Instrctor at Lone Star Actors Studio

Eleese Lester has been a working actress for the past twenty-seven years with credits in both film and broadcast. She has worked opposite such stars as Dennis Hopper, Elizabeth Pena, Chuck Norris, Joshua Jackson, Jason Priestly, Mickey Rooney, Kyle Chandler and Adrian Pasdar. She has performed in such films as Lone Star, named as one of the ten best film of 1998 by New Yorker magazine, under the direction of legendary director John Sayles. Her most recent appearance has been on the NBC hit show, Friday Night Lights and she is currently in production in the movie, The Book of Ruth, playing the role of Naomi.
She has performed in hundreds of corporate training videos, national and local commercials and voiceovers for television and radio. She has been the national voice for Centerpoint Energy and Chef Boyardee as well as appearing more locally in commercials for St. Luke's Hospital, The Worksource and many others.

Ms Lester has been coaching film, commercial and voiceover actors since 1989. She taught for over 16 years at the prestigious Houston School of Film and Theatre and served on its board of directors and was Executive Director of the School from 1997-2004. She estimates that since 1989 she has worked with well over 3000 actors. Many are now working actors in Houston , New York and Los Angeles including Leven Rambin, teen star and two time Emmy nominee of the daytime soap opera All My Children. Lester credits her success as an acting coach to a love for the vulnerability and courage of actors and a desire to give them the tools that she wished she had in the beginning of her career.

Eleese Lester is also a sponsor of the Miss Texas, USA  pageant and the Miss Texas Teen USA pageant . She has trained young women such as Crystle Stewart, Miss USA 2009 and Brooke Daniels, Miss Texas 2009. She is also a proud member of WIFT, Women and Film and Television and TXMPA, the Texas Motion Picture Alliance .

In 1995 Ms Lester created Authentic Communication, authentic-communication.com, a unique media-coaching firm in which she applies acting principles and communication skills to help serve the business community. She has become a top Houston media coach working with corporations like Compaq (HP) and Conoco as well as coaching business and civic leaders such as Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia, former Miss Texas and film actress, Nicole O'Brien and Fox TV news anchor, Krystle Kaliszewski.
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Jim Conlan is a 40-year veteran of the broadcast media as a DJ, voice actor, announcer, and writer.
As the co-founder of Radio Works, Jim has a national reputation for writing and producing some of the most memorable radio commercials in the country. His voice has appeared in over a thousand radio and television commercials. He has directed hundreds of voice actors and announcers in Detroit , Houston, Los Angeles and New York .

Jim has conducted voice-acting classes in Houston since the early 90's, when he collaborated with Mercury Studio. Since then he has helped to develop many of the actors who are heard daily in the Houston media. He has also offered workshops through Pastorini-Bosby Talent and Leisure Learning Unlimited, covering everything from beginners to master classes and training both adults and children.

"I think the opportunity for people to earn income from their voices has never been greater. The challenge for each of us is first to recognize and develop our own unique voice, then to find as many ways as possible to market it. The saddest thing is when a talented person tries to be something they're not, or to be misled by bad direction. In those cases, there is as much to un-learn as there is to learn."
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Alison Coriell has trained with and performed almost all the major improv theater in the country including: The Pit, Improv Olympic, Second City, Upright Citizens Brigade, Comedy Sports and Theater Sports.

She has been teaching and directing improv for the past five years. She has written and has worked as a script doctor for multiple sketch reviews in both Chicago and New York. Alison has her BFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and last summer completed the acting residency at Steppenwolf in Chicago. She was recently seen as Jo in Stages Repertory production of American Brat.

Chris Rivera is a working actor in film, theatre, and commercials. He has worked in many film roles for SAG and independent films including Forgiveness, Periphery, The Cutting Room, Fright Fest, Hypernormalisn, and Land of the Free. He has acted in several commercials and industrial films for such corporations as Whole Foods,  Silicon Labs, and No Place for Hate. He has worked with every major Houston theater including the Alley Theatre, Theater Under the Stars, Stages Repertory Theater, Theater Lab, Unhinged Productions, Mildred’s Umbrella, and Talento Bilingüe de Houston. His favorite performances include House of Yes, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Compleat Female Stage Beauty, and The Crazy Mexican Show in which he originated the role of Chris and toured to San Antonio and New York. Chris graduated from the University of Houston with a BA in Acting/Directing. There he studied Shakespeare with Sir Peter Hall and Dr. Sidney Berger. He has studied acting with Alley company members Todd Waite, David Rainey, Phillip Lehl, and Tony winner George Grizzard, playwrighting from pulitzer prize winners Edward Albee and Landford Wilson, and Musical theater from Stuart Ostrow and Melissa Hart. With the Tony award winning Alley Theater, he has taught after school programs for High School and Junior High, and has taught adults privately for many years. Chris is also a working director, most recently directing for the Alley’s HYPE program..
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