Please join us for an evening with five esteemed New York actors with substantial resumes and stories to share. They'll cover how they got their start, roles that opened doors, juggling work and career, managing stress, and weathering the busy times with the lean times. Being an actor can feel like riding a roller coaster. Learn how the panelists have kept their careers in the fast lane while remaining positive and pragmatic about the industry. The ride isn't always smooth, but it's part of the journey.
PANELIST BIOS
Jayne Atkinson - Actor
There’s not much that Jayne Atkinson can’t do. She’s made her mark on and off-Broadway, in films and television, in addition to producing and directing.
Atkinson has been getting noticed these days for her portrayal of Catherine Durant, Secretary of State, on the Netflix Original Series, House of Cards. Previously she scored with recurring roles on the award-winning series 24 and Criminal Minds. She also gave memorable guest star appearances on The Good Wife, Chicago Med, Law and Order, The X-Files, White Collar and Gossip Girl as well as in the Emmy winning HBO film Recount.
On the big screen, Atkinson can currently be seen in the indie feature The Congressman with Treat Williams. Additionally, she appeared in Syriana with George Clooney and Matt Damon, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village,12 and Holding with Jeremy Renner, Handsome Harry with Steve Buscemi and Jamey Sheridan, Free Willy and Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home.
After starting out in productions at the Long Wharf Theater and Manhattan Theater Club, Atkinson made her Broadway debut in a revival production of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. Other Broadway credits include Blithe Spirit alongside Angela Lansbury and Rupert Everett, The Rainmaker, for which she earned a Tony nomination, Enchanted April, which resulted in another Tony nomination along with a Drama Desk nomination and an Outer Critics Circle Award win and Our Town. Atkinson reprised her role in Our Town for the TV movie version of the play directed by James Naughton.
Atkinson was born in Bournemouth, England but her family relocated to the US in her early childhood. She went on to graduate Northwestern University with a BA in Communications before attending Yale Drama School. In addition to acting, Atkinson runs Jadana Productions with a focus on entertainment development. Her other areas of expertise include coaching professionals in the areas of public speaking and project presentation as well as teaching and directing. She also lends her time to promote women’s causes. She is married to actor Michel Gill, whom she met during a production at the Long Wharf Theater and together they have a son.
Donna Lynne Champlin - Actor
In The CW’s critically acclaimed comedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Donna Lynne Champlin plays Paula, the nosy, head paralegal at the law firm Rebecca joins in West Covina. Once she discovers the real reason Rebecca has come to town: love, Paula becomes Rebecca's best friend and worst enabler. She transitions into Alexander Payne’s Downsizing with Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig, in advance of starring in The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park all-female cast of Taming of the Shrew.
A native of Rochester, New York, Champlin has been performing since her very first tap solo in a local variety show at the age of four. At a young age, Champlin won the prestigious Princess Grace Award from The Princess Grace Foundation, the Presidential Scholar in the Arts Grant from The National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, The Anna Sosenko Trust, The Charlie Willard Memorial Grant and the title of National Tap Dance Champion for four consecutive years from the Dance Educators of America.
Champlin graduated with high honors from the prestigious Musical Theater Program at Carnegie Mellon University. She then made her New York Debut at Carnegie Hall starring in the concert version of Very Warm for May. This was followed by James Joyce’s The Dead, Alan Ayckbourn/Andrew Lloyd Webber’s By Jeeves as well as working with Carol Burnett and Hal Prince in Hollywood Arms. In 2006, Champlin starred in the Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd and in 2009 joined the Broadway company of Billy Elliott while simultaneously self-producing her solo debut CD “Old Friends.”
Off Broadway, her performance as Cora Flood in the production of The Dark At The Top of the Stairs, earned her the prestigious 2007 OBIE award. Champlin went on to win the 2013 Drama Desk Award for her performance as Woman #3 in Working, The Musical at the Prospect Theater and the NYMF Award for “Outstanding Performance” in not one but three productions, namely Flight of the Lawnchair Man, Love Jerry and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
Champlin was recently seen Off-Broadway in the critically acclaimed play The Qualms (written by Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Bruce Norris and directed by Tony award winning director Pam McKinnon) at Playwrights Horizons.
Her film credits include Birdman, My Father's Will, The Audition, The Dark Half, By Jeeves and Sweet Surrender. Television credits include The Good Wife, Younger, Mother’s Day, Law And Order and Law and Order: SVU. Champlin is also well known for her work on the hit web-series Submissions Only.
Champlin is currently working on two books: a humorous non-fiction book inspired by her (mis)adventures in the theatre and the other a ‘how-to of comedy’. She lives in New York City but recently moved to Los Angeles with her husband, actor Andrew Arrow and her son, Charlie.
Colman Domingo - Actor
Colman Domingo is an award-winning actor, playwright, and director who is a triple threat in 2016 with TV, film, and theater anticipated projects.
Domingo reprised his role as Victor Strand on season 2 of AMC’s hit show, Fear the Walking Dead, which premiered in April 2016. Details of the mysterious Strand were revealed in this season’s most anticipated storyline. Den of Geek wrote, “A lot of Strand’s appeal stems from Colman Domingo himself. He’s a compelling actor with an incredible screen presence.”
Next up, Domingo joined an all-star cast in Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation opposite Armie Hammer, Gabrielle Union and Nate Parker. The film is a biopic of slave-turned-revolutionary Nat Turner and premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The movie broke records as it was picked up by Fox Searchlight in a multi-million-dollar deal and is set to premiere on October 07, 2016.
As an Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, and Drama League Award nominated and OBIE and Lucille Lortel Award winner Domingo has solidified himself as a Broadway veteran. Domingo’s newest play Dot premiered at the Humana Festival in Louisville last year and earlier this year was off Broadway at the Vineyard Theater and directed by Tony Award winner Susan Stroman. The New York Times wrote, “Colman Domingo’s thoroughly entertaining comedy-drama Dot… is an impressive advance for Mr. Domingo, also a gifted musical-theater performer… While conventional in form, it’s uproariously funny, if naturally streaked with sadness (and at times, a pinch or two of sentimentality).”
Domingo’s theater career took off when he starred in the critically-acclaimed rock musical Passing Strange. The Off-Broadway ensemble cast received an OBIE Award in 2008, and Domingo reprised his roles in the film version of Passing Strange, directed by Spike Lee, in 2009. He made his British and Australian debuts with his self-penned solo play, A Boy and His Soul. This production originated at New York City’s Vineyard Theater and won him GLAAD and Lucille Lortel awards in 2010. Domingo will once again revive, and direct, A Boy and His Soul in August of 2016 for The Guthrie Theatre.
In 2010, Domingo starred as Billy Flynn in Chicago, the longest revival on Broadway, and in the award-winning The Scottsboro Boys, a role which he originated on and off Broadway. Domingo was nominated for a Tony Award, Olivier Award, and a Fred Astaire Award for his role in The Scottsboro Boys. Additional theater credits the Off Broadway revival of Blood Knot and Wild With Happy.
As a director, Domingo recently staged the Off Broadway Alliance Award-winning production of A Band of Angels and helmed August Wilson’s Seven Guitars for the Actors Theater of Louisville in the fall of 2015. He also directed the critically-acclaimed Off Broadway productions of Exit Cuckoo and Single Black Female.
Additional film credits include Ava DuVernay’s Selma and Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Joe Roth’s Freedomland and Clint Eastwood’s True Crime, Spike Lee’s Miracle at St. Ana, and Red Hook Summer, and the first ever screen adaptation of a Ralph Ellison story, King of the Bingo Game, among others. His TV credits include: The Knick, Lucifer, Law & Order, The Big Gay Sketch Show and Nash Bridges.
Domingo is on the Board of the Directors of the Vineyard Theater in New York City. He is also on faculty at The National Theater Institute (Eugene O’Neill Theater Center) and guest-lectured and mentored in many colleges and universities around the country. Domingo directed for Berkeley Rep as well as Lincoln Center Director’s Lab.
Michel Gil - Actor
B'way: A Man For All Seasons (w/ Frank Langella) Off- B'way: Speaking in Tongues (Roundabout) A Winter’s Tale (CSC w/ David Strathairn) Naked (CSC) Othello (N.Y. Shakespeare Fest. w/ Christopher Walken and Raul Julia) Lincoln Portrait (Joyce Theatre) Da Caravvaggio (MCC) Coyote Ugly (New York Theatre Workshop) REGIONAL: Over 30 plays in leading roles: Yale Rep., Long Wharf, Berkshire Theatre Festival, The Folger, The Old Globe, The Huntington, Portland Stage,The Alley, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Pittsburgh Public Theatre. FILM: Everything, Condemned, Ideal, To Forget Palermo, Protocol, TV: Mr Robot – Gideon, House of Cards – President Garrett Walker, Forever, Dangerous Liasons, Person of Interest, The Good Wife, Law and Order CI, L.A. Law, Guiding Light, All MyChildren. The Juilliard School of Drama: 1985.
LaTanya Richardson Jackson - Actor
LaTanya Richardson Jackson is an accomplished actress of the stage and screen who recently received critical praise, as well as a Tony Award Best Actress Nomination, for her performance as “Lena Younger” in the 2014 Broadway revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. She also received the “Distinguished Performance” Drama League Award nomination.
Currently, Richardson Jackson can be seen at the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park’s production of Taming of the Shrew as Baptista under Phillida Lloyd’s direction. In honor of the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death, the show began performances on May 24th and will officially open on June 13th.
Last fall, she starred in the HBO six-hour miniseries, Show Me a Hero, from The Wire co-creator David Simon, Directed by Oscar winner Paul Haggis. In addition she received the NAACP Image Award Nomination for Best Actress for her performance.
LaTanya’s extensive theatre credits include Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Broadway); for colored girls…, Spell #7, Casanova, and Unfinished Women (Public Theater); Stop Reset (Signature Theatre) and August Wilson’s 20th Century cycle (Kennedy Center), among others. Her film and television credits include The Fighting Temptations, U.S. Marshals, Freedomland, Losing Isaiah, Mother and Child, Damages and Sidney Lumet’s critically acclaimed 100 Centre Street.
Richardson Jackson is occupied with an overwhelming number of civic duties. She and her husband Samuel L. Jackson established the Samuel L. & LaTanya R. Jackson Foundation to carry out their commitment to a range of philanthropic issues in the United States and Africa. A graduate of Spelman College, she has served on their Board of Trustees, and presently serves on the Advisory Board of The Women’s Center there. She is currently a board member of the American Theatre Wing and Artists for a New South Africa. She serves on the advisory council of several organizations including Atlanta’s True Colors Theatre and the Ebony Repertory Theatre of Los Angeles.
LaTanya has received a number of awards for her philanthropic work including The United Negro College Fund, and the N.Y. Keeper of the Dream Award. LaTanya and Sam have one gifted daughter, the beautifully talented Zoe Dove.
Lori Hammel - Actor, Moderator
Lori Hammel is a NYC based actress and writer who has performed on Broadway (Mamma Mia!) and Off Broadway as well as in National Tours including 9 to 5 and most recently as Ethel Mertz in in I Love Lucy Live. In 2015, she received an Excellence in Acting Award at the NY Fringe Festival in Gary Apple’s Hell is for Real.
Film work includes playing a morning show host in the Coen brother's feature Burn After Reading; An Invisible Sign; She's Lost Control (2014 Berlin Film Festival, SXSW) and playing the lead in Coney Island Queen (2014 Cannes Shorts Corner). TV includes The Following, 30 Rock, and The Colbert Report. As an improviser, Lori played recurring political pundit Leslie Hillerman on the Onion News Network series, In The Know and is the creator and star of the series Margo Rose Ferderer Reports.
Look for Lori in season two of HULU’s Difficult People with comedian Julie Klausner and in two upcoming indie features - Cheerleader and the thriller Rapid Eye Movement starring François Arnaud.
She is the 2014 recipient of the SAG-AFTRA Joseph C. Riley Service Award. Lori co-authored the critically acclaimed guidebook Minding the Edge – Strategies for a Fulfilling, Successful Career as an Actor (2012 Waveland Press) and is a contributing writer for Acting for the Stage (2017 Focal Press).
She is currently playing another iconic TV housewife as Mrs. Cunningham in Happy Days at Westchester Broadway. www.lorihammel.com
