FEATURE FILM CLIPS
donald rizzo
ABOUT ME
Donald Rizzo is a Los Angeles-based actor and teaching artist from New York. Film credits include Let Go opposite Kevin Hart; Choke opposite Sam Rockwell & Clark Gregg (Best Ensemble Cast award at the Sundance Film Festival); Park Sharks (Official selection: Dances with Films); and Me, You, and a Mushroom (Screening at the Cannes Film Festival and premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival). Stage credits include Tape (Hollywood Fringe, nominated for a LADCC Award); Moving Arts Car Plays: The Love of Make Believe (the WOW Festival at La Jolla Playhouse and R.E.D.C.A.T. with RADAR LA). Donald is a graduate of the Atlantic Theater Company’s two-year acting conservatory and studied character-based improv and sketch at the Groundlings. As a teaching artist, Donald has developed and taught lesson plans to high school theater students at his alma mater, Herricks High School, and at Grand Arts School of Visual and Performing Arts in downtown Los Angeles. Donald is a graduate of UCLA, where he received his BA in American Literature & Culture, along with a minor in Visual and Performing Arts Education. He is currently a Candidate for the MFA in Television, Film, and Theatre: Acting, at California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA).
MEDIA
BURNOUT / STONER
DEADBEAT / NE'RE-DO-WELL
TOUGHGUY / BOSS
"Choke" w. SAM ROCKWELL &
"Let Go" w. KEVIN HART
OZZIE "Park Sharks"
HEADSHOTS
RESUME
THEATER TEACHING ARTIST
I spent my formative years immersed in theater. When I was in high school, I spent four years in the Student Television Arts Company (STAC), an arts ensemble, which took up a third of my school day, where I collaborated with the top visual and performing artists in our district. I went on to graduate from the Atlantic Theater Company’s two-year acting conservatory in New York City. I have also studied character-based improv and sketch comedy at the Groundlings in Los Angeles, completing their core track improv training program. As a teaching artist, I have developed and taught lesson plans to high school theater students at my alma mater, Herricks High School and at Grand Arts School of Visual and Performing Arts in downtown Los Angeles. I also created, led, and facilitated an afterschool improv program for fourteen students at Grand Arts, which culminated in a live performance. I am a proud graduate of UCLA, where I received my BA in American Literature & Culture, along with a minor in Visual and Performing Arts Education (VAPAE). As part of UCLA’s VAPAE program, I completed the Arts Education Training Sequence (AETS).
To see me in action as a teaching artist, here are some highlights from Kidz with Rizz, a 4 week workshop, which I created, led, and facilitated, for a group of 14 students at Ramon C. Cortines Grand Arts High School of Visual and Performing Arts in February and March, 2024.
Part 1 Kidz with Rizz - Workshop
Part 2 Kidz with Rizz - Performance