Mari Nelson

After graduating from The Juilliard School, Mari began her professional career in The New York Shakespeare Festival production of Twelfth Night in Central Park with Michelle Pfeiffer and Jeff Goldblum. In her Broadway debut, she originated the role of Elisabeth in John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation with Stockard Channing. Subsequent Broadway appearances include Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls with Nathan Lane and Peter Gallagher as well as Moira in Brian Friel’s Translations with Brian Dennehy and Rufus Sewell. Mari also gave the world premiere of Joe Orton’s Up Against It, with music by Todd Rundgren (Joseph Papp Public Theater). Regional credits include Private Lives (Alley Theater, Houston), Arms and the Man, As You Like It, An Ideal Husband (Center Stage, Baltimore), and Present Laughter (Hartford Stage). Closer to home, Mari has been featured in Arms and the Man, Intimate Apparel and Nora (Intiman); An American Daughter, Twelfth Night, Dancing at Lughnasa, Sylvia, A Great Wilderness as well as world premier workshops of Welcome Home Dean Charbonneau by Adam Rapp, Radiance by Alan Alda, and Come from Away (The Seattle Repertory Theater), Afterwords (The Village Theater); Going to Saint Ives, Omnium Gatherum, Grand Magic, Miss Witherspoon and Bad Apples (A Contemporary Theater); Urinetown (5th Ave/ACT); Billy Elliot, Into The Woods (The Village Theater); The Tempest, Bring Down The House, Richard III (Seattle Shakespeare Company); A My Name is Alice, The Voice of the Turtle, As You Like It, Hay Fever and Crimes of the Heart (Tacoma Actors Guild); Antony and Cleopatra, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Frozen, The Love list, The Constant Wife, Arcadia, The Tempest, Hapgood, Rough Crossing, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (The State Theater). Mari is looking forward to recording the new musical Afterwords in its entirety for The Fifth Avenue Theater Digital Collection in early 2021. Film credits include Bad Girls, directed by Amos Koleck, and also Back Spot Turn and Laggies, directed by Lynn Shelton. TV credits include Ilsa in One Life to Live, Brenda in Another World and MTV’s Pirate TV, as well as numerous commercial voiceovers for Campbell’s, Kohler, GTE, United Way, Bain de Soleil, Evian, Converse, Evian and KitchenAid. Mari is featured in several radio play series including Sherlock Holmes, Murder and the Murdochs and is the voice of Hilary Caine in the new radio play series Hilary Caine Mysteries, all distributed by Aural Vision LLC. No stranger to the concert stage, Mari performed Honnegger’s King David with The Orchestra of St. Luke’s and The Choir of Men and Boys (St. Thomas Fifth Avenue, NYC) as well as collaborating with Taj Mahal on Slain in the Spirit (St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn, NY). Mari has been awarded Five Gordo Awards for Best Actress 2005- 2012, nominated Best Actress (BWW Best of 2014 and 2019) and was also awarded The Seattle Theater Writers Best Supporting Actress Award 2016. Gregory Award for Best Actress in a Play 2017. Most recently 2019 Gregory Awards: Best Supporting Performance In a Musical as well as Best Supporting Performance In A Play.