A busy Actor, Director, Spokesperson and Teacher, Neill Hartley earned a Master of Fine Arts from Temple University in Acting. A faculty member of Temple University from 1989-2000 and since 2005 teaching Acting; and on the faculty of the University of the Arts since 1994 teaching Speech & Voice, Neill is also much in demand as a speech and dialect coach for several professional theaters. A much sought-after actor, performing with companies that include the Arden Theater, InterAct Theatre, and the Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival, the multi-talented Mr. Hartley won a Barrymore Award for Ensemble for 1812 Productions’ Batboy, The Musical. Besides teaching, coaching and acting, Neill is a busy director for theaters that include Philadelphia Young Playwrights, University of the Arts, University of Pennsylvania, Arcadia University, Isis Productions, the Brick Theater and the Luna Theater. Serving as Artistic Director for Acting Without Boundaries, a theater company providing large-scale musical opportunities for physically-disabled teens and young adults, Neill does commercials, has roles in feature films and has enjoyed a longstanding commitment as the spokesperson for Spray-N-Grow, a national organic gardening products company.
The AFTRA/SAG/CORE theater professional joined the American Historical Theatre in 2000 with his one-person shows, Neill credits his voice and movement training from Temple University for his fluid “morphing” from one easily identifiable character to another. His programs have been tremendously popular at theaters and venues that include (what’s now) the Tweeter Center, Academy of Music, Act II Playhouse, Walnut Street Theater Studio 3, Congress Hall, Smithsonian Institution, and the American Glider Council, as well as just about every library and civic group in New Jersey for his Ichabod Crane program each October.
Characters portrayed by Neill Hartley:
PT Barnum, Ichabod Crane, Sherlock Holmes, Charles Lindbergh, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt (A New Deal for America), Franklin D, Roosevelt (Arsenal for Democracy), Joshua Lionel Cowen (trains)