Ben Beckley

Birthplace

Lexington, Virginia, USA

Biography

BEN BECKLEY is a writer and actor, known for smart, emotionally charged work. That work has taken him from Off Broadway to Broadway, from musicals to performance art, and from Shakespeare to American Horror Story. Ben made his Broadway debut in Heidi Schreck’s hit show What The Constitution Means To Me. Sharing the stage for a week with Heidi, he portrayed legionnaire Mel Yonkin and delivered a monologue about his own childhood in Southern Virginia. Personal monologues like that one have also been a staple of Ben’s work with The Assembly, which The New York Times dubbed “a cutting-edge young theater collective.” As a co-Artistic Director of the company, Ben has co-created seven original productions. For The Assembly’s latest, IN CORPO, a musical freely inspired by Franz Kafka’s The Castle, Ben wrote the book, co-wrote the lyrics, and performs in a central role; IN CORPO will premiere in June 2023 at Theatre Row. Other writing credits include work with Red Bull, Fresh Ground Pepper, Ars Nova, Dutch Kills, and Northern Stage. As an actor, Ben has premiered work with Tony-winners Itamar Moses and Christopher Durang, and was featured in the first national tours of Bess Wohl's Small Mouth Sounds (dir. Tony-winner Rachel Chavkin) and Rick Elice's Peter and the Starcatcher (dir. Tony-winners Alex Timers and Roger Rees). From 2005 through 2009, he performed throughout Europe and North America with four highly experimental projects he premiered with Temporary Distortion. Ben studied for six years with Emmy Award-winning director Gene Lasko and Tony Award-winning actor Reed Birney. He's also studied vocal performance with Susan Eichhorn Young and Kabuki dance with Sachiyo Ito. He’s a proud member of The Actors Center, SAG-AFTRA, and Actors Equity Association. Ben grew up in Lexington, Virginia and graduated from Princeton University with a B.A. in Dramatic Literature.