Randall Whittinghill

Filmmaker > Acting Coach

Randall Whittinghill, Career Acting Coach & Filmmaker

Randall Whittinghill is a filmmaker and acting coach with nearly two decades of experience in teaching, production, and design. He graduated from California Institute of Arts with a B.A. in Theater Acting in 1998 and then earned his M.F.A. in Theater Directing from Sarah Lawrence College. After completing his higher education, Randall quickly got involved in overseeing educational efforts himself.

He became a Teacher Assistant at CS211 Elementary School, where he guided teenage students to create and then perform an original production. After nearly two years he then took a Teacher Assistant role at PS30, where he completed a similar long-term project. This time, the project involved puppetry— a niche in which Randall has since established himself as an expert.

After a summer position as an assistant lecturer at his alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College, Randall switched gears away from education in order to focus solely on production. He joined the Red Wing Performing Group and Phantom Limb Company as a set designer and puppeteer. In his role as a set designer, which lasted nearly three years, he utilized both his creative and technical skills. He outlined and carried out complex scenic and rigging challenges, ensuring safety, cohesion, and aesthetic beauty in each stage set.

As a puppeteer for Red Wing Performing Group and Phantom Limb Company, Randall performed in large-scale puppetry and marionette productions in venues across the United States, such as Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), UCLA Live!, and The Here Arts Center. He collaborated with diverse artists as he perfected his creative methods in movement and technique. He was inspired by his experience with other writers, actors, and producers, and decided to create his own acting studio.

With a wide range of specialties, such as script interpretation, thirty-minute sitcom acting, and found object theater, Randall has coached numerous prominent artists through important career ventures. Some of his most well-known clients are Tracee Ellis Ross, Aasif Mandvi, Tika Sumpter, and Damon Wayans Jr. His coaching also continues to help aspiring actors from the ground up, and he teaches a revolving group course, From Page to Stage, which teaches his studio’s exclusive methods at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels.

Randall continues to grow his own expertise and he credits each and every one of his coaching sessions as a learning experience for himself as well. He is also moving forward with more of his own writing and filmmaking efforts.