlin met Lucid Body creator Fay Simpson, in 2009. Having discovered a passion for Lucid Body, Caitlin traveled to New York to work with Fay Simpson directly and received her Lucid Body Teacher Certification.

Recently, Caitlin had the privilege of teaching at the first annual National Winter Actors Retreat in Colorado. Caitlin also works as an actor and director in LA theatre with works including Ten Times Two: The Eternal Courtship, Been So Long and Titus Andronicus. Caitlin offered workshops and classes throughout the year. Learn more at: lucidbodyla.com.
Alexander Technique

Celio Da Silveira

Alexander Technique

Celio Da Silveira was certified at The Alexander Training Institute of Los Angeles; Attended NunoLisboa University, Brazil; Angel Vianna University, Brazil. Celio da Silveira is an AmSAT-certified Alexander Technique Teacher with a private practice in West LA, teaching individuals, groups, and workshops. He teaches annual interim Workshops at Cal-Arts Department of Music, substitute teaches for Alexander Training Institute of Los Angeles, and has been an assistant instructor at USC.

He has extensive training in judo and dance, plays guitar and is an accomplished singer.
MasksPhysical Theatre

Roy Johns

Masks

Roy Johns is a versatile performer and educator whose career spans decades of stage, screen, and multidisciplinary arts. Raised in San Jose, Roy's artistic journey began in his youth, transitioning from church choirs to his first theatrical production of Our Town at age twelve. By sixteen, he was already writing and performing original comedy, while simultaneously mastering the art of juggling — a skill that would become a cornerstone of his professional trajectory.

After moving to San Francisco, Roy refined his craft under the mentorship of Scott Beach (founding member of The Committee) and honed his performance skills through the demanding environment of street busking. His training continued in Los Angeles at the Ossetynski Actors Laboratory. A pivotal moment in his career came through a week-long intensive with Richard Cieslak of Jerzy Grotowski's "Poor Theatre," which led to Roy being cast in Paul Verdier's production of Tales for People Under 3 Years of Age. Working under the direct supervision of Eugene Ionesco, Roy earned a Dramalogue Award for his performance.

As a founding member of the physical theatre troupe The Mums, Roy toured internationally, blending storytelling with juggling, acrobatics, magic, and pantomime. His diverse credits include dancing alongside Gene Kelly in Xanadu and serving as a highwire consultant for Francis Ford Coppola's One From the Heart (training Nastassja Kinski) and Mary Lambert's Siesta (training Ellen Barkin). Dedicated to the next generation of performers, he has taught circus and theatre skills at Marlborough School since 2017 and began teaching at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting and Theatre in the fall of 2023.

Greek Theatre

Yorgos Karamihos

Greek Theatre

Yorgos Karamihos is an actor, director and acting teacher, born and raised in Greece. He graduated from the Philosophy and History Department of Ionian University and The Greek National Theatre Academy. In 2012 he received a Fulbright Scholarship as an exceptional artist to attend the fulltime program at Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles. As an actor, he played lead roles in more than 30 theatre plays of a range repertoire including ancient Greek dramas, Shakespeare, A. Chekhov, T. Williams, F. Wedekind etc.

He has also appeared in over 30 feature films and 12 TV series including the popular series, The Durrells. Since 2008, he has directed 8 theatre plays in several major venues in Athens. He was awarded best stage actor of Greece in 2008. He has translated from English and Spanish into Greek and published several theatre plays. He speaks 5 languages. He has been teaching acting on stage and in front of the camera using his own technique based on animal archetypes for the last 8 years in various Drama schools and healing centers. In 2010 he founded the Emporeios Workshops on Nissyros island in the Aegean sea.

Intimacy & Violence

Zachariah Payne

Intimacy and Violence

Zachariah Payne (he/him/his) is a Violence and Intimacy Director/Coordinator based in Los Angeles. He has trained under Fight Masters Daniel Levinson and Simon Fon with the Fight Directors Canada since 2015. He is an Advanced Actor Combatant with the Fight Directors Canada with over 20 Fight Direction Credits all around Chicago, Dallas, and in Los Angeles. He has fight directed or taught at DePaul University, Columbia College Chicago, and University of California San Diego.

He specializes in comedic violence and working with youth/young adults through consent in storytelling. He is certified in Mental Health First Aid, and he is continuing his education always of how to become a better teacher.
Musical VoiceYouth Acting

Robert Sprayberry

Musical Voice · Youth Acting Program

Robert Sprayberry, a post-graduate in music composition and conducting from The Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, England, has worked in Theater, modern dance, Film and TV for years. While studying overseas he spent time in Paris, France where he studied composition with the renowned Nadia Boulanger. Robert has written original scores for over 50 theatrical productions worldwide. In musical theater he was the musical director/conductor of the west coast premier of the Tony Award winning RENT with Neil Patrick Harris.

After that tour Robert joined the National Tour of Elton John's AIDA; then the Gazelle National Tour of THE LION KING followed by the stage adaptation of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL for Disney Theatrical. He has also toured and performed with various artists including Rupert Holmes, Chaka Kahn, Sam Moore, Patty Smythe and Eddie Fisher. In 1998 Robert received the Dramalogue Award for musical direction for the west coast premier of RENT and the Richard Rodgers Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for his stage musical adaptation of THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY? which received its world premier at the Denver Center Theater and subsequent NYC production at The Manhattan Theater Club.

In television Robert has composed for the TV series THE INVISIBLE MAN, RED DWARF, MYSTERIES FROM BEYOND THE OTHER DOMINION and REMEMBER WENN. He continues to reside in Los Angeles, CA where he continues to pursue his songwriting and scoring work.
Improvisation

Diego Parada

Improvisation

Diego Parada is a Mexican actor that also enjoys writing. He has appeared on ABC's Modern Family, nearly a dozen National Commercials, and has lent his vocal talent to ADULT SWIM's TV show Mike Tyson Mysteries, as well as a few mini-series on NETFLIX and AMAZON PRIME. In 2020 he was awarded the EMERGING CONTENT CREATOR Scholarship by NALIP.

Diego left his hometown of Tijuana, Mexico to get a B.A. in Theater and Film at CSULB. After graduating, he continued his training at THE GROUNDLINGS Theater. There he became a SUNDAY COMPANY cast member and is now a teacher there. He also produces, directs, and writes web series and sketches. Recently a short film he created got into the Hollywood Shorts Fest and the Mammoth Film Festival.
Masks

Jade Gordon

Masks

LA based artist and theater practitioner Jade Gordon is a founding member of the art collective My Barbarian. Her collaborative work uses performance to theatricalize social problems and imagine ways of being together. Exploring the legacies of performance art history, political theater, feminist theory, and social movements, Gordon makes plays, costumes, masks, puppets, and videos. Gordon holds an M.A. in Applied Theater Arts from USC and is a practitioner of Theater of the Oppressed techniques.

She has presented work with My Barbarian in many museums including MoMA, New York; MoCA, Los Angeles; LACMA, Los Angeles; and SFMoMA, San Francisco; and in festivals, galleries, and public spaces, along with projects at the New Museum and Studio Museum in Harlem. My Barbarian was included in two Performa Biennials, two California Biennials, the Biennale de Montréal, and the Whitney Biennial. In the fall of 2021, they presented a 20-year retrospective exhibition of their work together at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Gordon has received awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Art, Creative Capital, Art Matters, and the City of LA, and was a recipient of the 2018 United States Artists Fellowship.
Industry Prep

Noga Wind

Industry Prep

Noga Wind (they/she) is a trained actor, creative culture maker, and queer activist. She is the co-founder and CEO of Queer UP, the first all-inclusive queer management agency in Hollywood. They have produced and cast major commercials and shows including the upcoming reality series King of Drag on RevryTV. Previous acting credits include Matlock (CBS/Paramount+), a major AAA video game, Dave (FX/Hulu), The Flight Attendant (MAX), over dozens of commercials, voice-over work and theater in the U.S. and abroad.

With over a decade of experience as an artist and creative consultant, Noga's expertise is helping artists maximize their professional opportunities without compromising their identity or values.