Mona Malec – received a B.A. from Cornell College in Mount Vernon, IA and a M.F.A. from Ohio State University. She has worked with Theater Grottesco since 2005 and was last seen in 2009’s The Richest Deadman Alive! She has also worked with Ironweed productions as Jessie in ‘night Mother and Jessie Mae in Trip to Bountiful. Some of her favorite performances include A Dream Inside Another in collaboration with Theatre Grottesco and Side Show Physical Theater and as Becca in Rabbit Hole with Ironweed Productions. Mona would like to thank her two wonderful children, Kegan and Genevieve, for supporting their mother in her artistic endeavors.

It began at age two when Kat, naked but for a bath towel safety-pinned around her neck, leaped off a kitchen stool and announced, I’m Superman. Years later, after enjoying “The Parent Trap” numerous times, Kat affected an English accent and answered only to the name, Adele. Then followed neighborhood productions in the garage, which included interesting renditions of “Cinderella” and “A Hard Day’s Night.”

Cut to U.C.L.A. where Kat earned her degree in theater. Duh. Over the years, she has appeared in sixty episodics and as many commercials. A few impressive credits include “Friends”, “Golden Girls”, “Boston Legal”, “House”, and “Star Trek” where she played the alien Tureena. You may have heard her voice selling Clorox, Jack-in-the-Box, and Tennessee Pride Country Sausage. Kat also sold her body for years as a Ford model.

In 2008, she decided to hit the big time and move to Santa Fe. Here, she has appeared in several TV. shows and a bunch of movies. She has also returned to the stage where she performs as a permanent member of Theaterwork. In her spare time, Kat is a successful landscape painter represented by galleries in Santa Fe, Madrid, and California.

...And, she’s a yoga teacher.

Ellen taught private classes in "Acting for the Camera" in Los Angeles and Santa Fe for many years. Many of her students have gone on to work in film, television and commercials. She also taught (for 3 semesters) a college level class to Theater and Directing seniors at the College of Santa Fe. Ellen has worked professionally in Theater, Film and Television for over 35 years and was owner and president of her own Casting Company (ELLEN BLAKE CASTING) for fifteen years. As a casting director, she worked on Independent films and National Network Commercials, directing hundreds of actors on camera.

As an actor, she was a founding member, Actor-in-Residence at the PADUA HILLS PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL, performing original works by Sam Shepard, Maria Irene Fornes, Murray Mednick, David Hwang and Jon Robin Baitz from the 1970’s through the 1990’s. Ellen has worked at the INTAR THEATER, SAN DIEGO REP, LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE, ODYSSEY THEATER, THE MET AND THE SANTA FE FESTIVAL THEATER among others. She appeared on HILL STREET BLUES and L.A. LAW in recurring roles for three seasons each, as well as co-star and guest-star appearances in over 200 Movies of the Week and episodic Television. Ellen also has appeared in 12 major motion pictures and was most recently seen in the "Ghosts" episode on LAW AND ORDER. Her most recent film credits include “SUSPECT ZERO” starring Sir Ben Kingsley and "BLIND HORIZON" starring Val Kilmer and Sam Shepard. Other film credits include WYATT EARP STARRING Kevin Costner.

Ellen studied with Bill Hickey at HB Studios in New York and for many years with Roy London, in Los Angeles.

Both Casting and Acting reels available upon request.

Jonathan David Dixon is yet another multi-talented member of the CYPHERS cast. Having begun acting at an early age, he is currently a member of the Theaterwork company in Santa Fe, where he has appeared in dozens of productions over the past ten years.

Favorite roles have included Antonio Salieri in AMADEUS, Mark Twain in A FEW STOUT INDIVIDUALS, Konstantin Levin in ANNA KARENINA, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer in EMIL‘S ENEMIES. He has also been seen in (among others) THE LION IN WINTER, MOLLY SWEENEY, THE INSPECTOR GENERAL, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, THE TEMPEST, and BELLE MORAL. Jonathan also appeared as Father Flynn in Ironweed Productions‘ acclaimed 2008 production of DOUBT, A PARABLE. Later this year he will play Vincent Van Gogh in INVENTING VAN GOGH.

Jonathan is also a published artist, with a frequent connection to the works of Lewis Carroll, having illustrated Carroll‘s THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK, THE TALE OF THE MOUSE‘S TAIL and the first-ever publication, in 2008, of the previously lost Carrollian "ballad opera for puppets" LA GUIDA DI BRAGIA—Lewis Carroll‘s only play. He was the first illustrator in over one hundred years to be approved by the Carroll Estate to illustrate a new work.

In addition, in 2009 he acted as co-director/designer, and composer/arranger for Theaterwork‘s world-premiere production of LA GUIDA DI BRAGIA — an event which was attended by Carroll enthusiasts from around the world. Jonathan is also a composer and songwriter who has written music for a number of plays and is currently working on recording his own songs, as well as a licenced psychotherapist.

J.D. Garfield was born in Iowa and spent his formative years in Mexico City before returning to the States when he was 16. He studied dance at Drake University, danced with Garfield and Company and PABT in Los Angeles. During that time he also pursued an acting career. He studied acting with Alan Langdon at the Actors Space, New York City, until moving to Santa Fe, NM in 1986. He landed the role of Alan in Equus at the Santa Fe Community Theatre. There he was spotted by a film casting director and cast in his first film Desperado working with the late Rod Steiger. He continued acting at The New Mexico Reperatory Theater and the Santa Fe Actors Space as well as Shakespeare in the Park and eventually went on to study with Martin Best in England at Musica Humana. He moved to Los Angeles where he secured an agent and continued to work in film and television.

Some of J.D.’s film credits include: TroubleMakers, Where The Hell’s That Gold, North Country, All The Pretty Horses, The Astronaut Farmer, Off The Map and Naked Fear in which he starred with Joe Mantegna. The film is presently running on TMCe. His Television credits include a recurring role on AMCs Breaking Bad as DEA Agent Vanco; Lost Room as Det. Ted Pendergrast, Commanche Moon, Into the West, In Plain Sight, and The Soul Collector with Ozzie Davis.

J.D. is very excited to be a part of Cyphers and to be working with a great cast and crew. J.D. is also a proud father and grandfather. He and his wife Leigh Ann and their two young sons live in Santa Fe.

Jody Hegarty was born in New York and moved to Santa Fe in 2005, where she has worked on numerous projects in theater, television, and film, including The Lives of Angels, which won the award for Best Short Comedy at the 2008 New York International Film and Video Festival. She is a founder and former co-artistic director of The Unbound Theatre Company in New York City, through which she appeared in productions of Jean-Claude Grumberg’s The Workroom and Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood. In Santa Fe she has starred in Neil Simon’s Rumors, Terry Johnson’s Hysteria, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Molière’s Tartuffe, and many other plays.

Growing up Jody studied cello at the Aaron Copland School of Music’s Center for Preparatory Studies in Flushing, Queens, and jazz dance and musical theater at The Dickerson Performing Arts Center in Merrick, Long Island; she also participated in the youth program at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City and studied privately with Irma Neverro. She earned a certificate from the two-year professional theater program at Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York City.

Lets see goes like this… wrote a song about it… wanna hear it… goes like this:

Fredrick Lopez started out as a child… in Las Cruces, NM, then El Paso, TX… after flippin’ & a floppin’ from school to school earned an Austin High School diploma with one credit in Drama… & that was it! The Bug was in… for good I guess… then he saw (from across the street, Steve McQueen & Ali MacGraw) making Sam Peckinpah‘s "The Getaway"... in El Paso… & thought "I can do that"... the rest is history in the making… he’s got over 44 film credits, not to mention TV & Stage… oh!

He also has a Love for music, plays a mean Harmonica! with several bands… Google Him!!!

Debrianna Mansini is a New Mexico resident and active member of the theatre and film community. Shortly after arriving in Santa Fe from New York City, Ms. Mansini began producing theatre with a company she started called Tin Roof Productions. That company eventually folded into Santa Fe Performing Arts company where she continued to produce theatre. She was a company member for ten years, performing on the main stage and touring children’s theatre throughout northern New Mexico.

Ms. Mansini has trained with such greats as Kim Stanley, Jose Quintero, Edward Albee and, most recently, Alan Arkin. She has worked Off-Broadway in New York City at the Soho Rep, and in Los Angeles where she was a guest on the series E.R. opposite George Clooney.

Ms. Mansini has had supporting roles on numerous television movies and mini-series including THE LOST ROOM, and guest roles on WILD FIRE and IN PLAIN SIGHT. Her most recent film credits include THE BURNING PLAIN with Charlize Theron and the new Golden Globe winning film CRAZY HEART opposite this year Academy Award Nominee, Jeff Bridges. For the last four years, Ms. Mansini has been part of the KSFR news team (anchor and reporter), Santa Fe’s only public radio station.

Ms. Mansini also has collaborated with her new husband David Forlano on several successful video projects. They recently won the $5,000 Earth Keepers Award for Best Sustainable video. Their documentary short on the Earth Ships of Taos was selected to be shown at the Downtown L.A. Film Festival, and several other documentary shorts have aired on Al Gore’s cable network, Current TV.

Vivian is proud to join the cast of Cyphers. Relatively new to the NM scene Vivian has appeared in Albuquerque theaters playing Kitty Oppenheimer in Mother Road’s The Love Song for J Robert Oppenheimer, and Middle Porter in Passenger on the Ship of Fools at the Vortex. Her theater credits include Roundabout Theater (NYC), George Street Play House (NJ), The Pittsburgh Public (PA) as well as many summer productions of Shakespeare and summer stock. Most recently she performed her original solo show The Bark & The Tree at Solo Fest 2010 in ABQ and in Taos.

Vivian has been a guest on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Wild Fire, Breaking Bad, and In Plain Sight. She is also co-executive director with her husband John Dillon of Art of the Song Creativity Radio, heard on 200 public radio stations across the country. Vivian holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee‘s Professional Theater Training Program.

Carmela grew up in upstate New York learning the Great American Songbooks at an early age, as her father was a big band swing coronet player and the large Sicilian family gatherings always included live music.

She got involved in musical theater in high school but was enthralled by jazz.  In New York City she attended ‘Theatrium’ (a Strasberg Institute training) and became involved in off-off broadway theater and appeared in a few independent films, later training with Eric Morris. Carmela moved to Los Angeles in ‘92 , working in the L. A. Theater scene and on several feature films with such notable film directors as Rob Reiner, Wolfgang Petersen, Jonathan Lynn and Ken Kwapis. She trained vocally with Dan Balestrero.  She began to perform in the L. A. Jazz scene with the Jon Mayer trio and recorded her first record ‘Black and White’ , a straight ahead standards record with them.  After appearing in many of the local clubs she recorded her second cd with Paul Smith, Jim DeJulio and Joe LaBarbera. This cd ‘Regarding Frank’ was a tribute record to Sinatra and his 50’s Capitol years.

Shortly after this she formed her own trio. Out of this trio ‘The Girl Who Dreams Out Loud’ was conceived. This cd was a departure from familiar jazz standards and a new exploration of original materials by such notables as Hirth Martinez, Donald Fagen, Mike Melvoin and Carmela. Her latest cd, “Joseph City”, combines straight ahead covers, with some very unique standard arrangements and some originals by Carmela. For this project Carmela  worked with Pete Snell, Armando Compean and Lee Spath, and  featured on this cd is tango master Coco Trivisonno on bandoneon. While  recently residing in New Mexico she was nominated for a New Mexico Music Award for best original jazz song, appeared in local theater and worked on the feature film “The Loop” . She has served on the board of New Mexico Women In Film as fund raising chair, producing two highly successful events for NMWIF. One of which featured Roy Orbison’s “A Black and White Night” and benefited New Mexico’s homeless children. She can also be seen as Lilith Bengalis on the internet series Cyphers.

Carmela now resides in New York City where she continues to write and perform including a recent appearance in New York’s Metropolitan Room.

Danielle is a graduate of the High School of Performing Arts in New York City where she spent 2 years being mentored by acclaimed acting coach Anthony Abeson. She came to New Mexico after touring as company member of the International tour of STOMP. Since then, she has performed with several theater companies based in New Mexico Including Shakespeare in Santa Fe, Theater Grottesco and The Living Tarot. She enjoyed a run as host of "THE HAT", a monthly evening of performance improvisation at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe. Recent local performances include "Mrs. Muller" in Doubt: A Parable with Ironweed Productions, Le Theatre du Grand Guignol at the Santa Fe Playhouse, "Ariel" in The Tempest with Theaterwork, multiple roles in Hellcab and "Lilith" in The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer, both with Mother Road Theatre Company in Albuquerque. Roles in film include "Store Owner" in Drop Dead Gorgeous with No Strings Productions and "One" in One of Many with RedQuyn Zoom Productions. Danielle also performs a one person show called "Ask Louisa." Performances of "Ask Louisa" include The Roundhouse for African American Day, The Umbrella Hat Cabaret and Love In Summer ‘09.

Danielle is currently an instructor of the Nia Technique, and co-owner RedQuyn Zoom Productions.

Lori is the winner of the Spring 2008 Spire Spring Poetry Chapbook Contest. Her first chapbook, Wall to Wall, was published by Finishing Line Press. Her short story, Strange Saints, was a semifinalist in the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award and her short screenplay won the Manhattan Short Film Festival’s Scripts and Screenplay Competition. Her poetry and fiction have been published in more than eighty journals and anthologies, which include Mississippi Review, Coal Hill Review, Copper Nickel, flashquake, Citizen 32, Quercus Review, Plum Biscuit, Mystic River Review, Edgar Literary Magazine, Poetry Motel, Poems Niederngasse, Pebble Lake Review, and Mindprints. She was recently nominated for a second Pushcart Prize.

Lori Romero is a published playwright, poet and fiction writer. Lori is also an actress (under the professional name of Lori Tirgrath) and screenwriter. She served as Artistic Director of Friends & Artists Theatre Ensemble in Los Angeles, and has performed, produced and directed in a multitude of theatre venues in New Mexico, Denver, Los Angeles, and New York, in addition to her work in television and film. Lori’s short screenplay, Strange Saints, won the Manhattan Short Film Festival’s Scripts and Screenplay Competition (the screenplay was adapted from a short story which was a semifinalist in the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award competition). Her screenplay, Surreal Estate, is an official entry in the DC Shorts Screenplay Competition, and she will be travelling to Washington, D.C. in October where the script will be performed live by actors during the ScriptDC screenwriting conference.

The critically acclaimed, The Running of the Grunions, Lori’s first play, was produced at the Flight Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Two of her short plays were semi-finalists in The Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Ten-Minute Play contest. Lori’s one-act, Noon Whistle, was one of five one-acts selected to be produced in the Fourth Annual One-Act Festival in L.A., and was brought back as a part of Friends & Artists’ Festival of Women Playwrights in collaboration with The Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights and was also produced in New Mexico as a part of the Bench Warmers V: Back to the Bench series.

Lori won the Spire Press (NY) Spring Poetry Chapbook competition with her entry The Emptiness That Makes Other Things Possible. Her first poetry chapbook, Wall to Wall, was published by Finishing Line Press (Kentucky). Her poetry and short stories have been published in over one hundred journals and anthologies.

Tom Romero is a renaissance man. He has shown up as an actor in over one hundred stage productions, as a composer for several films, as a cartoon voice in fifty two episodes of Super Pig. He has released two CD’s of modern music, one of blues, appeared on countless other recordings. He’s been spotted in Days Of Our Lives off and on for six years, in commercials for sneakers and presidential candidates, and recently in the films Swing Vote and Hamlet 2. He is a poorly trained chef and occasionally makes his own beer. In the spring you will find him chasing down back roads from Texas to Nebraska in search of extreme weather. To date he has witnessed the touchdown of over twenty tornadoes.

Drago Earned his B.F.A. in Acting from California Institute of the Arts. Some past theatre credits include Murray Mednick‘s (OBIE AWARD WINNING PLAY) "Joe & Betty", (WORLD PREMIERE) productions at both the Jose Quintero & The Kirk Theatre in N.Y.C. Cody Henderson’s, "COLD/TENDER" (World Premiere) Theatre @ Boston Court.

Drago Produced and Directed the one man show, "Kill Your History" Written and Performed by Arron Shiver. Recently he Directed a feature length documentary titled, "char•ac•ter" featuring Sydney Pollack, Peter Falk, Harry Dean Stanton, Charles Grodin, Dabney Coleman and Mark Rydell.

Drago is the founder of his production company Americana Entertainment, an Independent Motion Picture Company.