about
about
photo by jason moody
Katie Zaffrann is an actor, singer, wife, mother, lover of the outdoors and mindfulness meditation teacher at the intersection of drama + dharma.
Katie has performed for audiences of 4 to 4000, from Shakespeare & Company to National Sawdust, in New York City, San Francisco, and along the eastern seaboard from Maine to Florida. Regional theater credits include the Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, Delaware Theater Company, Shakespeare & Company, freeFall Theatre, the John W. Engeman Theater, Cape May Stage, Opera House Arts, Chenango River Theatre and more. She has originated roles in numerous world premiere plays and musicals and brought her unique self to classics like Portia in The Merchant of Venice and The Ghost of Christmas Past in A Christmas Carol.
An artist and creator in her own right, she wrote and curated her one-woman show Marry Me a Little: a cold feet cabaret, about the terror, bliss, panic and joy of getting married, called “an enchanting delight” by BroadwayWorld [spoiler alert: this anxiety was her gateway to meditation]. She also starred in, and executive produced, the award-winning musical short film NAKED, a whimsical romp about living life to the fullest based on Mike Pettry's song “Without a Stitch On.” NAKED played at film festivals worldwide and is now streaming on IndieFlix.
Katie was the Founding President and an original member of the multi-award winning chamber ensemble Choral Chameleon. Her versatile concert and vocal experience has taken her from recording studios to concert halls, with an emphasis on intimate and sacred spaces: from a jazz mass to Philip Glass, fronting a Sunday-morning praise band to commercial jingles, classic choral rep to pop and folk. Her own art song recital, Of Life and Love and Wings: Great American Poets in Song, marries four of America’s favorite poets with two composers for an intimate experience of human nature and Mother Nature. There are countless ways to channel the transcendent and divine.
With over a decade of practice and study of meditation and 25 years as a yoga practitioner, Katie is a Dharma Moon / Tibet House US-certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher, and also practices Usui Reiki.
Katie holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from Syracuse University, where she was the recipient of the Edward Greer Award for Classic Acting. She studies voice in New York City with Ruth Williams Hennessy, acting at John Strasberg Studios and has also trained classically at Shakespeare & Co. and at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, England. She is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association.
