BREE SHANNON

Bree Shannon is an alumnae of the Atlanta Workshop Players and the amazing, life-changing, impactful AWP Tour Company. With over 20 years of entertainment experience, she recently retired from Carnival Cruise Lines where she traveled all over the world and performed as a featured vocalist and dancer in their main stage production shows. She is currently a vocal teacher and works with local bands and productions in the city. She has recently been appointed as the founding drama teacher for a new charter school called Atlanta SMART Academy, where they focus on math, science and the arts. Bree has several commercial, voice-over, on-camera acting and theatre credits and is a member of the Actor’s Equity Association and SAG/AFTRA.

Bree loves sharing what she has learned and experienced. Even as a professional she is continually training to improve her own skills and abilities, and working to maintain knowledge of all the different
acting techniques. She is very excited to be teaching at the place she’s always considered HOME. So happy to be back AWP!

JACK ALCOTT

Since graduating from The University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 2019 with a BFA in acting, Jack Alcott has been working consistently, most recently starring opposite Michael C. Hall in the 2021-2022 revival of hit TV-show Dexter on Showtime, the most watched premium cable series of the year. Prior to that, Jack performed opposite veteran actor Ethan Hawke, in Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird, which won a Peabody award in 2021. Jack has appeared in many other television shows from The Blacklist to Champaign Ill and has a robust theatre resume to match, performing everything from Mamet to Shakespeare and beyond. Jack spends his time bouncing back and forth from New York, Los Angeles, and his hometown of Franklin TN, but will always have a soft spot for Atlanta and AWP, where he spent almost 10 years as both a camper and counselor. Jack is thrilled to be back and looks forward to reuniting with his AWPeeps once again!

CANEDY KNOWLES

See Canedy in Odd Mom Out, Friends From College, Blue Bloods, The Blacklist, Rescue Me, Enchanted, The Departed, Chicago City Limits (resident & touring company). She performs with the award-winning Off-Broadway improvisational company  Chicago City Limits in New York and around the country and is the director of their national tour company where she developed the improvised dating game, LovesStruck.  She has performed with ImprovOlympics, LA TheatreSports, The PIT, UCB and at the LA Comedy Festival and is an original member of Luck Of The Draw-The Fully Improvised Musical.  On television, she was able to use her improvisational skills to make audiences believe she was a real person in ABC's hidden camera show, What Would You Do? and improvised over 70 songs in less than 24 hours for the loyal fans of AT&T. 

JASON LOCKHART

Jason Lockhart is a Talent Agent from Los Angeles who relocated to the Southeast market in 2017 as the Head of TV & Film at one of the most prestigious agencies in Atlanta. He is also an accomplished filmmaker, having worked with National Lampoon and sold two feature films as an award-winning Writer/Director, one of which The CW picked up as a Movie of the Week. Having grown up as a child actor, Jason has over 25 years of experience & education in the industry, but after bouncing around several seats in Hollywood, he finds it most rewarding behind the talent agent's desk, helping others pursue their dreams. In 2020, that passion led to him becoming a #1 Best Selling author for his book Ask an Agent: Brutally Answered Questions for Actors of All Stages, and he continually writes for Backstage Magazine as one of their "Expert Contributors."

DEAN CUDWORTH

Actor and stunt performer known for: MacGyver, Nashville, The Goldbergs, The Fosters, Scorpion, Castle, Drop Dead Diva, Devious Maids, Bones...

JEN KELLEY

Jen Kelley is a co-founder and casting director at Big Picture Casting in Atlanta, Georgia. Jen began her career as a talent agent in Los Angeles, California, where she represented talent on sitcoms, feature films and national commercials.

In 1996, Jen moved to Atlanta and joined one of the top talent agencies in the Southeast. She worked in all of the agency’s departments during her 14-year tenure. With a desire to foster a more focused and creative involvement in the entertainment industry, she and Rita Harrell formed Big Picture Casting and became casting directors in 2011.

Big Picture Casting casts principal talent for feature films, television, commercial, industrial and new media projects from coast to coast. Jen is also co-author of The Actor’s Guide for Kids, as well former head writer, producer and director at Sketchworks Comedy, Inc., one of Atlanta’s premiere sketch comedy troupes.

ED WAGENSELLER

Ed has been working in film and television as an actor for almost 3 decades.  He is an Associate Professor of Performance in the Theatre Department at UNCW where he has been coaching and directing in some capacity since 1995.  His focus has always been in performance whether for the stage or screen. Ed has worked with most major networks including but not limited to HBO, Netflix, Starz, FOX, NBC, ABC, and CBS. His approach is pragmatic and can be implemented immediately in any professional situation. For more information on Ed Wagenseller visit his website at www.EdWagensellerActor.com

JORJEANA MARIE

Jorjeana Marie is an award-winning television writer and actress most recently doing both on the Disney show Mickey Mouse FunHouse. She is also a nationally touring comedian opening for Richard Lewis and Kathleen Madigan and the author of Improv for Writers (Penguin Random House/Ten Speed Press). You may have heard her voice on Nickelodeon, Disney, PBS or narrating over 400 audiobooks for authors including Meg Wolitzer, Nina La Cour, Jacqueline Woodson and Gayle Forman. She has earned a prestigious Audie, more than a dozen Earphones awards and been named one of the best YA voices for consecutive years. Publishers Weekly calls her “Pitch Perfect”. Paste Magazine named her one of their favorite narrators and Audiofile Magazine calls her characters “Hilarious!” She is the voice of the New Nancy Drew Diaries and AudioFile says “Jorjeana Marie captures the essence of what makes Nancy Drew such a timeless fictional icon”. As an actress, Jorjeana starred in the pilot “Listen to Grandpa, Andy Ling” with Randall Parks and Elliott Gould.

Other writing credits include being a staff writer on Tabitha Brown's Tab Time, the forthcoming Dew Drop Diaries for DreamWorks, Mickey Mouse and the Roadster Racers for Disney, Robot Trains for Netflix and Gumibear for Cartoon Network.