Teo Castellanos

Teo Castellanos is the founder and Artistic Director of D-Projects, a contemporary Dance/Theater company. D-Projects original work fuses world culture, religion and music, examining social issues through performance.

Biography Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Miami, Teo Castellanos is an actor/writer/director who works in theater, film and television. Teo received his B.F.A. in Theater from Florida Atlantic University under a full scholarship where he studied with four time Tony Award winner Zoe Caldwell. He is author of War, Revolution, and the Projects, a one-man trilogy, which he has toured on the East Coast, as well as his one-man show NE 2nd Avenue based on Miami characters, which was commissioned and produced by Miami Light Project as part of their 2001-2002 Contemporary Performance Series and went on to be produced by Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami. Teo Castellanos’ NE 2nd Avenue was awarded the International Cultural Exchange Grant by Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs, which allowed Teo to bring it to the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it won the Fringe First Award, the most prestigious theater award of the festival (past winners include Emma Thompson, Rowan Atkinson and Danny Hoch). It was also nominated for a South Florida Carbonell Award for Best New Work and was awarded Best Solo Performance by Miami New Times, and Best Original Play by Miami Beach Sun Post and has toured throughout the U.S and Europe. City Link Magazine also awarded Teo Playwright of the Year 2006. Teo has lectured and taught theater workshops at Temple University, University of Massachusetts, Saint Michaels College, Santa Fe College, University of South Florida, Florida Memorial University and Miami- Dade College as well as throughout several states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Teo is currently director of RAP (Rites And Passages) a men’s prison theater/drumming program at ArtSpring, and Executive Producer of Miami Project Hip Hop (MPH), an annual event produced by Miami Light Project that honors Hip Hop roots and aesthetics. He is co-coach of the Tigertail Productions Spoken Word Team that competes annually at Brave New Voices, a national competition produced by Youth Speaks. Teo is the recipient of the State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship 2005. He is a former member of the men of color theater collective, The Hittite Empire, based in Los Angeles, with which he has toured in the U.S. and England. He also toured Cuba as part of the Parece Blanca cast, a theater production that brought together for the first time in history Cuban artists in exile to work with artists living on the island to form a unified cast. He is a member of The Screen Actors Guild and is Associate Member of Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, and is represented in Europe by Universal Arts. His big screen work includes acting opposite John Leguizamo in the 2005 film Empire. Teo is also a Mime & Movement instructor at Mater Academy Charter High.

Works

Directing

Year Title Venue 2007 Shine (excerpts) APAP Showcase Alvin Ailey Studio NYC 2007 Insanity Isn’t Miami Light Project 2005 Scratch & Burn Byron Carlyle Theater 1998 Counting Trucks Summer Shorts/City Theatre 1996 Ogun: Iron, Conflict, & Creativity South Florida Arts Center 1995 Getting Real in the Galleries Osolo Theatre, Sarasota, FL 1994 Once Removed Key West Theatre Festiva 1994 Popa Dio! Orlando International Theatre Festival 1993 Dreams of Home Florida Atlantic Studio Theatre 1992 The Promise Pawley Theatre 1991 Short Eyes Pawley Theatre

Acting Film/Television

Year Title Role 2007 Burn Notice Cartel Operative 2006 Full Grown Men Rommel 2005 Empire Raul 1999 Sins of the City Ronnie Mendez 1999 Zero Police Officer 1998 The S Club 7 Tony DeWitt 1996 Anatomia de un Addicto Drug Dealer 1995 Infinite Finite Nikolaj 1994 Beat the Street Narrator 1994 Pointman Bartender 1994 John Koelsch P.O.W. 1993 Kyoko Rafa 1992 Bound Transvestite 1991 Gentleman in Black Cash 1991 Ben and Walter Walter

Notes and references