Alumni Directory

Arnab Banerji is an Associate Professor of Theatre History and Dramatic Literature at Loyola Marymount University located in the unceded lands of the Gabrilieno Tongva people also known as Los Angeles. He is the author of Contemporary Group Theatre from Kolkata, India (Routledge 2020). Arnab’s essays and reviews have been published in Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, Asian Theatre Journal, TDR, BOOM California, Ecumenica, Theatre Symposium, Sanglap, Cerebration, SERAS, and Virginia Review of Asian Studies. His current research is in performances by the Indian diaspora, translations of Indian vernacular plays, and contemporary Bengali theatre. Arnab is married and lives with his partner Sayantika and infant daughter Aarayna in Tovaangar. When he is not doing academic stuff, Arnab enjoys drinking specialty coffee, looking up restaurants around town, binge-watching The Office, and browsing through graphic novels.

Viviana Chavez is a producer, acting coach, and actor who appeared in in The Walking Dead, The Resident, Baby Driver, and Cobra Kai. She has produced content for Husky Tools and Coca-Cola, and co-founded Latinas in Media Atlanta.

Clifton is a casting director, acting coach, head of the Film and TV Division of Big Picture Casting, a member of the Advisory Committee for the Georgia High School Musical Theatre Awards, and chairs the Artist Advisory Council of ArtsATL.

Samantha Kuchta is Assistant Professor and resident Scenic and Lighting Designer for the Slippery Rock University Department of Theatre. In addition to teaching and designing for Slippery Rock’s Department of Theater, Samantha is also involved heavily in the Pittsburgh theater community. 

Born and raised in Virginia, LaReau is a performer, director, dramaturg, and scholar with a unique combination of applicable skills gained in the sales world. Focusing on intercultural performance, race, and opera, LaReau's work investigates the ways the racialized Other is portrayed on opera stages. In addition to cultivating diverse theatre and opera audiences, LaReau also enjoys politics, museums, and a nice Oloroso sherry. When not working on research, LaReau can be found at the gym, a UGA football game, or a golf course. 

Dr. Jieun Lee (she/her) is a teacher-scholar who believes that theatrical arts have the power to engender meaningful conversations and actions for social change. Dr. Lee’s teaching explores how race, class, gender, and sexuality have been represented in theater and performance and how those representations conform or contest the unequal power relations and unjust systems in our society and culture. Her research spotlights transnational adoption intersected with drama, media, and activism in and out of South Korea and the United States viewed through Asian and Asian American feminist perspectives. Dr. Lee is currently working on her first book entitled Performing Transnational Adoption: Unsettling Scripts. In this book, she analyzes Korean adoptees’ birth search and reunion represented in contemporary theater and performance art works from Korea, the US, the UK, Belgium, and Denmark that disrupt postwar humanitarian, colorblind multicultural, and ethnonationalist narratives surrounding transnational adoption from Korea. Her peer-reviewed articles and reviews have appeared in Theatre Journal, Theatre Annual, Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema, and Women’s Studies, among others. Dr. Lee holds a PhD in Theater and Performance Studies as well as a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Georgia, and an MA in Theater Studies from Hunter College of the City University of New York. Since 2014, she has served as a volunteer translator for the South Korean Feminist Journal ILDA.

Casey attended the University of Georgia in 2002 where he majored in Dramatic Arts and competed on the school's Cross Country and Track Teams. Upon graduating, Casey moved to Los Angeles to pursue film and television acting. He appeared in such projects as Criminal Minds, Transformers, Jane the Virgin, and Doom Patrol, to name a few. In his early 30s, that Casey began writing screenplays. In 2015, Casey wrote, produced, and starred in his first feature, The Last Treasure Hunt, which was acquired by Sony and The Orchard, and became one of the Top 25 most downloaded indie films of 2016. In 2021, he wrote and directed the feature Black White and the Greys, which won 10 awards on the festival circuit, including the Audience Choice Award at the prestigious Sedona Film Festival. Casey currently resides in Atlanta, and is in development on two more features entitled The Music Makers and Lakota. He is also an avid photographer, and can be found most days at Catapult Acting Studio, working with young actors. 

My name is George Pate, and I am an Associate Professor of English and Theater. I am a teacher, scholar, playwright, actor, director, game designer, and former standup comic. My research focuses on the ideologies underlying the practical realities of cultural production, especially where intellectual property law is concerned. My book Enter the Undead Author (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2019) explores the intersections of intellectual property and performance through case studies ranging from joke-stealing in standup comedy to the dispute of the authorship of Rent. As a playwright, I work in the genres of magical realism and dark comedy. I created the Ludirature project to encourage students in the humanities to explore game design as a way to practice bringing their creativity and analytical skills to the realm of digital technology. I teach English composition, theater history, playwriting, dramatic literature, theater appreciation, and script analysis.

Andy Rusk (2003) is a stunt coordinator whose work includes Atlanta, Swarm, Creepshow, and Teenage Bounty Hunters. His stunt performing work includes Stranger Things, Hawkeye, The Walking Dead, Superfly, Anchorman 2, and Watchmen, among others.

Jessica Sanchez began in Props and Set Decoration on Teen Wolf, Fast and Furious 7, Anchorman 2, MacGyver, and The Big Door Prize. She now works as a graphic designer in the Art Department for shows like Swarm, Fear Street, The Exorcist, and Reservation Dogs.

Kelundra Smith is a playwright (The Wash), theatre critc, and journalist has worked in marketing and community engagement for theatres. She has written for The New York Times, Broadway World, American Theatre, The Bitter Southerner, Atlanta Magazine, and is a writer at Emory University. Most recently she serves as the Managing Editor of American Theatre magazine. 

Adetinpo Thomas is an actor and producer who played Wendy in Hawkeye , Jamillah Olsen in Black Lightning and appeared in Legacies, The Outsider, Ambitions. Producing work includes Clean Slate and The Earth Will Not Swallow Us.

Dr. Kristyl D. Tift is an Assistant Professor of Acting and Directing at Vanderbilt University. She holds a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies, and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies, from the University of Georgia. She also holds an MFA in Acting from the Actor’s Studio Drama School/The New School, and a BA in Theatre from Georgia Southern University.

Dylan Whitfield set designer for film and television who has designed sets for The Staircase, First Wives Club, A Man Called Otto, Kindred, and The In Between plus props and carpentry for Miracle Workers, The Gifted, Zombieland 2, Insatiable, and The Conjuring 3. 

Steve Yockey develops and produces original content for Warner Brothers. He is the executive producer/writer of the Emmy-nominated series The Flight Attendant and Dead Boy Detectives, co-producer/writer of Supernatural, wrote for Doom Patrol, Scream, Awkward, and is a prolific playwright.