North Carolina School of the Arts

Thomas Edward "Tom" Hulce is an American actor and theater producer. As an actor, he is perhaps best known for his Oscar-nominated portrayal of... Mozart in the movie Amadeus and his role as "Pinto" in National Lampoon's Animal House. Additional acting awards included a total of four Golden Globe nominations, an Emmy Award, and a Tony Award nomination. Hulce retired from acting in the mid-1990s in order to focus upon stage directing and producing. In 2007, he won a Tony Award as a lead producer of the Broadway musical Spring Awakening. Hulce was born in Detroit, Michigan . The youngest of four children, he was raised in Plymouth, Michigan. His mother, Joanna , sang briefly with Phil Spitalny's All-Girl Orchestra, and his father, Raymond Albert Hulce, worked for the Ford Motor Company. Although he originally wanted to be a singer as a child, he switched to acting after his voice changed during his teenage years. He left home at the age of 15 and attended Interlochen Arts Academy and the North Carolina School of the Arts.
more

Anthony Mackie is an American actor. He has been featured in feature films, television series and Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, including Ma... Rainey's Black Bottom, Drowning Crow, McReele, A Soldier's Play, and Talk, by Carl Hancock Rux, for which he won an Obie Award in 2002. In 2002, he was featured in Eminem's debut film, 8 Mile, playing Papa Doc, a member of Leaders of the Free World. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards for his role in The Hurt Locker. This is Mackie's second ISA nomination, the first coming for his work in 2003 in Brother to Brother, where he was nominated for Best Actor. Also in 2009, Mackie portrayed rapper Tupac Shakur in the film Notorious. He appears in the 2011 Matt Damon film The Adjustment Bureau where he plays Harry Mitchell, a sympathetic member of a shadowy supernatural group that controls human destiny. Mackie was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of Martha G. and Willie Mackie. He attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and graduated from the high school drama program at the North Carolina School of the Arts in 1997.
more

Kristin Chenoweth is an American singer and actress, with credits in musical theatre, film and television. She is best known on Broadway for her... performance as Sally Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown , for which she won a Tony Award, and for originating the role of Glinda in the musical Wicked . Her best-known television role is Annabeth Schott in NBC's The West Wing. As Olive Snook on the ABC comedy-drama Pushing Daisies, she won a 2009 Emmy Award. Chenoweth stars in the ABC TV series GCB, which premiered in March 2012. An Oklahoma native, Chenoweth sang gospel music as a child and studied opera before deciding to pursue a career in musical theatre. In 1997, she made her Broadway debut in Steel Pier. Besides You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Wicked, Chenoweth's stage work includes five City Center Encores! productions, Broadway's The Apple Tree in 2006 and Promises, Promises in 2010, as well as Off-Broadway and regional theatre productions. Chenoweth had her own TV series Kristin in 2001, and has guest starred on many shows, including Sesame Street and Glee, for which she was nominated for Emmy awards in 2010 and 2011.
more

Deborrah Kaye “Debbie” Allen is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, television director, television producer, and a member of... the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. She is perhaps best known for her work on the 1982 musical-drama television series Fame, where she portrayed dance teacher Lydia Grant, and served as the series' principal choreographer. She is the younger sister of actress/singer Phylicia Rashād. Allen was born in Houston, Texas, the youngest of four children to orthodontist Andrew Arthur Allen Sr. and Vivian Allen, she is a poet and museum art director. She went on to earn a B.A. degree in classical Greek literature, speech, and theater from Howard University. She holds honoris causa Doctors from Howard University and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She currently teaches young dancers. She also taught choreography to former Los Angeles Lakers dancer-turned-singer, Paula Abdul. Her daughter, Vivian Nixon, played Kalimba in the Broadway production of Hot Feet. Debbie Allen had her Broadway debut in the chorus of Purlie.
more