Emily Gilson

Hi there! I'm SAG-AFTRA actor and teaching artist based in Washington, DC, with an excellent ear for accents (it's my favorite party trick), repped by FireStarter Entertainment and Hutson Talent. A cousin was the late radio and TV actor and writer Billy Idelson, who played Herman Glimscher on The Dick Van Dyke Show, not that I expect this to ever get me anywhere... ;) I get told I'm Winona Ryder's doppelganger a lot and I'm rolling with it.

I've been a professional actor for 11 years and a teaching artist for almost as many - I studied Theatre, Medieval History, and Medieval Literature at Purchase College SUNY, and returned to DC upon graduation to continue training. My work has been called "a skirling joy" to see (FringeUK, 2020), "sharp, perceptively wrought, vivid and intriguing" (The Washington Post). My Ariel in The Tempest at Avant Bard Theatre in 2018, under direction of founding artistic director Tom Prewitt, was called "a masterstroke of casting" (DC Metro Theater Arts).

As a theatre artist, I specialize in spirited, vulnerable truth seekers finding authenticity in outsiders. I've had the privilege of originating multiple new works with several of DC's new emerging playwrights, many of which have gone on to be fully produced and published - DC playwright Patrick Flynn's The Ferberizing of Coral, in which I originated the roles of Coral aged 8 and 17, was published in Samuel French's Off-Off Broadway Festival Plays, 43rd Series in August 2019.

When Covid-19 closed the world down in 2020, my practice shifted towards training, solo work, and voiceover. I continued my training, fully remotely, with a remarkable international company of artists at the Shaw Festival in Ontario, and Zoom as a new medium allowed me to join podcasts and a variety of global livestreamed projects while moving my teaching artistry online, with students and castmates as far as Singapore, the UK, South America, and Israel.

In 2022 I was cast by 6-time Tony winner George C. Wolfe in my first feature film with a supporting role in Rustin, starring Colman Domingo and Audra McDonald, out on Netflix global in November 2023. I trained in classical and contemporary drama at the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory, founded by Joy Zinoman, as well as Shaw Festival in Ontario, Overtures Musical Theatre Institute at Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA, and with Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA, under direction of founder Tina Packer. As of 2021, I study classical and contemporary voice with Dan Thaler Voice Studio, NYC.

I'd love to help you with your accent and dialect work as a reader or coach, and I LIVE FOR TABLE WORK - it's the best part of rehearsal.

You can also visit me at www.emilygilsonactor.com .

If I'm not online, DM me to find a time to read/rehearse at:
fb: @emilygilsonactor
instagram: @__spacegandalf
email: emgilson90@yahoo.com

Tips are very much appreciated :)