PROGRAM CHAIR:
SHELLY BRANDON
Shelly is an award-winning filmmaker whose background includes a BFA in Theatre Performance from Eastern New Mexico University, one year of MFA graduate studies in Acting Performance at DePaul University’s The Theatre School, and an MFA in Cinematic Arts from the University of Texas at Arlington. She has experience as a producer, writer and director and has served as an on set acting coach as well as script consultant for several Indie films and production companies in Utah. She served as Vice President of the Utah Women in Film and Television organization while living in Salt Lake City. She has had adjunct teaching positions at UTA and KD Conservatory, and conducted invitational improvisation and scene study workshops for independent acting studios.
Andrew Dillon
Andrew Dillon has been an actor for both stage and screen for more than 20 years. At the start of his career, Andrew was cast as Dartagnon in a stage play of The Three Musketeers which included months of intense stage combat training. With the training he received at the direction of Michael Dawe at Ohlone College in Fremont, CA, Andrew has gone on to star in and or choreograph many combat heavy productions including Captain Blood, the Captain Phantasm series, Robin Hood Road to Sherwood, The Final Adventure of Hercules, and Sinbad the Sailor, along with many others. Andrew is excited to be joining KD Studios as a Stage Combat instructor and is looking forward to sharing his knowledge and experience with up and coming performers in hopes of planting seeds of joy and passion for the art of stage combat.
Tonya Holloway
Tonya Holloway is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, director, and actor with over 20 years of experience in the film, commercial, and theatre industries. A passionate storyteller and mentor, she has made significant contributions to independent cinema and the stage, both nationally and internationally.She holds a B.A. in Theatre from Prairie View A&M University and an MFA in Cinematic Arts from the University of Texas at Arlington. For four years, she’s worked as a film consultant for the prestigious Booker T Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.
Holloway is a Co-Founder of Soul Rep Theatre Company, Dallas’s longest-running Black theatre company, where she has nurtured diverse narratives and emerging talent. She has also worked extensively as a public school educator across the U.S. and abroad during her husband’s military service overseas, bringing a global perspective to her creative work.
Holloway’s work continues to gain recognition in the independent film circuit. She was awarded the 2024 Women In Film (Dallas) Suzanne Cooley Scholarship for her MFA studies. Her films have garnered awards and were voted Denton’s Black Film Festival’s Viewer’s Choice Award for 2025 and 2026.
Tonya Holloway is a committed artist, mentor, and advocate for diverse storytelling. She is a wife and mother of four based in Dallas, Texas.
Natalie Jones
Natali Jones was born and raised in Dallas. After graduating high school, she attended KD Studio in the original acting program, graduating in ’02. Through various teachers at KD, they also taught her to appreciate everything behind the scenes.
After graduating, she ventured off to NYC for a decade to continue her training at William Esper Studio, while still working behind the scenes on various shows such as Law and Order SVU (3 seasons), Blue Bloods, Pan Am, Rescue Me, to movies such as What Happens in Vegas, Sinister, I Am Legend, and you can see her in Spider-Man 3 for two seconds (if you don’t blink).
By the creator of Final Destination, you can also see her as the main villain in the movie Dead Awake. Also recently, a supporting role in Pickleball The Movie, Porch Pirates, to TV shows such as Murder Made Me Famous and Washington’s Armor.
Still a working Actress, Producer, to Production Manager, she also recently started dipping her toe in Directing and her first two shorts she wrote, directed, and produced both won 2nd place in two recent film competitions.
At KD Studio, she was taught early on not only the appreciation of both sides of the camera, but continues to be passionate about both for over two decades now. She’s thrilled to return to the very studio where her journey began, now able to share the knowledge and experience she’s gained along the way.
Jim Jorgensen
Jim Jorgensen. Dallas Theatre Credits include: Shane at Dallas Theatre Center. Undermain Theatre: Bondage, How is it that We Live or Shakey Jake + Alice, Madame Bovary. Northside Hollow, A Lost Leonardo, Marie Antoinette at Amphibian State, Quixote at Shakespeare Dallas, Our Town at Circle Theatre, Riverside and Crazy, Holmes and Watson at StageWest. Washington DC credits include: Shakespeare Theatre: Tartuffe U/S, Tempest U/S Appeared; Taffety Punk: Hamlet, Constellation Theatre: 36 Views, Gilgamesh, Zorro, Ramayana; Forum Theatre; The Pillowman, Angels in America I and II, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot; Theatre J: Born Guilty, Our Suburb; WSC Avant Bard: Night and Day, Royal Hunt of the Sun, Lady Chatterley’s Lover; Folger Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing; Keegan Theatre: Buried Child; Scena Theatre: HeddaGabler; Fountainhead Theatre: Fit to be Tied, Betrayal. Voice Over: Various Anime at Crunchyroll, On Camera: Bottoms Up!, ICK, My Fibonacci, The Hole, Paid in Full, Walker Texas Ranger, Sons of Thunder, Training: Southern Methodist University’s MFA Acting. For more about Jim visit: https://jim-jorgensen.weebly.
Lois Leftwich
Lois Leftwich is originally from Dallas where she started her acting career in local theatres like Theatre Three and Stage West, worked in voice over and on camera commercials, joined AEA, SAG and AFTRA and then found herself working as an actress in New York City and didn’t return to Dallas for 30 years. While in New York City she acted in many broadcast venues including television and radio commercials, recording audio books, several daytime dramas, industrial films as well as Off Broadway. She studied acting with John Strasberg at Mirror Repertory, Curt Dempster at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Gene Frankel, voice with Steve Sweetland and dance at Steps on Broadway. She was in the Performance Master Class at Chicago City Limits Improvisation. Teaching has always been part of her personal curriculum and has provided her with great joy throughout her career. She has taught everything from Musical Theatre camps to filmmaking. She has taught acting for all media and genres. She loves teaching and performing improvisation, which she firmly believes is essential to being a successful performer. Since returning to Dallas she is represented by the Kim Dawson Agency and continues to work on stage, TV, radio, film, and audio books. She graduated from University of Texas at Austin with a BA in Drama. For a more complete story visit her personal website at www.LoisLeftwich.com. Check out the retro-commercials on her fan page.
Linda Leonard
Linda has appeared as Grizabella in the international tour of Cats, as well as Ellie in Hal Prince’s revival of Showboat. No stranger to prime-time, she has guest-starred on Friday Night Lights, Dallas, Salem and American Crime. Her movie credits include Cleaner, Playing for Keeps with Gerard Butler and Jessica Biel, and Wonderful World. Most recently, Linda has created the role of Texas’s beloved governor, the late Ann Richards, in the one-women hit show “ANN.”
Seth Nelson
Seth Nelson is a Dallas based theatre artist and educator, and is thrilled about taking on Intro to Acting for his 1st full semester at KD. Seth has extensive experience in the professional theatre world as a director and actor, including having performed on tours around the country as well as for regional theatres across the U.S. (including in NYC). Seth earned his B.F.A. in Theatre (Directing) from Southern Methodist University in 2016, as well as his M.F.A. in Acting from The University of North Carolina in 2022. Seth was most recently seen as the titular role of Henry in the Young At Heart Theatre production of The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail this past spring. Seth will also be directing the upcoming production of Doubt by John Patrick Shanley at The Rotunda Theatre in downtown Dallas this fall.
Kelly Schaaf
Deborah Stone
Deborah Stone is an award-winning director and has a vast background in producing and writing. In 2003 she founded the production company, Silverstone Productions. She has produced, television commercials, several music videos, directed a national children’s series, produced over 600 segments for a national talk show, was special project writer for the Smithsonian Institute. She directed the animated feature film, The Adventures of Azzu and Gaza and worked with the Ferrari Race team, traveling to different races while working on a documentary-series about the drivers. Production has taken her to Alaska, Greece, England, Israel and Paris. Paris was a highlight because her work led to an afternoon with Pablo Picasso’s son, Claude. She recently finished a WWII documentary which is now in the Naval Museum in DC and directed, Post Oak, the amazing story of Chief Quanah Parker’s family. In September 2024 she won an award for her short film, The Carole Ward Story and is finishing three screenplays which will be produced in 2025. Besides production, Deborah also teaching Screenwriting at KD Conservatory and loves working with the students who will one day become the next generation of actors and filmmakers.
Tiffany Vollmer
As a voice actress, Vollmer was cast as Bulma in 1999 for Funimation’s English dub of the third season of Dragon Ball Z, and went on to voice the character in the remainder of the series, as well as the redub of the first two seasons. She also voiced Bulma in Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT, as well as ten feature films, a TV special, and fourteen video games. She also voiced a few smaller, additional characters in the Dragon Ball franchise, in addition to minor roles on Yu Yu Hakusho and Case Closed. Vollmer worked on a couple of live action films, both in front of and behind the camera. She was the associate producer of the half hour short, Placebo (2006) (co-starring three of her fellow Funimation VAs Laura Bailey, Meredith McCoy, and Mike McFarland). She also worked on the 2008 film Ciao, as actress, key makeup artist, and head of wardrobe. She provided makeup and wardrobe for the 2008 film Stalker’s Dating Guide. In 2010, Vollmer was the assistant director and art director for the horror film, Evidence of a Haunting which was released in Fall 2010.