This year’s 27 Master of Fine Arts (MFA) candidates of The Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University include:
- Young Simba from Broadway’s The Lion King and the originator of the role of Jack Scott in Disney’s stage version of High School Musical (Ruben L. Del Valle, Jr, pictured)
- Reigning Miss Black USA (2010)
- Loud Nanny in The Nanny Diaries (The Weinstein Company)
- Musician featured on the double platinum album The Light & The Shadow, which launched hip hop into Israel’s mainstream
- Grammy award winner, recognized for her outstanding choral and drama programs in a South Carolina high school
- Fulbright Scholar
- Lauded playwright – For the Winter (finalist, 35th Annual Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Contest), and Four Sons (winner, Under 20’s Playwriting Contest, Tarragon Theatre).
- Director of Martha and Me: A Musical, which enjoyed a sell-out run at the New York International Fringe Festival
- Winner of the State of Ohio Solo Musical Theatre Thespian Competition at age 16
- Tri-linguist in English, French and Spanish
- Fortune 500 banker turned actor