Savvy Team
JODIE BENTLEY is an entrepreneur, career coach, teacher and professional actor in NYC. After graduating with a BFA in Acting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts at the Stella Adler Conservatory, she discovered her other loves – sales and marketing. Jodie built her own highly successful sales and marketing company from the ground up. She cultivated years of experience in targeted branding, successful sales tactics, and outside-the-box marketing strategies. Her company laid the foundation for her success in the business of acting, and developed her keen eye and savvy gift for helping other actors achieve their own goals. As an actor, Jodie has played leading roles in workshops of new musicals and plays at the York Theatre, New World Stages, The Workshop Theater and all over NYC. Some of her favorite regional roles include: Annie Get Your Gun (Annie Oakley), They’re Playing Our Song (Sonia), Sylvia (Sylvia), Prelude to a Kiss (Rita). She also works frequently in commercials, soaps, voiceovers and print. www.jodiebentley.com
KEVIN URBAN is a professional actor/singer and career coach who aims to share his entrepreneurial vision by empowering clients to achieve their dreams. While in college, Kevin fell in love with the syllabus. The syllabus allowed Kevin, A graduate of Elizabethtown College with a BA in Communications focusing on PR, Marketing and Theatre, to stay on top of grades, perform and swim competitively. Swimming allowed Kevin to learn the art of setting goals and achieving them through patience and practice, as well as, begin to coach others in the pursuit of excellence. In addition to the syllabus and competitive swimming, Kevin credits his wide range of interests which include, science fiction, puppeteering, comedic & musical improv, graphic design, social networking, and any new technology that makes his life easier (particularly all things apple), for his inspiration to bring new innovative ideas and thinking to the acting community. As an actor, Kevin has performed since the age of five, working in Theatre, TV, Film and Commercials. www.kevinurban.com
DOUG SHAPIRO, a career consultant with The Savvy Actor, takes great pride in helping clients master their careers. He is renowned for his ‘FODapalooza’ networking events and monthly e-newsletters. Doug's eight years with Right Management, a company that provides career management services, provided the foundation for his expertise in self-marketing, interviewing and networking techniques. Doug is a guest lecturer on the business of acting at colleges extending from the University of Southern Maine, to Villanova University to Virginia's Shenandoah Conservatory. As a performer, Doug is an expert at creating multiple characters for musical and voiceover projects and his other work ranges from performing with a fifteen piece 1940’s big band to voicing several characters for Disney’s Finding Nemo: The Musical. Doug graduated from Syracuse University with a BFA in Musical Theater, Vocal Jazz, and Stage Management and has been working steadily in the Boston and New York City markets ever since. www.dougshapiro.com
CHRISTINA SHIPP is a professional actor and career coach in NYC. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, as a teen she went to the Youth Performing Arts School before heading down to Charleston, South Carolina. She’d like to think a little of that southern charm has rubbed off on her. Christina graduated from the College of Charleston with two degrees: one in Theatre and one in Sociology. She came to NYC and continues to live the adventure, working on stage and screen and helping others do the same. Her sociology background has instilled in her to always look at the bigger picture, and planted the seeds for structure, analysis, and implementation. Merging those skills with her acting and her training in The Lucid Body Technique, have sharpened her instincts, opened her awareness, and reinforced her intuition as a coach and a performer. Christina also studies improv at The PIT, works with The Flux Theatre Ensemble, and runs with the Pack: Packawallop Productions which is a film and production company in NYC. As a coach, she is dedicated to eradicating the starving artist mentality and empowering creative artists to conquer their fear and take control of their careers. Rock n romance, business lovers. www.christinashipp.com
STEPHEN MITCHELL BROWN is overjoyed to be working with The Savvy Actor as their web consultant and advisor of things in the technical world. While gearing up to become a distributor of Send Out Cards, he continues to pursue his first love of performing. He has performed regionally across the country and in Japan. Favorite Roles include Beauty & the Beast (The Beast), Showboat (Ravenal) , Carousel (Enoch Snow), Captains Couragous (Manuel), Guys & Dolls (Nicely), and Greater Tuna (Thurston, et al.). He has been designing websites as his "other job" for 2 years and recently launched his new company, Moneynote Designs, to help performing artists create a space of their own on the web. Stephen graduated from Muhlenberg College with a BA in Theatre w/ Music Minor. He currently studies voice and acting in NYC. www.stephenmitchellbrown.com
RACHEL GRUNDY - a native of London, Rachel has been working in the independent theatre, film and music scene in New York since 2003, relocating permanently in 2005. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Drama from the University of East Anglia in the UK, and since moving to the US has done everything from stage managing a Broadway-sized tour of Beauty and the Beast to co-writing, producing and performing in off-off-Broadway shows, garnering four audience awards for acting in the process. Recently she has focused on film acting and music, performing regularly with her band Coyote Love (who released their debut album last year) around NYC and the tri-state area, and working on independent film projects with a variety of directors. She became a Savvy client through her good friend Doug Shapiro, who provided invaluable coaching as she worked on her career transition, and is delighted to be a part of the amazing Savvy team as Database Manager. www.rachelgrundy.com
JENN MELLO hails from the beautiful Appalachian Mountains in Northern New Jersey. Growing up in a musical household she naturally became a singer and went on to get a bachelors degree in Music Education (voice) from The University of North Carolina, Greensboro. She then furthered her studies at NYU’s Steinhardt School where she got a Masters in Musical Theatre. Since graduating she switched gears to focus on straight theatre and film, and thanks to the help from Savvy she booked the role of Callie in “Stop Kiss,” here in New York; as well as leading roles in 3 independent short films. In addition to her acting work, Miss Mello also teaches private voice lessons and coaches monologues. She is thrilled to be joining the Savvy team! Thanks to Kevin and Jodie for all their help and guidance!
DE ANNE DUBIN is a proud Michigander who has spent much of her life outside of Michigan. Most recently she landed into NYC and was overjoyed to become a Savvy client, as well as join the Savvy team as their Web Assistant. Previously, she received her Bachelor of Music in voice performance from Boston University then returned to the Midwest to complete her MFA in Acting at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her current educational connection is as a Voice & Movement instructor at the New York Film Academy. As a performer her favorite credits include The Diary of Anne Frank (Miep), Talley’s Folly (Sally Talley), Dutchman (Lula) and Three Sisters (Olga). www.deannedubin.com
