Kim Krejus
Artistic Director
Kim is the founder of 16th Street Actors Studio. She is known and respected as one of Australia’s most esteemed acting teachers.
Kim began her career as an actor in film receiving an AFI Best Actress nomination and has worked for all major television networks and theatre companies across Australia including Nimrod, MTC and QTC.
Kim has also worked in theatre in the United States, including touring Broadway productions, and in repertory theatre across the United Kingdom.
Kim was a student at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Sydney, The HB Studio (NYC), The Atlantic Theatre School (NYC) and is a graduate of the Drama Centre, London. Kim received a prestigious Churchill Fellowship and has trained under some of the most highly regarded acting teachers in the world including Yat Malmgren & Doreen Cannon in London, Uta Hagen in New York and Ivana Chubbuck in Los Angeles. Kim is now accredited to teach the innovative Chubbuck Technique.
“Acting is the most intimate of The Arts. Acting is a craft that requires respect and dedication and is learned and refined over years of practice. In a world that is obsessed with the cult of celebrity, actors must be reminded to do what is required to be a great actor. They must be willing.” – Kim Krejus
Iain Sinclair
Head of Acting
“Iain is one of the most forensic directors I have worked with. His knowledge of American literature is vast and he gets to the heart of what is at play. He is an inspiration” – Darren Gilshenan, Award-Winning Actor, Director, Writer & Teacher.
Iain Sinclair is well recognised as one of Australia’s finest directors of actors in performance consistently helping them generate empowered, sophisticated and dignified work.
Actors working alongside Iain are regularly nominated for Best Actor awards here and overseas. In 2017 alone 10 actors under Iain’s direction won Best Actor awards 3 in Los Angeles and 7 in Australia alongside a compelling 34 total award nominations and 4 wins for Best Play.
After graduating from The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and King’s College London where he specialised in directing actors and developmental dramaturgy Iain has had a rich and successful career alternating between bold new plays and the classics, he has directed celebrated major productions for state companies at STC, Belvoir, MTC and Queensland Theatre, he has directed for numerous mid level professional companies and also consistently works outside of the mainstream paradigm creating top level independent productions.
Before accepting Kim’s invitation to join 16th Street Iain was the Senior Dramaturg at Playwriting Australia and a prolific Theatre Director in Sydney. Early in his Career, Iain was AD to Cate Blanchett when she was Artistic Director at Sydney Theatre Company and AD to Max Stafford Clark when he was artistic director at Out of Joint in the UK. He has been a visiting artist and teacher at major institutes like NIDA, VCA and La Salle College. He is also the winner of many prestigious awards for Best Director and Best Play and most recently won the 2017 Stuart Wagstaff Memorial Award for Best Director in Sydney.
Iain uses a process dedicated to empowering actors through story. He applies bold new thinking from the fields of social science, interpersonal neurobiology and story theory and hammers them into practicality based soundly on the principles Konstantin Stanislavski explored. He helps the actor find the engine of any scene and then he gives them the keys and lets them drive it on their own.
Deborra-Lee Furness
Patron
Deborra-Lee Furness was born in Perth, Australia, and raised in Melbourne. She studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, where she graduated in either 1981 or 1982. She performed in the United States on the stage in New York and as Kathleen, the Australian wife of Cole Gioberti (Billy Moses) on the television series Falcon Crestbefore returning to Australia to continue her acting career.
Furness rose to fame in 1988, when she starred in the movie Shame, for which she won Best Actor awards from the Film Critics Circle of Australia and Golden Space Needle. Other roles included an episode of Halifax f.p. and The Flying Doctors. In 1995, she starred in the title role in the television series Correlli, where she met her future husband, Hugh Jackman.
An adoptive mother of two, Furness is known for her work assisting orphans globally and streamlining international adoptions, especially in her native Australia where she is a patron, and one of the creators, of National Adoption Awareness Week. She has addressed the National Press Club of Australia on the subject of adoption laws in Australia. Furness is a patron of the Lighthouse Foundation for displaced children and International Adoption Families for Queensland. She is also a World Vision ambassador and serves on the Advisory Committee for Film Aid International, working with refugees throughout the world.
“I am proud to introduce you to the Patron of 16th Street Actors Studio, actress Deborra-Lee Furness. I cannot imagine being in better company than with this wonderful woman. Deborra-Lee trained in New York before returning to Australia to make a considerable contribution to the landscape of the Australian film and television industry.
What strikes me most about Deborra-Lee is her determination to fight for what she believes in. She has never taken the opinions of others to restrict the scope of her vision and the expansiveness of her dreams. Deborra-Lee is a shining example of a woman and an actress who lives her life with curiosity, fearlessness and generosity of spirit. 16th Street is honoured to have Deborra-Lee as our patron” – Kim Krejus
Peter Cooper
Philanthropic Partner
“Rumi said “When you do things from the soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy”. 16th Street Actors Studio is an organisation with soul, spirit and an obsession for a values-first approach to the industry. Kim Krejus and 16th Street have a passion and dedication for teaching actors and are on a mission to bring deep knowledge and artistry to a wide audience. The studios finest virtue is the way it simply cares and places students squarely on a pedestal so that they shine – it’s all about giving them the best possible experience and transforming actors in a profound and deep way. 16th Street Actors Studio at its heart is about dealing with the human condition i.e. standing fearlessly on life’s stage in full scrutiny of an audience is to bear ones soul.” – Peter Cooper
Peter Cooper is Managing Director / Chief Investment Manager of Cooper Investors and proud philanthropic partner of 16th Street.
Colin Firth
endorses 16th Street Actors Studio
“Kim Krejus and I trained together at the Drama Centre in London. We were fortunate to train with Christopher Fettes and Yat Malmgren. Our acting teacher was Doreen Cannon, who had worked with Uta Hagen. When Kim graduated from the Drama Centre, she went to NY to study with Uta Hagen at the HB Studio. It is of real benefit to Australian actors that this work has been incorporated into the training at 16th Street.” – Colin Firth