Take a look at the many ways our theatre program graduates put their educations to work.

Mike Colter (1998, BA)

MIke a film and television actor who had a principal role in the Oscar-winning film Million Dollar Baby, as well as appearing in Zero Dark Thirty, Men in Black 3, Salt, The Good Wife, Law and Order: SVU, ER and many other productions.  Mike currently stars as the title role in the Netflix series Luke Cage.

Stephen Cone (2002, BA)

Stephen is a filmmaker, actor and writer.  His original film The Wise Kids was awarded the Grad Jury Prize at Outfest in LA (2011) and the Audience Award at NewFest in NYC (2011).

Bernard Addison (1985, BA)

Bernard is a film and television actor with credits in Desperate Housewives, Castle, Ugly Betty, Weeds,  24, and many others.

Felicia Bertch (2009, M.F.A.)

Felicia moved from Chicago to Ft. Worth to attend a school for ministry. She is the director of a small dance troupe.

LaToya Codner (2012, M.F.A.)

LaToya was the female recipient of the NBC network-sponsored Star Project Award at the 17th Annual American Black Film Festival in 2013. She also has stayed busy with stage projects, most recently appearing in Realize Theatre Group’s production of "Just Another Love Story: The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet" at Chicago’s Prop Theatre.

Darin Dahms (2003, M.F.A.)

Darin mounted a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the original one-man show "The Player King." About the American actor Edwin Booth, the show was written and performed by Darin.

Stephen Davis (2006, M.F.A.)

Stephen is assistant professor of theatre arts at Centenary College, where he has directed "Antigone," "Lobby Hero," "Ubu Roi," "Italian American Reconciliation" and an adaptation of Shakespeare’s "Cymbeline." He also served as fight choreographer for "Breakfast with Mugabe," "Oliver!" (also played Mr. Brownlow) and "The Wizard of Oz" (also played Professor Marvel/The Wizard of Oz and served as makeup designer. He teaches in stage combat, theatrical makeup, acting, theatre history, theatre appreciation and drama as literature. He was awarded the 2010-2011 United Methodist Exemplary Teaching Award at Centenary. In 2013, he directed Shakespeare’s "Twelfth Night." 

Sirena Dib (2013, B.A.)

Sirena works at the Education Division of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and focuses on arts-centered educational programming, arts integration in schools and community engagement. She joined the cast of "Swing Time: The Musical", a professional, year-round production in the DC area.

Colleen Dobson (2012, B.A.)

Colleen received the Marion Smith Award from the Southeastern Theatre Conference and is currently enrolled in the MFA costume production program at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Michael T. Downey (2009, M.F.A.)

Michael has been developing a television comedy pilot as head writer and co-creator along with producer Nathan Bell. The half-hour comedy parodies the world of food programming following behind the scenes of a weekly craft beer review show. The show has been called a cross between "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Man vs. Food."

Karen Eterovich (1989, M.F.A.)

Karen works with Love Arm’d Productions, performing the one-woman shows, "Cheer from Chawton" and "Love Arm’d, Aphra Behn & Her Pen," at theatres around the country. She performed "Cheer from Chawton" at the National Arts Club in New York City in 2013 and at USC’s Drayton Hall as a fundraiser for the SC Shakespeare Company in 2012. In 2013, Karen appeared as Aphra Behn at the League of Professional Theatre Women Annual Meeting in New York City and in fundraising campaign for Women Stage the World. She also directed a dramatic reading of CBS’ original 1937 radio script of "As You Like It" for the New York Society Library. Karen has written a play, "All Roses," which was read at Abingdon Theatre Spaces in New York City.

Zach Hanks (2004, M.F.A.)

In 2012, Zach narrated "A Killer is Loose for Audible.com," voiced commercials for Fifth Third Bank and Eureka Suction Seal, and voiced characters in the anime Hellsing Ultimate (OAV) and a number of video games including Diablo III, Ninja Gaiden 3, Armored Core V, Syndicate, Mass Effect 3, Dead Island: Ryder White and The Amazing Spiderman among many others. A visiting assistant professor in the School of Theatre at Stephen F. Austin State University, he has performed on their mainstage in "The Madwoman of Chaillot," taught classes, been a guest on The Voice of The Republic podcast, and taught a voice workshop and theatre appreciation class for Georgia Southern University’s Department of Communication Arts. He has directed a radio version of a one-act play and served on SAG-AFTRA’s national voice-over committee.

Kacie Henderson (2008, B.A.)

Kacie is a graduate student at the University of Denver pursuing master’s degrees in video production and strategic communications. In 2012, she interned with High Noon Entertainment on the first season of the Travel Channel's "Trip Flip." 

Elissa Horrell (2013, M.A.T.)

Elissa is drama teacher at Stratford High School in Goose Creek, S.C.

Abbie Issac (2007, B.A.)

Abbie earned her MBA at George Mason University in 2013. She is directing and working part-time at Maryland Shakespeare Festival. She worked in the Leadership Office at Arena Stage in 2012.

Patrick Michael Kelly (2006, B.A.)

Patrick earned his MFA from NYU Grad Acting in 2014. Currently, he lives in Columbia where he teaches acting at USC and works as a freelance theatre artist. Patrick is a member of Actors' Equity, a graduate of the Leadership Columbia Class of 2023, and was voted Best Local Actor in 2023 by readers of the Free Times, but he is most proud of being Helena's dad.

Bakari Lebby (2013, B.A.)

Bakari received an MFA in Directing from The New School College of Performing Arts in May 2022 and joined the Stage DIrectors and Choreographers Society as an Associate Member in July 2022.  In 2017, he was named Jasper Magazine's Theatre Artist of the Year (Columbia, SC).

Craig Miller (2004, M.F.A.)

Craig is  artistic director of 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa, California, which has racked up such honors as Theatre of the Year from BroadwayWorld.com, Best Theatre Troupe from North Bay Bohemian Newspaper and twelve 2012 Sonoma County Stage One Theatre Awards for "August: Osage County," including Best Production and Best Director for Craig. In 2013, the theatre was nominated for sixteen SF Bay Area Theatre Critics’ Circle Awards. Craig has been honored as a top forty business and community leader under the age of 40 in the San Francisco North Bay area. 

Jillian Owens (2006, B.A.)

Jillian has been featured on The Rachael Ray Show, Good Afternoon America, Grist, NYC’s Guest of a Guest and other media outlets for her ReFashionista blog, in which she details the refashioning of outdated clothing into hip, modern wear. She has been a theatre reviewer for Jasper Magazine and OnstageColumbia.com and previously worked with the SC Arts Commission.

Gabrielle Peterson (2010, B.A.)

Gabrielle is a Ph.D. student at Cambridge studying politics and international relations. Her focus will be power relations in the European debt crisis and the role of Germany in the economic legislation of the EU.

Charlie Pogue (2001, M.F.A.)

Charlie is a senior lighting designer with Walt Disney World.

Matt Purdy (2004, B.A.)

Matt is the senior producer for "Maryland Morning," an hour-long news magazine on WYPR, the NPR affiliate in Baltimore. The show won a 2014 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award for a series on race and inequality in the Baltimore region.

Rich Remedios (2007, M.F.A.)

Rich is acting and teaching in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His professional acting credits include the feature films "The Public Domain" and "To Say Goodbye" and stage roles in "Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue" with Park Square Theatre and the world premiere of "Purple Cloud" with Mu Performing Arts. He owns and operates his own acting studio, Twin Cities Meisner Training, where he has been teaching Meisner technique to professional and pre-professional actors since 2013. He completed his Meisner teaching certification with True Acting Institute under Larry Silverberg. Additionally, Rich has also been a teaching artist with Mu Performing Arts and Pillsbury House Theatre, and a guest teacher in Meisner technique at the Guthrie Theater.

Dewey Scott-Wiley (1994, M.F.A.)

Dewey is artistic director of Trustus Theatre in Columbia, SC, and is an associate professor in theatre at USC-Aiken.

Yvonne Senat (2013, M.F.A.)

Yvonne is in the Los Angeles area and was recently cast in the BET original movie, The Bobby Brown Story.  She has also been in national television commercials for True Value, Scion, and Anna’s Linens. She has taught Shakespeare to children through the Much Ado Shakspeare Company, and appeared in a regional premiere of "In the Heights."

Will Shuler (2010, B.A.)

Will is living in New York City, freelance music directing, arranging, and orchestrating while working at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the Museum of Modern Art. He has worked all over New York City and in Georgia, Maine, and Colorado. He appeared in a new version of "Flight" by USC theatre professors Steven Pearson and Robyn Hunt, which was produced at USC’s Longstreet Theatre and at XFest on the Edwardsville campus of Southern Illinois University.

William Vaughan (2013, BA)

William is an actor in the Washington, DC area and has appeared in productions at the Folger Theatre.  He has recently started a theatre company called Waterhoope.

Brian Yandle (1993, B.A.)

Brian directed Diane Samuel’s "Kindertransport" at Burning Coal Theater in Raleigh, NC in 2013.