M.F.A. in Acting

Tiffany Denise Hobbs

Tiffany is a television, film, and theater actress that has trained for over two decades at prestigious liberal and performing arts institutions, including SMU, Yale, The Second City, and Upright Citizens Brigade.

A former member of the Brierley Resident Acting Company at the Dallas Theater Center and featured actress at Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre, Tiffany appeared as Shenzi in the National Tour of The Lion King for two years. In 2018, Tiffany joined the Broadway musical, Waitress, spear-headed by Sara Bareilles, Jessie Nelson, and Diane Paulus. In 2019, she was nominated by the Connecticut Critics Circle Awards as Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance as Olivia in Twelfth Night at the Yale Repertory Theatre. Tiffany also played Ursula in New York Shakespeare in Park's critically acclaimed production of Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Kenny Leon.

On TV, she can be found co-starring in Donald Glover's FX hit, "Atlanta"; Netflix's "Ozark", "The Haunting of Hill House" and "Pose"; the OWN Network's "Love Is ___"; CBS's "MacGyver," "Bull" and "Code Black"; and in SyFy's "Happy." She can also be seen guest-starring as Penelope Van Summers in the TNT drama, "Claws". Tiffany is a part of multiple series in the upcoming 2022 season as well.

You can catch her as Sondra in Aaron Sorkin's film "The Trial of the Chicago 7", on Netflix.

Michael Aronov

Aronov spent three seasons on The Americans portraying the role of Anton Baklanov. In 2017, The Blacklist brought him on to play Smokey Putnum. Aronov was also recurring as right-hand-man to John Malkovich in Showtime's Billions. Aronov is currently playing one of the leads in a new series for Cinemax called Jett and was recently seen on the big screen in Operation Finale. Aronov is also known for his role as Chovka in The Drop (2014). Other films include Amexicano and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. For his stage work Aronov received the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play in 2017 for his role as Uri Savir in the play Oslo. He was also honored with the Lucille Lortel Award and the Obie Award.

Lauren Graham

Graham played Lorelai Gilmore in the hit show, Gilmore Girls (2000) that ran for seven seasons on The CW. Graham was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, nominated for a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Female Television Star, won two Teen Choice Awards and nominated twice for a SAG award, and many more awards. In 2016, Graham continued the saga of Gilmore girls with the spin-off—Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life (2016) streamed on Netflix. Currently, Graham is playing Alex in The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers (2021) streaming on Disney Plus.

Brandon Potter

Potter was a member of Dallas Theater Center’s Diane and Hal Brierley Resident Acting Company for the 2014 and 2015 seasons: The Great Society (President Johnson); Deferred Action; All the Way (President Johnson); A Christmas Carol (Ebenezer Scrooge); Sense and Sensibility; The Book Club Play. Regional credits include Jake in Straight White Men at Second Thought Theatre; Gene the Carpenter in The Carpenter at the Alley Theatre; Gloucester in Richard III at Shakespeare Dallas. Onscreen: Dale in the Sundance feature, Little Woods; Ezra in the sci-fi series, Day 5; Roman Praetor Quintus in the TV Series The Chosen. All manner of voiceover for cartoons, video games, and commercials. Recent clients include Samsung, Whole Foods, and Facebook.

Tiana Kaye Blair

Tiana Kaye Blair, a native of Dallas, TX, is a director, actor, educator, culture worker, and the first artist to become certified to teach SoulWork. SoulWork is a comprehensive theater-making methodology and pedagogy based in African American performance traditions, developed by Dr. Cristal Chanelle Truscott. Through affirming Black artistic practices, SoulWork models inclusive pedagogy and creates space and opportunity for artists of all backgrounds to investigate cultural influences within their own artistic practices. The method engages artists in cross-community dialogue about cultural knowledge and specificity, and assimilation and appropriation, in efforts to decolonize artistic practice and curricula. As an artist and activist Blair has used this method to facilitate community conversations, curate artistic space within under-represented and marginalized communities, train practitioners and future theatre professionals, and create theatrical work within the professional theatre industry. Her directing work includes Spell 7 (Prairie View A&M University); Dutchman (Metamorphosis Theatre); Mlima’s Tale, Libra Season (Second Thought Theatre) Working: A Musical (Dallas Theater Center), Hurt Village (Southern Methodist University). She is a member of the Dallas Theater Center’s Brierley Resident Acting Company where some of her acting credits include: penny candy, Steel Magnolias, In The Heights, The Great Society, Hair, and The Mountaintop.

Antoinette Crowe-Legacy

Legacy is best known for her work in Godfather of Harlem, Geechee and Passing. Currently, Legacy is playing Kaneisha in Slave Play on Broadway, and an upcoming show called Kindred—based on the Octavia E. Butler Novel.

Amy Acker

Acker first gained recognition for her starring role as Winifred “Fred” Burkle on the television series Angel. She won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series and received nominations from the Cinescape and Golden Satellite Awards for the role. Her most recent television roles have been playing “Caitlyn Strucker” on Marvel’s The Gifted and the hacker/assassin turned Machine, “Root,” on Person of Interest. Acker’s other series regular roles include Alias, Dollhouse, and Happy Town. Guest-starring roles include Grey’s Anatomy, Suits, Agents of Shield, How I Met Your Mother, The Good Wife, Grimm, Once Upon a Time, No Ordinary Family, Private Practice, Supernatural, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Acker starred as “Beatrice” in the independent feature film Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Joss Whedon. The film premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.

Beethovan Oden

Beethovan has appeared on regional stages across the country and select credits include: The Bluest Eye, Intimate Apparel, The Mountaintop, Master Harold…And the Boys, The Fabulous Miss Marie, Argonautika, A Raisin in the Sun, Our Town where he was recognized for his turn as the Stage Manager and My Children! My Africa! for which he received the Ossie Davis Award for his portrayal of Thami. Since settling in New York City he has worked Off-Broadway with New Federal Theatre, Luna Stage, Metropolitan Playhouse, Playwright’s Horizon and The Bushwick Starr.
In addition to his theatre credits, Beethovan has also appeared on-screen in national campaigns for AT&T, Direct TV, and Visa Check Card and has guest co-starred on Wu -Tang: An American Saga on Hulu, FBI: Most Wanted on CBS, The Last O.G, Shondaland's upcoming Netflix series Inventing Anna and Power Book II: Ghost on Starz.