Bio:

Raised in Seattle, Washington by two parents who worked in theater, Tessa spent much of her childhood sitting in the back of a dark room watching people rehearse plays. From a very early age, after spending more time than a child probably should around “theater people,” she knew that was the path for her.

Throughout her childhood, Tessa performed in and directed plays for youth theaters and her high school. She was also a tap dancer, which was where she first learned how important both music and the language of physical movement were to her artistic sensibility. She has been thrilled to expand her movement training into other styles of dance, clowning, and mask work throughout her time at university. 

She has been very grateful to spend the past four years developing her skills at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama and on a semester abroad with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. 

Tessa’s other passion lies in reading and writing fiction, poetry, and scripts. She is particularly interested in material that wrestles with the intersections of gender and sexuality in the 21st century and how our ancestral artistic traditions influence contemporary theater and film making. Tessa believes that humans are, most importantly, storytellers, and she cannot wait to play a role in telling the stories that help people move through their everyday lives.