Meet Stacia Teele
Stacia moved to New York City from Washington D.C. at the age of 16 to attend The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Upon graduating, Stacia scored parts in Off Off Broadway plays, movies, and five different soap operas. She was a principal cast member on Guiding Light and also had a starring role on the show’s softball team!
In her early twenties Stacia took a sharp life turn and became an owner of Kamikaze—a 10,000 sq ft NYC nightclub where Bruce Willis was her bartender and Vincent D’Onofrio her bouncer! At the club, she curated art shows every two weeks with pieces by NYC’s most avant garde and renowned artists. In addition, she created the concept of Celebrity Art Shows, featuring the works of Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Tony Bennet and more!
Skipping forward to the 2000’s, Stacia felt compelled to tell a different story about Afghanistan than was being portrayed. Having lived in Kabul when she was young, Stacia wanted to humanize the portrayals of Afghans and show them as the intelligent, creative, loving individuals she’d known. She made four trips to Afghanistan to film her feature-length documentary film about performing artists. Afghanistan: Defying Silence won The Grand Prize for Best Documentary at the Rhode Island Film Festival. Stacia was also the producer, director, writer, and narrator for two half-hour specials on ABC Nightline about Vasila, a little Afghan girl who was dying from a heart problem that couldn’t be repaired locally. After viewers donated money, Stacia was able to bring Vasila to NYC for the surgery that saved her life. Stacia is currently writing a musical about her experiences with Afghanistan.
Stacia became obsessed with Improv after starting classes at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater—graduating the core program and continuing study with some of the top NYC/LA improvisors. A self-proclaimed Improv Nerd, she is performing, practicing or jamming three to five days a week...formerly in theaters, now on Zoom! With her improv team, Store Bought, Stacia became a UCB Indie Cage Match Champion in the fall of 2019. This February, Store Bought competed in UCB’s Cage Match at Hell’s Kitchen—defeating one of the top UCB House Teams! Stacia can also be seen performing around town (or on Zoom now) with her 2 prov team, The Smoking Nuns!
Through improv, Stacia has been able to reconnect with her acting roots. Her life has taken her down many diverse and fascinating roads...which have led to a rich wellspring from which she can draw as an actress!
A big shout out to her three beautiful children—Devon, Suzanna, and Bennet—who are pretty cool—and have given her A LOT of material for her acting.