Winner of the 2024 Best Supporting Actor Oscar® for his portrayal of Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer, Downey is known across the universe (and time!) for his portrayal of Tony Stark in The Avengers and Iron Man trilogy.  Downey was Oscar®-nominated for his roles as Charlie Chaplin in Richard Attenborough’s Chaplin and in Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder. His brilliant range as a performer is on full display in the Sherlock Holmes film series. Downey is equally comfortable on the small screen, having starred on TV’s Ally McBeal and in The Singing Detective.

Rachel Chavkin is the Tony-award winning Director of Hadestown and the founding Artistic Director of the TEAM. Rachel earned a Tony nomination for Best Direction for Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, and has also won three Obie Awards, a Drama Desk Award, multiple Lortel nominations, two Doris Duke Impact Award nominations, and the 2017 Smithsonian Award for Ingenuity. Her production of Hadestown took home the Tony for Best Musical. Of her time at Stagedoor Manor, Rachel has said: “I probably wouldn’t be doing theater if it wasn’t for Stagedoor. More than anything, it was about the team aspect – the idea of gathering with a group of people to create and put on a show.”

Shaina Taub is the two-time Tony-award winning creator of SUFFS.  In 2024, she won Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Score of a Musical. She is a winner of the 2019 Kleban Prize, the Jonathan Larson Grant and is the first female recipient of the ASCAP Foundation’s Lucille and Jack Yellen Award. Taub’s original musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night received a critically-acclaimed production at The Delacorte Theatre in Central Park in which she played the role of Feste. As a performer, Taub starred in the West Coast premiere and New York re-mounting of the Signature Theatre’s hit production Old Hats, created by Bill Irwin and David Shiner and directed by Tina Landau, featuring Taub’s original songs. She earned a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for her portrayal of Princess Mary in the Kazino production of Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812.  In 2024, The Devil Wears Prada, with Elton John, opens in London!

Sebastian Stan is best known for his role as The Winter Soldier in the Captain America/Avengers film series and TV miniseries The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. His extensive film credits include I Tonya, Black Swan (with Stagedoor alum Natalie Portman), and The Martian. On television, Stan portrayed Carter Baizen on Gossip Girl, Prince Jack Benjamin on Kings, and The Mad Hatter/Jefferson on Once Upon a Time. He made his Broadway debut in 2007 as Kent in Talk Radio and returned to Broadway in 2013 to star in the Roundabout revival of Picnic. In 2022, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy award for Best Actor in the TV miniseries Pam & Tommy.  Next up? Captain America: Brave New World in 2024.

An Academy Award winner for “Black Swan” and a Golden-Globe® winner for her performance in Closer, Portman’s career skyrocketed following her breakout film performance in The Professional. Known by millions for her turn as Queen Amidala in the Star Wars trilogy and as the star of V for Vendetta, one of our favorite performances is her star turn in Garden State with Stagedoor-pal Zach Braff.  Her range is on full display portraying Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie and Jane Hammond in Jane Got A Gun.  Marvel fans were excited when Natalie returned to the MCU for a starring turn as Jane Foster (and Mighty Thor) in Thor: Love and Thunder in 2022!  In 2021, Natalie founded MountainA and began producing works for Apple TV+.

Known to millions of film fans for his work in The Fault in Our Stars, the Divergent film series, and Carrie, Ansel was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance in Baby Driver. Ansel spends a great deal of time on his music – producing and DJ-ing around the world as his alter ego, Ansølo.  With 3.3 million people following everything he does on Twitter, it’s easy to keep track of one of America’s movie stars! His recent starring turn as Tony in Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story brought Ansel back to Stagedoor – and his appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show” was hosted on our Playhouse stage!