Yá'át'ééh!

I’m Anthony and I am an actor based out of New York City. I studied at the William Esper Studio under John Frey and David Newer.

I’m a proud mix-blooded Navajo and was born in Gallup, NM. I grew up on the Navajo Nation so I spent equal time between Arizona and New Mexico. I performed since I was a child, traveling around the southwest with my family’s Navajo dance team - believe it or not, our Navajo dance team was hired to be in Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” music video but we didn’t make it into the final edit (Boo!). But all good!

After a couple years in college, I decided to travel around the world with Up with People (UWP) where I performed in several of the front line dances. Additionally, proving my leadership and theatre knowledge during my Assistant Stage Manager internship with UWP, I was asked to assist the show team during my student tour when the technical manager had to part the tour early. Enjoying the world travel and engaging in intercultural exchange, I continued to travel with Up with People as their Lighting Technician Supervisor across 12 countries.

After UWP, I went back to college at The University of New Mexico and completed my B.A. in Intercultural Communication and minored in psychology and theatre. While attending UNM, I took musical theatre classes and met Broadway producer and actor, Rich Affannato (Peter and the Starcatcher), who invited me to attend his 2-week intensive, Backdoor to Broadway, in Texas where I studied with Rich, Alet Taylor (Freaky Friday), Andy Taylor (Once), and Gregory Treco (Hamilton). The teachers quickly recognized me for having ‘strong acting abilities and natural instincts that are hard to teach’ and even called me “charming as sh*t!” after workshopping my rendition of “Who I’d Be” from Shrek the Musical.

After my experience in Texas and demonstrating to be a stronger actor than singer, I went to the bookstore and found William Esper’s book, The Actors Art and Craft.

I took a detour to graduate school for International Development and Service-learning but it was not without my artist heart being present. I focused on identity and community development through the arts. I worked with NinaShunko, an organization dedicated to cultural and ancestral education through the arts. I wrote papers analyzing Narrative Identity in the musical Tarzan, and constantly discussed the importance storytelling had in forming identity and how it could be used in participatory action research. In fact, graduate school is where I picked up photography and was quickly recognized for my artist eye (Read more about that journey here). I truly believe being behind the camera makes me better in front of the camera - and vice versa!

So it was after graduate school, that I returned to William Esper’s book, and my acting heart, and moved to New York City and studied at the William Esper Studio. I continue to take scene study classes at the William Esper Studio and worked with Bruce McCarty and Jennifer Monaco. While in NYC, I’ve continued to hone my skills as performer and creator!

Recent work includes The Dim by Ginew Benton.