Our graduates have impressive careers in the arts. You will, too.
The list is extraordinary and keeps growing. Alumni from the College of Visual and Performing Arts work at The Smithsonian Institute, MTV, HBO, the Museum of Modern Art, The National Endowment for the Arts and countless other famous arts organizations.
Our alumni are successful artists, musicians, actors, cinematographers, dancers, directors, producers, choreographers, writers, technicians, designers, teachers, entrepreneurs, and administrators working in 47 states and 15 countries.
Stage and screen actor Dylan Toms is putting his BM in Vocal Performance and his minor in Theater to good use. After a flourishing start to his career, he recently landed the lead role in a world premiere of the children's musical Finn at the Kennedy Center (Nov. 23 - Dec. 22, 2024). Read Dylan's bio.
Bobby Lacy II was awarded the Green Machine Ensembles Distinguished Alumni Award for his significant contributions to Mason and his own community. His career started right out of school, working as an audio visual specialist with the Mayor's office in D.C. 6 years later, he decided to go to college at George Mason where he graduated first with a BA in Music Voice and later an MA in Arts Management. Throughout his years at Mason, Bobby has always been a member of the Green Machine and created and directed The Green & Gold Soul. Bobby is currently Associate Director of the Green Machine Ensembles.
Stephanie Cabacoy (MA, Arts Management) is the Director of Marketing at the American Shakespeare Center, in Staunton, VA. She oversees group sales, manages the marketing and sales strategy, and serves as the main point of contact for community partnerships. Stephanie found it hard to find a full-time job due to lack of experience so her undergrad professor suggested she pursue a master’s degree and learn about arts administration. This led her to George Mason's Arts Management Graduate Program, where she explored marketing, programming, development, and finance. The program provided insights from practitioners and administrators, shaping her understanding of effective practices from working professionals in the arts administrative world. Her Arts Management studies led to her first full-time position with the ASC.
George Mason's Murals at Mason commissioned School of Art alumna, Lecsi Pillar, to design a mural that highlights landmarks and experiences in Fairfax, VA. Greetings from Fairfax, is from the perspective of someone planning a trip to Fairfax City, including a bus and metro card, and polaroid photos of their adventures.
Murals at Mason also commissioned Lecsi to create 6 murals for the SUB1 building on George Mason's campus called The Ideal of Community, which celebrate stories of diversity, friendship, and solidarity in Mason’s student experience.
Dewberry School of Music alumnus and film music writer, Vincent Oppido, composed music for the new Star Wars game, Jedi: The Fallen Order (2019). Image: Oppido worked on the recording with a 90+ piece orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London.
2020 School of Dance alumnus, Jovick Pavajeau-Orostegui, has been a professional dancer with RUBBERBAND since joining the company in 2021. This followed a year-long apprenticeship with David Dorfman Dance.
School of Dance alumni are working at companies including the Mark Morris Dance Group, Parsons Dance, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, The Paul Taylor Dance Company, Bill T. Jones, Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and many more.
Alex Plank (Film and Video Studies, '10) returned to campus in October 2024 for a screening and Q&A of his film Ezra (he was the associate producer) which follows a stand-up comic Max (Bobby Cannavale), living with his father Stan (Robert De Niro) while struggling to co-parent his autistic 11-year-old, Ezra (William Fitzgerald) with his ex-wife Jenna (Rose Byrne). The film features a number of excellent performances—by Whoopi Goldberg, Rainn Wilson, Vera Farmiga, and Alex Plank as a child psychologist.
Filmmaker and alumna, Kwanza Nicole Gooden was awarded a College of Visual and Performing Arts Thomas W. Iszard IV Distinguished Alumni Award for 2024 for her contributions to the Mason community and her own community. Kwanza is a director, writer, producer, editor, and videographer whose work has been featured on USA Today, BuzzFeed, and BET Networks. Among many accolades she was awarded Best Director at the Oscar-qualifying Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival for her short film Token. Through film, TV and visual media, Kwanza continues to provide a platform that amplifies the often muted voices of those that are underrepresented and misrepresented.
School of Theater alumna, Ariel Kraje, appeared in The Drowsy Chaperone at the Workhouse Arts Theater in early 2024. She played one of the ensemble cast as well as being the dance captain for the show, responsible for overseeing and maintaining the artistic standards of all choreography and musical staging within a production.
School of Dance Class of 2024 alumna, Anna Lopez, will be joining the vibrant Montréal dance company RUBBERBAND for their upcoming season. The hallmark of the company, the RUBBERBAND Method, comprises a unique choreographic vocabulary developed by Victor Quijada. It is now taught throughout the world in university programs, workshops, and master classes.
Upon graduation in 2013, alumni Kyle Bishop (center in image), Alex Estep, and Stewart Van Buren realized that landing that first job out of college was not always that easy so decided to set up their own company called Little Arms Studios. Founder, Kyle Bishop, and his fellow alumni, started the company with the intent to make video games but then had a great opportunity to pivot into the training simulation/serious games space through first responder incident command training. Their company motto is "Our little arms are always open to big ideas!"
Upon graduation, Musical Theater alum Hasan Crawford packed up his clothes in 2 suitcases and bought a one-way ticket to LA! His goal was to dive into television, commercials, and film. The first two years were hard work but his determination eventually paid off and he has since performed in major motion pictures with Netflix, Amazon, and Universal. He's been featured on nationally televised commercials and has continued doing plays and musicals as well as starting to write and direct his own pieces.
Theater Alumna Bella Panciocco wrote the play The Road to the End while a student at George Mason University, which went on to win Best Drama at the D.C. Fringe Festival. It was directed by Megan Gray Lederman (BA Theater, BA English ’23) and Darren Badley, (BA Theater ’23), and the cast and crew were made up entirely of George Mason students and graduates. The play got strong reviews from DC Theater Arts and Broadway World. Read the story.
Raul Rosado is a Senior Producer/Writer for Prince William County Schools, and was recognized in 2024 by The National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with an Emmy award for his video production work with the school division. While working at PWCS, he collaborated as a producer, editor, and videographer on internationally live broadcast educational programs in collaboration with CBS4 Denver, Canal 44 Noticias México, and the USDA Forest Service on topics such as Caves, Grasslands, Freshwater, Woodsy the Owl, and Smoky Bear.
Alumna Kat Thompson (BFA Photography, '15), credits School of Art professor, Stephenie Benassi, with helping her get where she is today. It was while she was in Professor Benassi's Intro to Darkroom class that Kat rekindled her interest in photography and ended up switching her major to a BFA in Photography. She is an interdisciplinary Afro-Jamaican American artist based in Virginia, working in photography, textile, sculptural collage, and installation. In 2020, Thompson had a solo exhibition at George Mason called Katherine Thompson: Raw Material, and in 2021, was awarded a Young Alumni Commissioning Project Award from the university's College of Visual and Performing Arts.
2022-2023 Young Alumni Commissioning Project winner Kyle Finnegan presented a screening of his new documentary short, MSG: Mysterious Savory Grains, which is now streaming on PBS. Kyle said "I've always admired PBS' commitment to distributing short form documentaries and it's been a dream of mine to add to that library. Major shoutout to Maryland Public Television for working with us to make this happen!"
Below are some of the places our alumni are working:
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Adventure Theatre MTC |
HBO |
Prince William Symphony Orchestra |
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American Dance Institute |
IMG Artists |
Pyramid Atlantic |
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American Ballet Theatre |
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts |
Radio Disney |
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Americans for the Arts |
Joyce Theater |
Round House Theatre |
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Arena Stage |
Levine School of Music |
Shakespeare Theater |
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Arlington Arts Center |
Live Nation, Inc. |
Signature Theater |
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Artisphere |
Living Social |
Smithsonian |
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Arts Council of Fairfax County |
Lorton Arts Foundation |
Strathmore |
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Association of Performing Arts Presenters |
Mark Morris Dance Group |
Studio Theatre |
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Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company |
Metro Goldwyn Mayer |
STREB |
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Bowen McCauley Dance |
Metropolitan Museum of Art |
The Limon Company |
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Capital Fringe |
MTV Networks |
The Phillips Collection |
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Carnegie Hall |
Museum of Modern Art |
Theatre Development Fund |
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CNBC |
National Endowment for the Humanities |
The George Balanchine Trust |
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Center Stage |
National Endowment for the Arts |
The Walt Disney Company |
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Cirque de Soleil |
National Geographic |
The Washington Ballet |
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CityDance Ensemble |
Nederland Theater, Broadway |
Universal Music Group |
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Discovery Communications |
New York City Ballet |
Virginia Opera |
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Corcoran Gallery of Art |
New York Foundation for the Arts |
Washington Ballet |
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CustomInk |
Paper Mill Playhouse, NJ |
Washington Opera |
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Disney |
Parsons Dance |
Washington Performing Arts Society |
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Ford's Theatre |
Patricia M. Sitar Center for the Arts |
Washington Stage Guild |
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Greater Reston Arts Center |
PBS |
WETA |
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Guggenheim Museum |
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre |
Wolf Trap |
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Hirshhorn Museum |
Potomac Arts Academy |
Woolly Mammoth Theatre |
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Hylton Performing Arts Center |
The Paul Taylor Dance Company |
Workhouse Arts Center |