As a professional actor, Stephanie broke into the LA theater scene by being cast as Sheila Franklin in the Thirtieth Anniversary Production of HAIR. Other award-winning roles followed, including Amanda in Marked Tree (LA Theater Guild Best Actress). Bunbury (LA Weekly Award Best New Play, Ovation Nomination Best Production, Valley Theater Awards Best Ensemble) Katie in And Neither Have I Wings to Fly (Stage Scene LA Best Actress in a Lead Role, Ovation Nomination Best Show) Notably, her role as a producer has carved a distinct niche, illuminated by the accolades of Los Angeles Times Critics Choice and Production of the Year LA Weekly Award for Ouroboros. Other career highlights include originating many roles such as Juliet, Cecily, Irina, and Blanche in the world premiere of Tom Jacobson’s BUNBURY; A Serious Play For Trivial People, and taking over the role of Miss Julie in the world premiere of Miss Julie Freedom Summer. In addition to her work on contemporary plays, Stephanie has performed Shakespearean roles in numerous festivals and productions, including the Burbank and Las Vegas Shakespeare Festivals and Shakespeare on the Lake. A few favorite parts include Rosalind in As You Like It, Helena in Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Agrippa in Antony and Cleopatra. Her love of Shakespeare strangely landed Stephanie her next big break: into the world of sketch comedy. Along with her sketch comedy troupe “Lester McFwap,” she performed on grand stages, including the ABC Big Stinkin’ Comedy Fest, Chicago Comedy Festival, and San Francisco Comedy Festival. Lester McFwap served as the house comedy troupe for The World Famous Comedy Store.

Despite countless roles on stage, Stephanie might be best recognized from her many national TV commercials, including national spots for Southwest Airlines, Snapple, Pizza Hut, Honda, TGIFridays, and many more. As a voice-over artist, Stephanie has lent her talents to the Walt Disney Read-Along Series, where she narrated timeless tales from Cinderella to High School Musical and projects with National Geographic and Narada Radio. The Mindstream Media comedy serial The Reasonably Amazing Adventures of Flash Gordon, in which she plays several characters, is streamed by audiences worldwide. Expanding theatrical work to non-actors, Stephanie directed the celebrated national reading series “Listen to Your Mother,” raising over $100,000 for women’s charities.

As an educator, Stephanie has worked to instill the joy of acting in children as young as age five, teaching not only the basic skills needed to perform, but also the love of theater. She has taught in numerous acting programs, and taught classes in early childhood theater using active listening and movement games, early acting skills for elementary school age children, beginning scene study, advanced scene study, and audition skills classes, as well as Shakespeare programs in both the Los Angeles and Clark County CA k-12 public school systems.
As a private accent, acting and public speaking coach, she has worked with students as young as four and as old as 80. More recently, she has audition-coached and taught scene study to high school and college age students.

Stephanie completed the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts’ Professional program graduating with their highly-regarded Professional Actors Certificate. While at the Academy, she received the esteemed Mark Taper Forum Scholarship and the coveted Voice and Speech Award for her work with accents and dialects, a practice she continues today. She has also studied acting technique with James Kirkwood (a student of Lee Strasburg), scene study with Lloyd Bridges, and received additional training from Suanne Spoke, Linda Brennan and Jenifer Parker.

We are beyond delighted that Stephanie has joined our Acting faculty here at The Ridgewood Conservatory, helping students prepare for auditions, teaching private acting classes, and creating unique acting, sketch comedy and improvisation workshops for students of all ages and levels.