Heleya is an actor, teaching artist and arts administrator whose work focuses on how to use theatre skills across disciplines.
Heleya grew up in Seattle, WA and has also lived and worked as an actor, teaching artist, and arts education advocate in Los Angeles and New York. She is passionate about providing arts education access to all and paying artists living wages. Most recently she served as Education Director for Third Stone, the non-profit arm of Seattle’s iconic Bumbershoot Arts & Music Festival working to develop the next generation of arts and culture leaders through their workforce development program. An adjunct professor in the Youth Development program at Highline College, Heleya was previously the Director of Arts Education at Arts Corps where she oversaw arts programming for 3,000+ students each year with 25+ partners across King County. Heleya has worked extensively to expand, enhance, and support the field of professional teaching artistry on both a regional and national scale serving previously as Co-Executive Director of the Teaching Artists Guild where she oversaw the successful merger of TAG and New York based Association of Teaching Artists. She teaches in the Communications and Youth Development programs at Highline College and consults with Creative Generation.
Heleya’s own teaching work focuses on how to use theatre skills across disciplines and subject areas. She has taught with such organizations as The School of Drama at the New School College of Performing Arts, Lincoln Center Theater, McCarter Theater Center, New York Theatre Workshop, The Center for Arts Education, People's Theatre Project, Young Audiences New York, The Geffen Playhouse, The Los Angeles Music Center, The Orange County Performing Arts Center, Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences, Will & Company, CRE Outreach, and 24th Street Theatre.
As an actor Heleya earned her Actor’s Equity card touring TYA shows to schools and communities. She has performed with The Geffen Playhouse, Cornerstone Theatre Company, Pacific Resident Theatre, The Falcon Theatre, and The Forum Project, among others and has worked on numerous independent films, commercials, and webseries. As an improviser Heleya has trained with Upright Citizen’s Brigade and The Groundlings and performed with Improv Olympic West, The Improv Space, Chicago Improv Festival, and the Los Angeles Comedy Festival. Currently Heleya acts as a performer and researcher with the Verbatim Performance Lab using theatre to examine and uncover unconscious bias Education: BA, Theatre, University of Southern California; MA, Educational Theatre, New York University; British American Drama Academy, classical theatre.