ARTISTIC & MANAGING COLLECTIVE BIOS
ROTIMI AGBABIAKA (all pronouns)
Actor, Director, Teaching Artist, and Playwright
Rotimi Agbabiaka, co-wrote 2018's Seeing Red and has performed on the Mime Troupe stage in Walls, Schooled, Oil & Water, Posibilidad, or Death of The Worker, and FreedomLand. He most recently appeared in The Magic Lamp at the Presidio Theatre, and Off Broadway in If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka at Playwrights Horizons. He has also performed at Yale Rep, American Conservatory Theatre, Shotgun Players, Magic Theatre, Cal Shakes, and with Word for Word and Black Artists Contemporary Cultural Experience, among others. Rotimi is a former cast member at Beach Blanket Babylon, and penned the solo plays Homeless, Type/Caste (TBA Award) and MANIFESTO. As a director, Rotimi helmed the world premiere of VS. at TheatreFIRST and is co-directing the upcoming world premiere of The Red Shades: A Trans Superhero Rock Opera at Z Space. He studied at Moscow Art Theatre, earned his MFA from Northern Illinois University, and teaches acting and solo performance at Stanford University.
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ANDRE AMAROTICO (he/him)
Actor
Andre Amarotico got his BA in Theater at Stanford University. He has performed all across California, and was most recently featured as John Wilkes Booth in Assassins at Hillbarn Theatre. Prior to that, Andre also appeared in Neighborhood Stories Mill Valley, in a short untitled play by Pulizer nominated playwright Amy Freed, and in the World Premier of Remains to Be Seen by Kate Hawley (Jewel Theatre Co). Favorite roles include Anthony in Sweeny Todd, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, and the titular characters in Hamlet and Macbeth. Andre was nominated for a TBA for Best Actor in a Featured Role for Ross Valley Players’ The 39 Steps. He has performed at The Mountain Play, Marin Onstage, The Cutting Ball Theater, Word for Word Performing Arts Company, 6th Street Playhouse, and Stanford Repertory Theater. This is his 6th summer with the Troupe, having previously been featured in Seeing Red, Treasure Island, Back To The Way Things Were, and two seasons of Tales of the Resistance. www.andreamarotico.com
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MICHAEL BELLO (he/him)
Composer, Music Director, and Musician
Michael Bello, graduated with honors from the Jazz department at Sonoma Sate University in '06 with a bachelor's degree in jazz and music theory. He has played in clubs, halls and at major festivals touring throughout the US with many projects. Bello is a multi-instrumentalist who has composed and performed with a wide range of groups. Check out some of the current bands Bello is playing with, some require you to bring your dancing shoes and others to bring your dancing ears - Strike Iron! Heavy Afrobeat, Latin Rhythm Boys - Puerto Rican music, Telepathy - boundary pushing original Jazz, Humiors - solid funk and R&B, Ernest Ranglin - reggae, jazz, ska (in the 1950's created ska next to Rico Rodriguez), FogDub - Reggae Dub, Sean Nelson's OMEN: including some projects he is affiliated with on a semi regular basis, Phil Lesh and friends - Grateful Dead, Midnight North - rock, folk.
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VELINA BROWN (she/her)
Actor, Singer, Songwriter, Teaching Artist, and Director
Velina Brown started working with SFMT as an actor, singer and collaborator in 1992. She began directing SFMT projects in 2020 with the radio series Tales of the Resistance. She then co-directed the 2021 Season of Tales of the Resistance II. The Troupe created this radio series in lieu of our usual park tour during quarantine for which we won Best of the Bay. As a principal performer in the Troupe Velina has played the Devil in Deal With the Devil, Veronique in Veronique of the Mounties, she's played Condoleeza Rice three times, and was both an actor and Contributing Lyricist on GodFellas and Making a Killing. Velina's most recent shows with the Troupe include Tales of the Resistance, A Red Carol, Walls: No Human is Illegal, Schooled, Ripple Effect, For The Greater Good: Or the Last Election, Red State, Too Big to Fail, and Posibilidad: Or Death of the Worker for which she won a Bay Area Critics Circle Award for Best Principal Actress. www.velinabrown.com
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ELLEN CALLAS (she/her)
General Manager, Teaching Artist, Writer, and Director
Ellen Callas is a native Chicagoan who cut her teeth on Second City, Ellen co-founded, in 1976, Hit and Run Theater, a political sketch comedy troupe that toured rural northern California for many years. Since joining the Mime Troupe in 1986, she has worked as a writer on Ripped Van Winkle, Secrets in the Sand, Rats, Back to Normal, Escape from Cyberia, Revenger Rat, Soul Suckers, Eating It, 1600 Transylvania Ave, Doing Good, Posibilidad, 2012-The Musical! and Tales of the Resistance. She has also worked as an actor (Rats), director (Making a Killing) in addition to production, company & stage manager for various productions including the international collaboration and Asian tour of Big Wind. She also served as company manager for ACT's long running production of Angels In America: Parts I & II. She is committed to mentoring future activist artists and from its beginning has been an enthusiastic teacher and occasional project director of company's 25+-year-old Youth Theater Project. Ellen credits her ability as an improviser for helping to navigate the rocky road of non-profit political theater.
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MICHAEL CARREIRO (he/him)
Actor and Technical Director
Michael Carreiro came to the San Francisco Mime troupe in 1998 as a student of the "Summer Workshop". In 1999, he was hired as "Technical Director" and in 2000 became a Collective Member. From 1999 to 2006 he toured with the company, acting in: Eating It, City for Sale, 1600 Transilvania Ave., Mr. Smith Goes to Obscuristan, Veronique of the Mounties, Crawford Gulch, and Doing Good. During this time, he also helped to raise funds and execute several major building improvement projects and served as "Collective Representative to The Board of Directors". He returned in 2019 for the SFMT 60th Anniversary Celebration and again in 2021 in Tales of the Resistance.
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MARIE CARTIER (she/her)
Actor, Writer, Teaching Artist, Properties and Scenic Painter
Marie Cartier has been working with the Mime Troupe since 2012. Born and raised in San Francisco, where she is honored to fulfill many duties from event producer to writer to prop designer. Favorite jobs at the Mime Troupe include props and scenic painting for 2019's Treasure Island, writing on 2023's Breakdown and the 2021 radio play Hobos in Space, as well as working with the brilliant young minds of SFMT's Youth Theater Project. She is a founding member of Bow & Arrow Circus, also playing many roles including writer, lighting designer, acrobat, and clown. Most recently, she has been producing "Artists Unite for Palestine" events to raise funds for emergency relief for Gaza with @sf.artists.for.palestine. Marie received her Masters in Social Work in 2021 and currently works full-time as a clinical social worker. mariecartier.weebly.com
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LISA HORI-GARCIA (she/her)
Actor, Director, Teaching Artist, and Program Director of YTP
Lisa Hori-Garcia has been a principal performer and collaborator with the Troupe since 2004 in such shows as Seeing Red, Schooled, Posibilidad or Death of The Worker, Too Big To Fail and Doing Good to name a few. She is also the program director and lead teacher of both the Mime Troupe's Youth Theater Project (YTP) and SFMT's summer intensive theater workshop. When not acting or teaching at the Troupe, Lisa has worked with other Bay Area companies, such as ACT, Cal Shakes, Campo Santo, Berkeley Rep, Word for Word and most recently appeared in Magic Theatre’s world premiere of Monument, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play) by Sam Chanse. Lisa received her BA from Smith College and MFA in Acting from the University of Southern California. This summer (August-December 2022), Lisa will be performing in the world premiere of David Byrne's Theatre of the Mind at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. www.lisahorigarcia.com
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TAYLOR GONZALEZ (he/him)
Sound Designer, Sound Engineer, and Teaching Artist
Taylor Gonzalez has been working with the Mime Troupe since he was 16 years old. His work began with the Youth Theater Project (YTP) as a student. Since then he has taught as well as designed lights and sound for YTP. Now most of his time at the Troupe is spent mainly on sound related projects. He was the lead audio editor,engineer and designer for the two past summers of Tales of the Resistance. Taylor recently took over as the lead audio engineer at SF Playhouse and has been working on many shows there. Other work includes time as a studio and live audio engineer for local bands, as well as a sound designer for various theaters around the bay area.
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KEIKO SHIMOSATO CARREIRO (she/they)
Actor, Director, Designer, Teaching Artist, and Board Member
Keiko Shimosato Carreiro since 1987, she has been an actor, designer, co-writer, and director with the company and has been in almost every summer show. Most recently, Carreiro performed in A.C.T.’s West Coast premier of Chris Chens’ Headlands, and is currently there as a Swing/Understudy for the Wizard of Oz. She has performed at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, The Magic Theater, The Aurora Theater, Word for Word, Oakland Theater Project and Center Rep. She was nominated for The Shellie Award for Outstanding Actress in the role of Grace in The Sisters Matsumoto at Center Rep. In 2020 Keiko Co-founded “Kunoichi Productions” (Female Ninja productions) dedicated to creating innovative multidisciplinary theater with Japanese aesthetics. She is an award-winning costume designer, nominated for Theatre Bay Area’s Best Costumes, Bay Area Critics Circle Award, and recipient of the 2018 Meritorious Achievement Award (American College Theater Festival). Carreiro is a visiting Professor at Hollins University teaching “Theater for Social Change”, and “Japanese and Asian American Theater Practices”.
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DANIEL SAVIO (he/him)
Musician, Music Director and Resident Composer/Lyricist
Daniel Savio started his professional theater career playing keyboards for the Mime Troupe in 2006, and since 2020 he has been the Troupe's resident composer/lyricist. This year Daniel led the band, was co-arranger, and composed additional music for SFBATCO's original musical Sign My Name To Freedom: The Unheard Songs of Betty Reid Soskin. He was recently musical director for the Marin Mountain Play production of Kinky Boots. Daniel has been MD of numerous community and children's productions at theaters in the North and East Bay. He has a BA in music from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
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MICHAEL GENE SULLIVAN (he/him)
Actor, Director, Teaching Artist, and Resident Playwright
Michael Gene Sullivan is a Collective Member, actor, director, and as Resident Playwright has written or co-written over 30 plays for the San Francisco Mime Troupe. He has also performed with all four of the Bay Area’s Tony award-winning theaters: SFMT, American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater, and Theatreworks. He has also performed, directed, or written plays for SF Playhouse, California Shakespeare Theater, Denver Center Theatre Company, Marin Theatre Co., Aurora Theatre Co., Magic Theatre, TheatreFirst, Lorraine Hansberry Theater, African American Shakespeare Co., and the SF Shakespeare Festival. Michael is the author of the internationally produced stage adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 (which opened at The Actors Gang, under the direction of Tim Robbins,) and also of the critically-acclaimed The Great Khan which had its world premiere at SF Playhouse and San Diego Rep. Michael was awarded the Getting Played: Equity in the Entertainment Industry Award at Stanford University, and was honored as one of TBA’s "40 Faces," artists who've made significant contributions to the Bay Area theater community. Michael is also an alumnus of the Playwrights Foundation, a 2022 Creative Work Fund grantee, a Djerassi Arts Fellow, and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for Drama. www.michaelgenesullivan.com
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