BIO + HEADSHOTS
Teo Castellanos is an independent actor/writer/director, who for the past 30 years has worked in devised theater, film, and television. Teo is a Doris Duke Artist 2021, United States Artist Fellow 2019, and a Sundance Institute Screen Writers Intensive Fellow 2015. His award-winning solo NE 2nd Avenue, commissioned by Miami Light Project, toured extensively for a decade and won the Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland 2003.
He is the recipient of several awards and grants including the National Latinx Theater Initiative, National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, MAP Fund, National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, National Performance Network, Knight New Works, Knight Arts Challenge, Knight Foundation People’s Choice Award, Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs and also won the State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship 2005 and 2013.
Teo’s most recent solo Third Trinity, (Jitney Books) was directed by long-time friend and collaborator, Oscar winner and MacArthur Genius Fellow Tarell Alvin McCraney. He founded the Dance/Theater Company Teo Castellanos D-Projects in 2003 and is also Artistic Director of the devised theater company Combat Hippies. He has toured solo and company works throughout the U.S., Europe, South America, China, and the Caribbean. He has taught theater workshops and master classes at universities throughout the U.S.
Teo has been invited to contribute a chapter on his directing methodology in The Fire in the Center (Routledge), an anthology of directors of color. Some acting theater credits include playing Elegba in Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size, (Miami) and Santos in The Hittite Empire’s Skeletons of Fish (London). Film credits include playing opposite Matt Dillon in Sunlight Jr. and opposite John Leguizamo in Empire. He is a member of SAG/AFTRA, an Associate Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers, and holds a BFA in Theater from Florida Atlantic University.
Teo is an ordained Zen practitioner and belongs to the 44th generation of the Vietnamese Lineage of the Lam Te (LinJi) Zen School. He has developed a theater training pedagogy steeped in Zen, Music/Movement and Archetypes. He has worked as a volunteer at Everglades Correctional Institute teaching both Theater and Zen. Teo served on the board of directors of Miami Light Project for 15 years the last 5 years as board president. He is now MLP Board Emeritus. He also serves on the board of Dharma Teachers Order.
