Nell Geisslinger

Nell Geisslinger is a multi-disciplinary artist who enjoys exploring human relationships -- with each other, and with the wider, natural world. She does so by breathing life into characters on the stage, the page, with original music and lyrics, marionettes, and engaging in creative collaborations with other artists and causes she supports.

The daughter of a veteran Oregon Shakespeare Festival actor and hardworking film/tv actress, Nell spent her childhood in greenrooms and on sets from LA to Luxembourg to Vancouver (mostly Vancouver). These experiences gave her a love of adventure and performance, while her family's base in Ashland, Oregon gave her a steady connection to nature and community. While living in Southern California as a teenager, her stepfather introduced her to The Kinks, Traffic and Steeleye Span, imparting a love of 1960s pop, rock and folk that continues today.

At 18 Nell was awarded an acting apprenticeship at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She spent the next few years sitting in on rehearsals, diving into understudy tracks and sneaking into back rows, booths and catwalks to watch whatever was playing whenever she could. Through the mentorship of Kenneth Albers, Libby Appel, Penny Metropulos, Robynn Rodriguez, Lue Douthit and many beloved others she sought to develop the stamina of a repertory company member. Nell began her tenure at OSF playing the maid in a production of Idiot's Delight, and worked her way up to repping Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire and Kate in The Taming of the Shrew in 2013. She remains grateful to those who lifted her up in Ashland, and was thrilled to return to OSF's acting company in 2025 as Rosalind in As You Like It (directed by Lisa Peterson) and Cinna the Conspirator in Julius Caesar (directed by Rosa Joshi).

A proud Actors' Equity union member, Nell has appeared at regional theaters including South Coast Rep, Berkeley Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Milwaukee Rep, Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company, the Theater at Boston Court Pasadena and the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

From 2014 - 2023 she resided in Los Angeles where she appeared in numerous commercials, worked as a writer/producer on The Cooking Channel's Food: Fact or Fiction? and served as both a showrunner's and writers' assistant, developing projects for Alexa Junge, Nicole Perlman, STARZ, Lionsgate, Max, Apple TV+ and others.

As a founding member of The Meriwethers band, Nell has traveled throughout the Western United States sharing original songs in libraries, classrooms and commercial venues. This work brought her into Montana for the first time in 2019, where she fell hard for both the big sky and a broad-minded archaeologist running historical trips on the Missouri River. She married Kevin O'Briant at the Missoula County Courthouse in October of 2023.

After years dabbling in videography and editing, Nell and Kevin began the scrappy, independent Special Boy Productions in 2025. Their first short film Bear People was an official selection of the Tacoma Film Festival in October of the same year. From November 2025 - February 2026, Nell and Kevin served as the media coordinators for Buffalo Field Campaign. When not performing, Nell enjoys rafting the Blackfoot River, dreaming up new marionettes and collaborating with BASE Missoula on short horror films.