Jonathan Judge-Russo
Artistic Director/Secretary (Board of Directors) & founding member of animus theatre co.
Jonathan Judge-Russo (Founding Artistic Director/Secretary, Board of Directors): A proud Brooklyn native, Jonathan recently received a 2016 Helen Hayes Award nomination as a member of the cast of Jumpers for Goalposts at the Studio Theatre in Washington, DC, and was a member of the company of Falling at the Minetta Lane Theatre, a 2013 Drama Desk Award nominee for Outstanding Play. Other Off-B'way/New York credits include such venues as the Signature Theatre (Somewhere with You), the Cherry Lane Theatre (Where’s My Money? with Animus), the Irish Repertory Theatre (Eugene O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon), the Irish Arts Center (The Irish Play Directed by Tony Award Winner Theodore Mann), the Irondale Center (Treasure Island directed by Tony Award Winner BH Barry), SoHo Rep (Nesting), and Symphony Space (The Christmas Revels). He has performed at the Metropolitan Opera on three occasions, in productions of La Fanciulla del West (featuring Deborah Voigt) and Wozzeck (conducted by James Levine) as well as twice with LAByrinth Theater Company's Barn (Ask/Tell directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Snapshot by Brett C. Leonard). Judge-Russo has performed regionally in the world premiere of Seth Zvi Rosenfeld’s Downtown Race Riot (New York Stage and Film, directed by Scott Elliott), the United States premiere of Tom Wells’ Jumpers for Goalposts; Comedy of Errors, Troilus and Cressida (GBT Award Nominee), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (all with the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company), as well as Othello with the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival. He played the inimitable Malachy McCourt in the First National Tour of Frank McCourt’s Echoes of Ireland and Kostya in The Seagull (directed by Animus company member Alan Langdon) following his graduation from Circle in the Square Theatre School in 2008. TV credits include "Law & Order: SVU", "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt", "Elementary", "Black Box", and "White Collar" as well as such films as Chess, A Slice and a Sandwich and Eat Me. Jonathan made his directing debut in 2015 with Running Interference, co-written by Animus company member Eric Morris and starring company member Jeff Todesco, at the New York International Fringe Festival.
As Artistic Director of Animus, Jonathan has helmed productions written by John Patrick Shanley, Bob Glaudini, Leslye Headland, Tennessee Williams, and William Shakespeare, at venues including Broadway’s Circle in the Square Theatre, the Cherry Lane, and Theatre Row. He counts leading, and sharing space with, his Animus family as the greatest honor and privilege of his career. For more information on Jonathan, visit Wikipedia or IMDb.