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Patrick Hurley graduated from UCLA with his MFA in playwriting. The first part of his Queer Tetralogy On a Queer Day was a Semi-Finalist for The Eugene O’Neill playwrights conference in 2018. His play The Winds of Ariston was part of UCLA’s 2017 New Play Festival. In 2018, his serialized play #instagay had twelve episodes at Sacred Fools Theatre in Los Angeles. In 2016, his play My Play’s Last Scene was part of the Marianne Murphy Staged Reading Series. That same year his One Act Indigo at Midnight was part of the Francis Ford Coppola One Act Play Festival. He worked as a Stage Manager for Francis Ford Coppola on his live television project Distant Vision. He has taught playwriting at UCLA, has been a dramaturg and literary assistant for The Theatre @ Boston Court in Los Angeles, and was the head writer for the 2018 Los Angeles Ovation Awards Ceremony. He is a two-time recipient of the George Burns/Grace Allen Fellowship for Comedy.

Actor and director Rod Menzies is an internationally recognized voice, speech, text, and dialect coach. He is a former co-artistic director of Ensemble Studio Theatre Los Angeles (EST/LA), where he serves on the Board of Directors and contributes as an actor and director in the development of new American plays. He is also a member of the Open Fist Theatre Company, where he acts and directs. In 2018, he appeared in Zuri Alexander’s award-winning short film, Quiet Denial, which has screened at a number of film festivals including L.A. Shorts, where it was recognized with an Audience Award.

As a director, Menzies has helmed more than 60 theatrical productions, including three world premieres for EST/LA, and an award-winning world premiere of Tom Jacobson’s Walking to Buchenwald for Open Fist. In Los Angeles, he has performed leading roles at Open Fist, A Noise Within, Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, Pico Playhouse, Getty Villa, Chalk Repertory Theatre and EST/LA. A veteran of the Shakespearean Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, Menzies has played many leading Shakespearean roles, including Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet; Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night; Hortensio in Taming of the Shrew; Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the title role in King Henry V.

As a faculty member in nationally recognized conservatory programs, Menzies has taught acting and directing through many courses in voice, speech, text, and dialects. He is a founding faculty member of Canada’s National Voice Intensive where he taught voice and Shakespeare text for 15 years. As the founding producing director of New York Theatre Intensives, he taught a summer intensive in new play development in collaboration with the member artists of EST/NY.

Among the actors he has coached are Patricia Arquette, Neve Campbell, David Duchovny, Mariska Hargitay, Adrian Homes, James Purefoy, Marcus Scribner, Alicia Silverstone, TJ Thyne, and Sophie Turner.

In addition to UCLA TFT, Menzies teaches at the AMDA Conservatory of the Performing Arts. He received his master of fine arts degree in theatre from York University in Toronto and a diploma in acting from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol, England.

Les Miller is an award-winning short film director and screenwriter. Her acting journey began at 16, when she took an intensive summer course in the Meisner Technique with Sidney Kay from The Neighborhood Playhouse. Encouraged to continue training full-time, Les moved from her home in Pennsylvania to study with the legendary Stella Adler in NYC. After completing 2-years at the Stella Adler Acting Conservatory, she furthered her studies at the HB Studio with Uta Hagen. Les applied her expertise in the craft of acting as a Casting Director in NYC, having cast small independent feature films, and commercials for major brands such as Snickers, AT&T and Renuzit. Les has directed several plays, staged readings, and many actor showcases for high level industry insiders.

Previously, Ms. Miller taught acting and film directing at the New York Film Academy at Universal Studios, served as Director of New Works for the Ark Theatre Company, and was a member of the Playwrights Unit at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, LA.

Currently, Les teaches acting for the camera, and audition technique at the prestigious Theatre of Arts, and the art of directing actors for the screen at the UCLA Extension. In addition, Les is a much sought-after private audition coach whose clients regularly appear in film and television.

As an academic, Ms. Miller holds an M.F.A. in Film Directing and Production from UCLA. She also holds a Certificate in Screenwriting from the UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a double Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, and the Thomas Hunter Honors Program from Hunter College, City University of New York.

Shannan Leigh Reeve is a multi-hyphenate, female filmmaker who attributes her love of filmmaking to growing up across the globe and wanting to document and share the variety of cultures and traditions that she experienced.

Shannan started on stage and in musical theatre before channeling her athleticism into live-action stunt shows (Universal Studios Japan Water World, Universal Studios Hollywood T2:3d, & more) and film acting. In 2012, She moved from working in front of the camera, as an actress and a stuntwoman, to behind the camera as well when she and her wife launched the independent production company, Beleeve Entertainment, with the intention of focusing on themes of social justice, mental health, and positive representation for under-represented voices. Since that time, Shannan has amassed professional credits in a variety of areas of filmmaking, though her emphasis continues to be on directing, as she enjoys navigating the arc of the characters with actors while streamlining the production process with department heads and crew. Using her education in Psychology, Shannan has always approached storytelling from a humanist perspective, leading with empathy and advocacy in the project she undertakes.

Her recent works include editing the feature film, Body of Water (Apple, SVOD), and working on the 2024 Telly award-winning educational series, “All Eyes Here,” for Children Hospital Los Angeles. She has also worked on multiple unscripted projects for HBO, A/E, NBC, Amazon Prime, and Tubi. Her narrative directing work includes The Invisible Border, which was awarded third place at the Houston Cinema Arts Festival CineSpace competition by Richard Linklater—as one of only two female directing finalists out of 658 submissions from 55 countries. She has also directed the short films The Visit, The Least Alone, The Obituarist, and Chromo46, as well as the award-winning narrative feature about addiction, Penumbra.

Shannan is a Stowe Story Lab Alumna – the only director to participate in the 2022 inaugural New Voices New Mexico program with her writing partner. She is also a mentor in The Latino Film Institute’s Youth Cinema Project and a former Cinematography Adjunct Professor.

Before moving to Los Angeles, Alicia Sedwick was a NYC-based actor for over a decade, performing in OffBroadway (Lady Macbeth) and regional theatres including The Old Globe, American Conservatory Theatre (company member), The Colorado Shakespeare Festival and The Ensemble Theatre Company. She has made numerous national commercials and voiceovers, and television credits include Law and Order and LA Dragnet. Alicia is a contributing producer for the nationally-syndicated radio show Experience Talks, and co-produced Spark Off Rose, a live monthly storytelling event in Los Angeles for the last fifteen years. She received her M.F.A. in Acting from The American Conservatory Theatre and teaches College Acting, Movement, Speech, VO, and Conceptual Storytelling. Alicia also coaches and edits speeches for national non-profits, TED Talks, and corporate speakers.