Jon Kellam is a theatre director, artistic director, and teacher of theatre. Jon has over 30 years combined theatre experience in the US and Europe, as a performing artist, director, artistic director, and teacher of theatre. Jon is a co-founder and artistic director of BÄMSEMBLE Company, a new theatre company based in Italy. He developed a system of performance, training and devising, called Superdrama and is currently training the company. He served as co-artistic director and co-founder of Zoo District Theatre (Los Angeles), was a resident director, member, and director of education at The Actors' Gang (Los Angeles), is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre West (Los Angeles), and served as director of the Get Lit Players (Los Angeles) in 2012.

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    Jon is in the process of developing, directing, and co-devising (with BÄMSEMBLE) a radical adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes classic interlude, El Retablo De Las Maravillas (The Marvelous Puppet Show) entitled SALT. SALT will be performed at Teatro C’Art in Castelfiorentino, Italy, in April 2018 and again at Cavallerizza Reale, in Torino Italy in May 2018.

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    Some of Jon's other notable directorial credits include Brecht’s Drums In The Night, David Ball’s adaptation of Moliere’s Tartuffe (toured in the U.S.), The Exonerated, by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen (toured in the U.S.), and Daniel Berrigan’s, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (toured in the U.S. and Brisbane, Australia as a featured production with the International Brisbane Theatre Festival, in 2009) all produced by The Actors' Gang. Also with The Actors’ Gang, Jon assisted Simon Abkarian on the critically acclaimed production of Love’s, Labour's, Lost. At Zoo District, Jon directed and co-created the award-winning production of Nosferatu…Angel of the Final Hour, and co-directed Home; the Search for the Lost Tablet of Ur. Other notable directing credits include, Death…A Very Serious Comedy, performed at the Ebell theater in Los Angeles, Shape of A Girl (Co-director) and The Ass (by Parviz Sayyad) both presented by The Edge of the World Theatre Festival at L.A.T.C. He also directed The Raven - ‘Poe Time’ (adapted from Edgar Allen Poe) presented by Get Lit at The Actors’ Gang, Helena Modjeska - The Artist's Dream co-developed and directed in Krakow, Poland and performed in Chicago at the Chopin theatre and at the Bowers museum in Orange County CA. In January 2014, he co-directed a development workshop of The House is Black, at the Freud Theatre produced by Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA (previously UCLA Live) directed, created, and performed by Sussan Deyhim. Jon directed Moliere’s IL Malato Immaginario for Atelier Teatro Fisico, and performed in Cavallerizza Reale, Accademia dell’Arte, and various Italian venues while on tour.

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    Independently, Jon has taught numerous physical theatre workshops nationally and internationally. Teaching credits include Commedia dell' Arte at Playwrights' Horizons professional actor training program in New York City, and The Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. He served as Co-Chair of Theatre at Champs Charter Multimedia and Performing Arts High School and was a lead teacher for The Actors’ Gang at the California State University Summer Arts Festival in Monterey Bay, 2012. In 2008-9 he served as adjunct professor and teaching artist at California State University Los Angeles, where he directed Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid. Jon contributes regularly as a teaching artist for the University of Texas summer abroad program, in Florence, Italy. He teaches Superdrama regularly at Atelier Teatro Fisico and directed the highly successful (and still running) production adaptation of Moliere’s Il Malato Immaginario, also in Torino Italy. He was consulting director for Retro Gold, which performed at the Pennabilli International Theatre Festival and is presently directing Uroboro which performed in Torino, at CAOS. and is presently touring throughout Italy. He taught a Superdrama training and devising workshop at HERE Festival at Cavallerizza Reale, in Torino in May 2017, and is a regular teaching artist at Accademia Dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy. Jon initiated a theatre course focusing on emotional accessibility, voice, spoken word and storytelling for Associazione Rondine Cittadella della Pace - an organization that brings non-theatre academic undergraduate students from conflict areas around the world to study and work together. Jon is currently directing as a teaching artist in collaboration with Ginevre Scaglia, Atelier Bulgakov, a training, research and devising laboratory in Torino, Italy.

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    Jon's acting credits include the Tony nominated production of Wilder, Wilder, Wilder, the national tour of Embedded by Tim Robbins at the Actors' Gang, and the world premiere of The Exonerated written by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen. His Film and TV credits include, Flags of Our Fathers (dir. Clint Eastwood), Tangled, Brain Dead, The Homecoming of Jimmy Whitecloud, Portal, Judging Amy, and West Wing, and a part in the upcoming production, Bent (Rome, Italy 2017), (writer and dir. Bobby Moresco). Upcoming he has joined the cast of Uroboro (Bologna, Italy - writer and dir. Roberto Valdez – 2019-20).

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    In 2008 Jon was the recipient of the Surdna Fellowship to study clown based on the pedagogy of Jacque Lecoq and Yves Lebreton, with Philip Radice of Atelier Teatro Fisico and Andre Casaca, Teatro C’Art, in Torino, and Castelfiorentino, Italy.