Photo by Yellowbelly
2010 - present
Jorden Charley-Whatley is a New York-based actor, director, and member of the Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. Born in Bethesda, MD, he remembers nothing because he was born into a military family and spent most of his adolescence moving cross-country—a habit that is still hard to escape in adulthood.
He earned his B. A in Theatre with a dual emphasis in Performance and Directing from The Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and has been searching for a shorter way to phrase that title ever since. Since then, he has had the pleasure of working from coast to coast, from the historic Magic Theatre in San Francisco to the Penobscot Theatre Company in Maine. Naturally drawn to new plays, he is at home directing contemporary plays and the classics with the same sense of athleticism, rigorous detail, and controlled chaos.
When not working, you can find him playing D&D, listening to a video essay, working on an embroidery project, or desperately trying to teach himself how to play the banjo. He is a proud associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Guild.