The Theatre School > About > Faculty & Staff > Performance > Jeffrey Mills

Jeffrey Mills

  • ​​

  • jmills24@depaul.edu
  • Movement
  • ​MFA Acting, National Theatre Conservatory
    BA Dramatic Art; University of California, Berkeley​​​​
  • Performance
  • 773-325-7942

Jeff Mills is an award-winning actor, director, teacher, fight director and musician. He is best known for his work with the award winning BOXTALES Theatre Company in Santa Barbara. As a core member of BOXTALES, Jeff co-created ten original works in as many years, including his direction of OM: An Indian Tale of Good and Evil (The Ramayana) and his portrayal of Odysseus in The Odyssey. Jeff and BOXTALES have toured their innovative theater for young audiences throughout the U.S. and in Mexico. Nationally and internationally Jeff has performed with the Denver Center Theater Company, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, American Folklore Theater, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Door Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Shakespeare Festival, Wooden O Theater, the International City Theater, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Pominencer Census (Munich), the Estudia Busqueda de Pantomima Teatro (Guanajuato, Mexico) and Theater Mitu/Visthar Center (Bangalore, India).

In Santa Barbara Jeff has acted and/or directed with several companies, including PCPA Theaterfest, Shakespeare Santa Barbara, Speaking of Stories, Genesis West, Dramatic Women, Lit Moon Theater, Santa Barbara City College and the Santa Barbara Summer Solstice. In 2014/2015 Jeff played the title role in Lit Moon's Hamlet at the National Theater of China in Beijing and the Bitola International Shakespeare Festival in Bitola, Macedonia. Other favorite roles include Macbeth, Katurian in The Pillowman, Edward in Henry VI Part 3, and Carlotta in The Cherry Orchard. In 2004 Jeff appeared on screen as Tristan in Bill Viola's and Peter Sellars' production of the opera Tristan and Isolde, which was performed at the Opera National in Paris, the Disney Hall in Los Angeles and the Lincoln Center in New York. Jeff is currently working with his new company, Proboscis, creating original works of mask, puppetry and physical theater, exploring science, Shakespeare and vaudeville; and a radio variety program called Live from the Piano Kitchen. Proboscis creations include Piezoelectric Love: The Half Life of Marie Curie (2011), which he co-devised and directed; La La La Strada (2015), which he wrote, directed and played Anthony Quinn; and Strap-On, which he co-wrote and directed. From 2007 to 2016 Jeff served on the BFA acting faculty at the University of California Santa Barbara where he taught movement, acting and solo performance.​