Stephen Van Dorn

Stephen Van Dorn

Member SAG
Stephen Van Dorn, recently starring as Edward Rutledge in "1776", graduated Bethel University magna cum laude with a degree in both Theatre Arts and Sacred Music. He was given honorable mention twice that year in the Monologue Competition and Concerto Aria Competition, being the only student to take the honor in both music and theatre arts in the same year. After moving to Los Angeles, he was nominated for the LA Weekly Award Best Actor category for his turn in "The Hasty Heart" at Actors Co-op in Hollywood, for which he also won a Maddie Award for Performance.

In 2001 Van Dorn moved to Singapore to star in "Judah Ben Hur: The Musical." Subsequent to that, he starred opposite Garry Marshall and Neal McDonough in the screwball comedy, "They Call Him Sasquatch,"(2003) in which he played a British rocker obsessed with finding Bigfoot. Van Dorn also co-wrote several songs for the production. That same year he worked with Garry Marshall in Falcon Theatre's "Cinderella" based on the Puccini opera, La Cenerentola.

2006 saw the release of "Cemetery Gates," Kismet Entertainment's horror film in which Van Dorn played the eco-terrorist responsible for unleashing a giant mutated Tasmanian devil on the grounds of a cemetery occupied by several students intent on filming a zombie flick.

In 2007 Van Dorn played another rock singer in the indie film, "Cake," which took The Other Venice Film Festival's Audience Favorite – Best Feature award, and went on to take other honors on the indie film-fest circuit. Flick is being re-edited and theatrical & DVD/Blu-Ray release of that film is TBD.

Recent stage roles include his recent turn as Gerard Damiano in "Lovelace: A Rock Opera," at The Hayworth Theatre. Directed by Ken Sawyer, with music by The Go-Gos' Charlotte Caffey, and Anna Waronker. Other roles include his show-stopping portrayal of Edward Rutledge in "1776," Tony Toscanini in the West-Coast Premiere of "Tales of Tinseltown," and Gerald Critch in "Women In Love" (created by "Cold Case" executive producer, Meredith Stiehm, based on the book by D.H. Lawrence).

This summer Van Dorn along with Heather Chesley plans to produce a Summer of Shakespeare for "Co-op, Too!" audiences to enjoy. The producing duo plan an ambitious three plays by the Bard. Van Dorn will direct as well as star.

In addition to his acting career, Van Dorn has branched into directing with his audience-hit production of "Much Ado About Nothing" at Actors Co-op, his critically acclaimed direction of "What Happened Was…" by Tom Noonan at the Stephanie Feury Theatre, and his more recent creation and direction of "The Freddy Wyatt Variety Hour Christmas Spectacular Extravaganza Show.," aka "A Hollywood Christmas." Van Dorn occasionally teaches acting at the prestigious Warner Loughlin Studios, and currently resides in the Los Angeles area.