Ben Beckley

grew up in a small town in southern Virginia and graduated from Princeton University with a B.A. in Dramatic Literature.

Since moving to New York, he has premiered dozens of plays and films, including Christopher Durang's 'Twas the Night Before; Bryn Manion's Pulitzer-nominated FORCE Trilogy; and Peculiar Works Project's OBIE Award-winning West Village Fragments. His wide-ranging credits include experimental work and classical theater, solo shows and site-specific installations, operettas, musicals, dance and even performance art.

Ben served two terms as president of the Bats, the OBIE Award-winning resident company at The Flea Theater, where he collaborated with Christopher Durang, Adam Rapp, Blair Brown, Andre de Shields, and Jim Simpson.

From 2005 through 2009, Ben developed four projects with the experimental theater collective Temporary Distortion, with whom he performed at several major downtown New York venues (P.S. 122, The Chocolate Factory, The Ontological Hysteric Theater, CUNY's Prelude Festival) and toured internationally (Mois Multi and Usine C - Canada, The Via/Exit Festival - France, Young Directors Festival - Austria).

As a company member of The Assembly, Ben has performed to sold-out houses in Krista Knight's Clementine and the Cyber Ducks, Anton Chekhov's The Three Sisters, and the ensemble-devised home/sick, a new play about the Weather Underground, which he co-wrote with the rest of the company.

A longtime student of Gene Lasko, Ben has also studied singing, improvisation, movement, mask and Alexander technique, and attended workeshops with Kristin Linklater, Bill Irwin and Kevin Spacey. He was a member of the 2010 Old Vic/New Voices US/UK Exchange.

Also a commercial actor and voiceover artist, Ben has recorded spots for Ben and Jerry's, Dunkin' Donuts, Virginia Lottery, Segway, Expedia, and Verizon Wireless, among many others. He can also be heard as the voice of Thomas Jefferson in the History Channel's 2005 documentary The Revolution.

Ben lives and works in New York City.