Merle Dandridge
Award winning actress and singer currently seen in The Last of Us, Station 19, Truth Be Told, The Flight Attendant and as the lead on Oprah’s Greenleaf. Broadway: Once On This Island, Spamalot, Rent, Aida, Tarzan, Jesus Christ Superstar. Seen on stage this year opposite Renee Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet at LA Opera and as Desiree in A Little Night Music at Pasadena Playhouse. Merle serves on the Board of Directors for Harvest Home!
Jenna Ushkowitz
Jenna is best known for her role as Tina Cohen-Chang on Fox TV’s Glee. Broadway: Waitress, Spring Awakening and The King & I and a special production of Hair at the Hollywood Bowl. Broadway Producing credits: Be More Chill, West End's The Jungle and Two-time Tony Award winner for The Inheritance and Once on This Island. Jenna’s recent film credits include: Hello, Again, Rosé All Day, 1 Night in San Diego. She currently hosts the Glee rewatch podcast on iHeartRadio, And That’s What You Really Missed.
Seth Rudetsky
Emmy nominated TV comedy writer and musician, Disaster! The Musical, host of Seth's Big Fat Broadway and Seth Speaks on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio's On Broadway. Rudetsky and husband James Wesley Jackson have made significant contributions to the arts and community work. They have produced fundraisers, created songs in support of Stacey Abrams' Fair Fight, contributed to the Biden-Harris Inauguration special, and created the award winning Stars In The House. Through these efforts, they raised over a million dollars for the Entertainment Community Fund during the pandemic.
Troy Baker
Troy Baker is an icon in today’s gaming landscape. He is a prolific, prestigious multi-hyphenate talent best known for his standout leading performances as Joel in The Last of Us Parts I & II, Booker Dewitt in Bioshock Infinite among many others in franchises known and loved around the world. His performances have earned Troy multiple industry commendations including The Game Awards, DICE Awards and an unprecedented five BAFTA nominations for Best Performance. His collaborations with David Fincher in the Emmy award winning series “Love, Death & Robots” along with Craig Maizin & Neil Druckmann for the also Emmy award winning HBO series “The Last of Us” earned him the appreciation of new audiences in the on-screen acting world, as well. When not creating venerable characters in gaming, Troy can be found writing and performing music. He has released two solo albums as well as multiple collaborations with Grammy nominated composer Austin Wintory.
Rachel Bay Jones
Rachel Bay Jones is a stage actor and singer who debuted on Broadway at age 19 in Meet Me In St. Louis. She earned an Emmy Award, Grammy Award and the 2017 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as Evan Hansen’s mother, Heidi, in Dear Evan Hanson. Additional Broadway credits include Pippin, Hair and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Off-Broadway, she's been seen in Dear Evan Hansen, First Daughter Suite, Hello Again, and recently in Here We Are. Her television appearances include Young Sheldon, United States of AI, The Good Doctor and God Friended Me.
Kim Dawson
Kim Dawson is an active session singer, songwriter, performer and actor. Her work is an eclectic mix of R&B, neo-soul and funk with a love-laced passion for all things jazz. In 2022, Dawson relocated to the Los Angeles area after spending over a decade touring internationally with several funk and soul bands, most recently touring Europe as a backing vocalist with legendary reggae band Steel Pulse. Dawson made her debut at the Pasadena Playhouse in Spring of 2023 in David Lee's production of Sondheim's A Little Night Music. She previously starred as Brenda in Smokey Joe's Cafe at Little Theater of the Rockies and as a Church Lady in The Color Purple at The Aurora Fox Theater. She has performed with music legends and Grammy-award winning artists, and also appeared on the third season of NBC's The Sing-Off as a member of acapella hip-hop ensemble Urban Method. Her single "Try" was released in March of 2020 on Color Red, and she is looking forward to releasing more original music in 2024.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Award winning actor and producer, Jesse Tyler Ferguson is best known for his role as Mitchell Pritchett on Modern Family. His numerous stage credits include On The Town, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, A Winter’s Tale, The Producers, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Spamalot, The Merchant of Venice, and Take Me Out. He produced Broadway Rising and Welcome to Chechnya. His most recent film productions include Ice Age: Collision Course, and Cocaine Bear.
Carly Hughes
Carly Hughes, celebrated for her stage and screen prowess, has been seen in four seasons of ABC’s “American Housewife,” Netflix’s “Insatiable,” and Lifetime's recent holiday film, “The Christmas Edition.” Hailing from St. Louis, Missouri, she received the prestigious Princess Grace Award in 2003. Hughes’ Broadway credits, spanning eight shows, include standouts like Velma Kelly in Chicago, the Leading Player in Pippin, and Lucille/Shirley in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Beyond the stage, she contributed to the 2015 GRAMMY®-winning Best Musical Theater Album for her song “Will You Love Me
Tomorrow.” Hughes’ diverse talents extend to regional theaters, and she shares her culinary expertise through her Instagram series “Cooking with Carly.”
Cheyenne Jackson
Cheyenne Jackson is an actor and singer who has performed in numerous Broadway productions including All Shook Up, Damn Yankees, 8, and Finian’s Rainbow. His television roles include United 93, 30 Rock, and Glee. He starred in American Horror Story and recently played the role of Max in Call Me Kat on Fox. He has released three pop albums and has sold out concerts at Carnegie Hall.
Eric Idle
Star of stage and screen since 1961, his song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, appears in The Tony Award winning Best Musical of the Year 2005 Broadway hit Monty Python’s Spamalot, which he wrote with John Du Prez. It is currently back on Broadway with rave reviews and packed houses.
He adores Merle, with whom he appeared at The Hollywood Bowl in Spamalot alongside Jesse Tyler Ferguson. He has written several novels and some plays but he forgets which. Oh and he was in Monty Python.
Kevin McHale
Kevin is an actor, singer and dancer. Early in his career, he was a lead vocalist for the band NLT. He is well known for his role as Artie Abrams on Fox’s Glee. He has performed in numerous music videos including Katy Perry’s Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.). He appeared in American Horror Stories and When We Rise. He currently hosts And That’s What You Really Missed on iHeartRadio.
Austin P. McKenzie
Austin is a stage and screen actor known for his performances as Cleve Jones in ABC’s When We Rise and Melchior Gabor in the 2015 Broadway Revival of Spring Awakening by Deaf West Theatre. He is a recording artist with two studio albums and new music releasing throughout 2024, including his most recent single, When I Look at You. His film credits include Speech & Debate and Unhinged.
Carly Thomas Smith
With a career that spans from Broadway to Hollywood & beyond, Carly Thomas Smith has worked across the full spectrum of entertainment. After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College, she quickly booked RENT on Broadway (Maureen/Mrs. Cohen). Her subsequent Theater credits include Jersey Boys (Lorraine), We Will Rock You (Oz), Smokey Joe’s Café (Patti), & Hamlet: The Rock Musical (Gertrude).
On screen, Carly has appeared in roles on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Friends, Two and a Half Men, Desperate Housewives, Revenge, Star Trek: Enterprise & more. In concert, she has been a Guest Artist with many orchestras, even performing at The Sydney Opera House. She’s also shared the stage with recording artists Taylor Swift, Patti Austin, & The Eagles’ Joe Walsh & Don Felder to name a few.
Carly is a member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, and is an ASCAP songwriter.
Ty Taylor
Ty Taylor’s musical career began early singing in his church’s choir. His talent led to roles in multiple national commercials, voice-overs and Broadway shows including a run in Songs For A New World (Original Cast Recording) and Grease! With a degree in Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon and his first recording contract, he performed with Dakota Moon and hit the road with the likes of Tina Turner, Celine Dion, Eric Clapton, and early Destiny's Child. Following time with the blues rock band Ghost Hounds, Ty won a spot as a contestant on producer Mark Burnett's CBS Television series Rockstar: INXS, where he would be one of the last men standing. He has wowed crowds nightly in We Will Rock You, a musical by legendary supergroup Queen and was the Leading Player in The Mark Taper Forum/Deaf West Theatre production of Pippin. Ty is the lead singer of the critically acclaimed soulful blues-rock band Vintage Trouble resulting in four albums and 3,000 shows across 30 countries. They've shared the stage with rock leviathans such as The Who, Bon Jovi, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Lenny Kravitz, Booker T. Jones, Willie Nelson, and AC/DC. Ty has been involved in musical productions, commercials and TV as Lester Grimes in the Martin Scorsese HBO series, Vinyl. His early radio jazz endeavor, Ty Taylor's Nouveau Mid-Century Romance Songbook, is a collection of songs he penned in the fashion of mid-century radio jazz tunes. Most recently, Ty released the album This Little Light featuring the world’s biggest gospel spirituals.