Sara Ramirez
Sara Ramirez made her Broadway debut playing Wahzinak in Paul Simon's The Caperman. The following year she starred in The Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythm and received the Outer Critics Circle Award for her role. She has also made appearances in A Class Act and Dreamgirls, as well as performing in The Vagina Monologues with Tovah Feldshuh and Suzanne Bertish.In 2004, Ramirez earned the role of Lady of the Lake in the Eric Idle/John Du Prez musical Spamalot. The musical was met with widespread acclaim and Ramirez was won sever awards including the 2005 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.After her success on Broadway, Ramirez joined the cast of Grey's Anatomy as Dr. Calliope "Callie" Torres. She provided a cappella vocals in the song "Silent Night" for the soundtrack of the show's sixth season episode "Holidaze." This version of the song was released as a single on iTunes. Her voice was also showcased on Ep. 718 "Song Beneath the Song." Her solo music debut was an extended play released on the iTunes store in 2011 which included three original songs, as well as a recording of "The Story", performed on the musical episode of Grey's Anatomy.
Albert Jones
Albert Jones, went on to graduate from the University of California Irvine. His most recent accomplishment includes a starring role in Red Tails - a movie about the renowned African American Tuskegee Airmen and their contributions to the U.S. World War II efforts.
Carey Scott
Carey Scott is a 1993 graduate of SCPA. He went on to be trained under legendary master teacher Stella Adler. Carey has been a professional actor for over 25 years. He has appeared in over 75 films and television shows as well as dozens of plays in New York and Los Angeles. Some of his co-stars include Brad Pitt, Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman, Johnny Depp,Whoopi Goldberg, Madonna, Tom Hanks, Alan Alda, Haley Joel Osment, Jennifer Aniston, Martin Lawrence, Alec Baldwin, James Spader and many others.
Carey has been teaching at his own acting school, The Rehearsal Room, in Los Angeles and San Diego for over 25 years.
He recently directed his second full length feature film, To the Wall, for SONY Pictures. To the Wall will open theatrically nationwide, September 2009.
Carey has been a member of SAG, AFTRA and Equity for over 25 years.
Giovonnie Samuels
Giovonnie Lavette Samuels, born in Santa Ana on November 13, 1990 and raised in San Diego, California, is the oldest of three. Her love for the stage started at the age of 8 in her first major role in Tied to the Tracks. She was of course the hot-gun toting Annie. Spotted by a talent scout, she was asked to attend the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts where she gained her training in classical ballet, art, and began to perfect her skills in acting. At the age of 13, she auditioned for Nickelodeon's All That and got the part. In 2004, Giovonnie and her castmates won a Nickelodeon's Kids Choice Award for Favorite Television Show. Later that year Giovonnie starred in a new Bill Cosby cartoon called Fatherhood with Blair Underwood that lasted for two seasons. Since her three year run on All That, she has guest starred on episodes of That's So Raven, The Bernie Mac Show, and Strong Medicine. Her most recent projects are Bring it On: All or Nothing with Hayden Panettiere, Francia Raisa, Solange Knowles, Freedom Writers with Hillary Swank, and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. In her spare time Giovonnie loves to teach acting to inner-city youth.
James Maslow
James Maslow was raised in La Jolla, California, after being born in New York City on July 16, 1990. Maslow joined the San Diego Children's Choir, igniting an undying passion for singing and performing. Determined to be an entertainer, he transferred to the San Diego School of Creative Performing Arts, approximately thirty miles from his home. He then attended the Coronado School for the Arts. Recently Maslow guest starred on iCarly as the cute boy who causes a rift between best friends Carly and Sam when they fight over who saw him first. He is best known for his role as James on the Nickelodeon series, Big Time Rush. He has a scar on his elbow, which received while performing on a hockey-related stunt for the first episode of Big Time Rush.
Asa singer/songwriter who plays the piano and guitar, Maslow feels this project "is a dream come true" and he is ready for "the big challenge to do it well and to do it right."
You can find out more about James at http://jamesmaslowfan.com/.
Kimberly King
Kimberly King is an Emmy award winning host of lifestyle programs such as "Streetside San Diego,""Life Moments," "The Olympic Ozone," "Holidays on Horton Square," and"NBC 7/39's International Auto Show," Kimberly King was named 2006 San Diego Magazine's "50 People to Watch."
Watching her is exactly what San Diegans have been doing for over 10 years when they tuned into NBC 7/39. An upbeat, positive addition to the news team, Kimberly worked as feature, entertainment, news and traffic reporter. She's covered some ground, both on the air and in the air, aboard Newschopper7/39.
"Streetside San Diego" and "Behind the Scenes With Kimberly King" gave Kimberly the opportunity to interview such well-known celebrities as LaDanian Tomlinson, Trevor Hoffman, Steve Finley, Ellen DeGeneres, Suzanne Somers the cast of "Scrubs," "ER," "My Name Is Earl," "Las Vegas," and many others.
A San Diego native,Kimberly studied music, dance, voice, and theatre at the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts before attending USIU's School of Performing and Visual Arts College on a Musical Theatre scholarship.She ultimately graduated from San Diego State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech Communication.
Her volunteerism is well known throughout San Diego, where she headlined fundraising efforts for a variety of worthy causes including United Cerebral Palsy, Children's Dental Health Association, the Old Globe Theatre, Kids' Korp, YMCA, SDSU, Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego Fire Rescue among others.
Lou Romano
Lou Romano (class of 1990) is an American voice actor, artist, and production designer. He was also a member of the Art Department at Pixar Animation Studios from(2000-2008). He took an interest in drawing at an early age and studied theater arts, performing in plays throughout his time at SCPA. After graduating in 1990 he studied animation at the California Institute of the Arts (90-92). Since then he has worked as an art director and designer on various projects, including The Powerpuff Girls and The Iron Giant.
In 2000, Lou Romano joined Pixar, as the production designer of The Incredibles for which he won an Annie Award in 2005.His artwork has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and the Gallery at The Metropolitan Opera in New York City and has been published on the cover of The New Yorker. He has provided voice work on three Pixar films, including the character of Linguini in Ratatouille in 2007. Most recently, Romano worked as an art director on Pixar's10th feature film, Up.
Romano left Pixar in 2008 and currently works at LAIKA.
He is currently working with Jan Pinkava in an upcoming CG project for LAIKA.
Christian Hoff
Christian Hoff won a Tony Award for his performance as Tommy DeVito in "Jersey Boys", as well as Drama Desk Award, Drama League Award and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations. He was named "The Master of Mimicry" by Entertainment Weekly. His voice-over accomplishments have earned him notable success including Foreword Magazine's 2008 Audio Book of The Year, when his voicing of over 200 characters surpassed the audio book world record. As the voice of Richie Rich in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series, his voice-over career was launched and continues today with numerous audio books, television and radio campaigns. Theatrical highlights include the roles of Frank-n-Furter in the Los Angeles production of "The Rocky Horror Show"; King Herod in the national revival tour of "Jesus Christ Superstar"; Governor Hugh Dorsey in the Los Angeles revival of "Parade"; George M. Cohan in "George M!"; Will Rogers in "The Will Rogers Follies"; Huck in "Big River"; and his Broadway debut in the Tony Award and Grammy Award winning "The Who's Tommy.” He recorded Grammy Award Winning Cast Albums for both "Jersey Boys" and "The Who's Tommy” with famed Beatles producer George Martin. On television, Christian has most recently guest-starred on NBC's "Law & Order: SVU", has appeared as D.A. Richard Blackman on ABC's "Ugly Betty", as well as federal prosecutor Thomas Grady on NBC's "Law and Order: Criminal Intent." Other notable film and television credits include roles in "Encino Man," "Star Trek IV," "Honor Thy Mother," "In Love and War," "ER," "JAG," "Party of Five,""Millennium," "The Commish," "Beverly Hills 90210" and the recurring role of Marty on "All My Children."
His independent film debut, "Bad Dog and Superhero", was an official selection at the Brilliant Lights Film Festival Los Angeles, winner of the Best Director Award at the Calgary Fringe Film Festival, as well as a best screenplay nomination and winner of the Stand Up For The Stand Out Award at Hell's Half Mile Film Festival. Christian plays guitar and sings the entire original film score written by Mark Hart of Crowded House, Ringo Starr and Supertramp fame. He has enjoyed solo performances in New York City's Cutting Room, Triad Theater, Joe's Pub, Metropolitan Room, BB Kings, Town Hall and repeat solo turns at Carnegie Hall. Christian is a founding member of the The Midtown Men, currently celebrating their third smash year on tour. He is a proud husband and a father of five.
For more information visit his official page at http://www.christianhoff.com/.
Clarke Thorell
When SCPA students went on their annual Washington trip they had the opportunity to meet former SCPA graduate (Class of 1986), Clarke Thorell. Clarke was starring as Corny Collins in Hairspray on Broadway.Clarke has been in a number of Broadway plays and made many TV appearances including appearances on "Law and Order: SVU," "Ed,""Rescue Me," and "The Sopranoes." Playing Andy Williams, Clarke recently toured Europe, South America and the U.S. with Liza Minnelli,recreating the nightclub act made famous in 1948 by her godmother, Kay Thompson, and the Williams Bros.
Charl Brown
Originally from sunny San Diego, California, Charl Brown attended the San Diego School Of Creative and Performing Arts from 8-12th Grade. Here he discovered his passion for Theater and the drive to make a living as an actor. In San Diego he began to professionally hone his craft at local SoCal theaters such as, Starlight Theater, Moonlight Amphitheater, San Diego Musical Theater, Musical Theater West and Perfomance Riverside. He went on to become a proud graduate of the prestigious University of Southern California, School Of Theater.
Shortly after earning his Bachelor of Arts from USC, Charl starred as Hud in the European Tour of HAIR, where over the course of 2 years played 8 countries in 3 different languages.
In 2007, Charl appeared Off-Broadway in the musical Walmartopia and in 2008-2009 Charl appeared as Barry Belson in the Las Vegas Production of the Tony Award Winning Jersey Boys.
In the Spring of 2011, Charl made his Broadway debut in the original cast of Sister Act and December 2012 he returned to Broadway for a 6 week engagement reprising his track as Barry Belson in Jersey Boys.
Currently Charl stars as Smokey Robinson in the Smash Hit Motown: the Musical, for which he was nominated for a 2013 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in A Musical.
Ananda Lewis
Ananda Lewis attended SCPA for nine years and graduated in 1991. She majored in history at Howard University, in Washington, D.C., from which she graduated, cum laude, in 1995. During college she auditioned for the on-screen host of BET’s Teen Summit and for three seasons she discussed serious issues affecting teenagers. In 1997 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People presented Lewis with an Image Award for her work on BET. Soon afterward the cable network MTV offered Lewis a position Total Request Live, a daily Top 10 video-countdown show, and The Hot Zone, which offered both music videos and Lewis's interviews of musicians and others. MTV also called upon Lewis to host other, topical programs, including two MTV forums on violence in schools, which aired after the Columbine High School massacre and several memorial tributes for the singer Aaliyah, who perished in a plane crash in 2001. In 2001 Lewis earned another NAACP Image Award, for her hosting of the MTV special True Life: I Am Driving While Black.
In 2001, Lewis decided to leave MTV in order to start her own talk show. The Ananda Lewis Show debuted on September 10, 2001. Lewis's series targeted young women by addressing such issues as domestic violence and breast cancer; it was billed as an alternative to the sensationalism and provocative offerings of other talk shows.
In 2004 Lewis became the chief correspondent on celebrity subjects for the nationally syndicated, nightly entertainment program The Insider. She also appeared on the ABC network’s reality show called Celebrity Mole: Yucatán. This reality series won an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement for Enhanced Television.
An avid animal lover, Lewis has served as co-host of the A&E television-network show America's Top Dog and as a spokesperson for the Humane Society. She has also been a spokesperson for Reading Is Fundamental, a nonprofit literacy group.