An award-winning actor, Tessa has originated and performed leading roles at major American theatres including Yale Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, The Shakespeare Theatre of Washington, D.C., Utah Shakespeare Festival, Hartford Stage, the Wilma Theatre, Westport Country Playhouse, and the Kirk Douglas Theatre, with Off-Broadway appearances at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, the Acorn, and the Players Theatre. She is a member of Antaeus Theatre Company.

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Deeply committed to the development of new American work, Tessa has collaborated with playwrights through South Coast Repertory’s NewSCRipts series and Pacific Playwrights Festival, The Public Theater, New Dramatists, Utah Shakespeare Festival’s NAPP, and Perry-Mansfield’s New Play Festival. Her work meets both classical and contemporary demands.

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Her screen work includes appearances on Monsters, How I met Your Father, Modern Family, Lucifer, General Hospital, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, ER, The Affair, Shameless, Boston Legal, etc. as well as feature films Birth and I’m Not Rappaport. She also maintains an extensive career in voice acting across animation, audiobooks, videogames, and commercials.

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Tessa is grateful to have been recognized with numerous honors, including the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship, the Ovation Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play (Eight Nights), OC Weekly’s Best Actress Award (The Roommate), a Fox Foundation Fellowship, the Sermoonjoy Fund Fellowship, and the Oliver Thorndike Award for Excellence in Acting from Yale School of Drama.

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As a teacher and mentor, Tessa focuses on the whole actor, integrating voice and dialect work, scene study, audition preparation and technique, and long-term career mentorship.

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Tessa holds an MFA from Yale School of Drama and trained at LAMDA, Sarah Lawrence College, and the School of American Ballet. She teaches and coaches actors nationally and internationally and is currently on faculty at AMDA College.