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Faculty
Tara Mallen
A producer, actor, and director, Tara is also the founder and Artistic Director at Chicago’s award-winning Rivendell Theatre Ensemble. She is a 3Arts William Franklin Grisham Awardee, a 2024 Impact Award winner from the Chicago Foundation for Women, and a Volunteers of America Silver Star Awardee. Most recently, she directed the sold-out, critically acclaimed world premiere Wipeout for Rivendell. She was seen onstage in Rivendell’s smash-hit production Motherhouse as part of their Jeff Award-winning ensemble. In 2018, she won the Jeff Award for “Actor in a Principal Role” for her portrayal of “Della” in The Cake. Recent stage credits include The Luckiest at The Raven Theatre (Jeff Nomination – Supporting Actor); the world premiere of Lynn Nottage’s Sweat at Arena Stage; Rivendell’s world premiere productions of Laura and the Sea, Look, We Are Breathing and Rasheeda Speaking among many others; and How Long Will I Cry at Steppenwolf Theatre. Since Rivendell’s inception in 1996, Tara has produced and acted in over fifty productions. She received a Joseph Jefferson award for “Supporting Actress” for work in Wrens and was also a part of that production’s Jeff-winning “ensemble”. She was nominated the following year for “Actress in a Principal Role” for her work in My Simple City.
Screen credits include the critically acclaimed indie film Ghostlight (IFC); Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion; The Emperor of Ocean Park (MGM+);The Last Shift (Sony Pictures); Dark Matter (Apple TV); Empire (Fox); Boss (Starz); Chicago Fire (NBC); Doubt (CBS/Sony Pictures); Chicago P.D.(NBC); Sense8 (Netflix) and the independent feature Fools.
For Rivendell, Tara directed the world premiere of Wipeout, co-conceived and directed Women At War; the Jeff nominated Midwest premieres of The Electric Baby, 26 Miles (co-production with Teatro Vista); Fighting Words; Psalms of a Questionable Nature; Elliot, a Soldier’s Fugue (co-production with Stageworks/ Hudson); and the brief and brilliant Shady Meadows by Lisa Dillman as part of the 2007 Chicago Humanities Festival.
