Denise Simon, Director of Actors Workshop, has been involved in the entertainment industry for over twenty years as an actress, teacher, director, casting director, and personal talent manager. For ten years she was an associate with Fox Albert Management, one of the leading talent management companies in New York, where she managed such clients as Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino and Lacey Chabert from Fox television drama, Party of Five. A graduate of Florida State University with a B.F.A. degree in theatre, Denise has studied acting with such teachers as Wynn Handman, Ellie Renfield, and Charles Nelson Reilly.

Simon's credits also include creating the youth division at Total Theatre Lab in NYC, working in theatre camps such as Stagedoor Manor and Long Lake Arts Camp. She also founded “Out of Sync,” a teenage comedy improvisational troupe which performs in Westchester and Connecticut. She is a member of the Actors’ Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, and AFTRA, and leads acting workshops for these unions. She has also worked with corporate firms to organize acting and improvisational training for their employees. She is married to Alan Simon, founder of On Location Education, the nation’s premier tutoring service for child actors. Together, they have spoken on many panels to educate professional children and their parents about the business of show business.

Professionals who have worked with Denise:

Film

Scarlett Johansson, Girl with a Pearl Earring
Mira Sorvino, Mighty Aphrodite, Oscar Winner
Noah Fleiss, Josh and S.A.M., Joe the King
Kate Mara, Tadpole, Random Hearts
Michael Schiffman, Finding Buck McHenry
Rishi Mehta, The Emperor’s Club
Samantha Lucier, Riding in Cars with Boys
Bianca Bethune, Bad Boys II
Loulou Katz, Fast Food Fast Women

Television

Zach Braff, Scrubs
Judy Reyes, Scrubs
Grant Rosenmeyer, Oliver Beene
Julia McIlvaine, Kablam!
Erin Broderick, Law & Order: SVU
Adrienne Frantz, The Bold and the Beautiful
Gabe Millman, Law & Order, The Sopranos
Miles Thompson, Sponk!
Michael Shulman, Someone Had to Be Benny

Broadway

Yancey Arias, Miss Saigon
Lacey Chabert, Les Miserables
Jenna Gavigan, Gypsy
Erin Rakow, Les Miserables, The Diary of Anne Frank
Pierce Cravens, Beauty and the Beast

Denise Bessette is a co-founder and producer with Hudson Stage Company, Westchester's premier professional non-profit theatre. As an actress, she appeared in their inaugural production of "Full Bloom" and has been seen Off-Broadway, most recently at the Abingdon Theatre in the premier of "Foggy Bottom.”  Her major regional theatre work includes performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Boston's Huntington Theatre, Long Wharf, The American Shakespeare Festival at Stratford, CT., and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Denise was a producer and actress at Interact Theatre in Los Angeles for many years, and received an Ovation award for her work in "Counsellor-at-Law." TV and film credits include guest appearances on Law & Order, Law & Order SVU, Seinfeld, L.A. Law and Larry David's "Sour Grapes.