Riley Steiner is an Educator, Director, Actor, and Playwright. She is full-time faculty at the New York Film Academy in Burbank, CA.
Riley holds an MFA degree in Shakespeare and Performance and a BA in Theatre Arts, both from Mary Baldwin University. Riley also coaches privately, often directs in the Los Angeles theatre community, and is a long-standing member of SAG-AFTRA.
After three decades as an actress in the entertainment field, she began to feel a deep need to share her knowledge and experience, and her training. She had studied at the American Conservatory Theatre and with the legendary Uta Hagen in New York. In order to teach, she needed a formal education.
In 2010, she enrolled at Mary Baldwin University, where she completed her BA in Theatre Arts, and her MFA in Shakespeare and Performance, graduating Magna Cum Laude. In the fall of 2014, she returned home to Los Angeles, to teach at the New York Film Academy in Burbank.
Educator
Currently, Riley is full-time faculty at the New York Film Academy (NYFA) in Burbank, CA, where she teaches a broad range of classes in both the Acting and the Liberal Arts and Sciences Departments for the BFA, AFA, and MFA programs: Acting Technique & Scene Study (levels 1-4); Styles (Greek, commedia dell’arte, Restoration, and Theatre of the Absurd); Performing Shakespeare; and Art, Culture, and Society. In addition, she serves as Directing Mentor for student projects, is a thesis advisor and grader, and she serves on a number of administrative committees.
Director
Riley’s competency in her MFA Shakespeare and Performance degree was in directing. She was at the helm of the 2014 MFA educational touring production of MACBETH at Mary Baldwin University in Staunton, VA. Her directing mentors include award winning Simon Levy of the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, Louis Fantasia, the first American to direct on the Globe stage in London, and Beth Burns of The Hidden Room in Austin.
Actor
In Riley’s career as an actress she shared the stage with Sir Anthony Hopkins as his Ophelia in HAMLET and with Oscar winner Celeste Holm as her daughter. She shared the sound booth with Tom Hanks on TOY STORY, and she shared an improv stage with Jeanette Collins and Peter Onorati. Her commercial credits include the iconic COORS LIGHT BEER and DID YOU EAT ALL THE CRACKLIN OAT BRAN campaigns. Her beloved character Paige Bowen died heroically on GENERAL HOSPITAL with the young Amber Tamblyn.
Playwright
Riley’s plays, TUCUMCARI and SUMMER FEET have enjoyed staged readings at the Utah Shakespearean Festival in the Plays in Progress series, where she was playwright in residence for two years. Her play GOOD PILGRIM was included in staged reading series in Los Angeles at the Fountain Theatre and The Road Theatre Company. Both productions starred Chris Butler and Lisa Pelikan.