Biography
Stefanie Johnson is an American actress born on July 4, 1974, in Bellingham, WA. Her love of performing sparked at an early age. At age 10, Stefanie booked a commercial in Seattle, after attending her first ever professional audition. She continued to work as a young model in local fashion shows and was cast in productions at The Bellingham Theater Guild. She attended Bellingham High School, where she played basketball, was a cheerleader, sang in the choir, performed in many plays, and graduated in 1992.
As a young adult in the early 90's, Stefanie moved to Seattle, WA and took acting classes at Northwest Actors Studio. She was cast as a lead in an independent feature film by Sally Grace, called Strange Attractors. She then shifted her focus to academics, attending Shoreline Community College and transferring to University of Washington with honors in 1996. Stefanie chose a Psychology major and hoped to become a child and family therapist. It didn't take long for her to realize that she would rather be in rehearsals for a show than in a small group study for her clinical research class. So she switched majors and dedicated her last year of college to the esteemed Drama Program, where she was fortunate to work with Robyn Hunt and Steven Pearson, learning the rigorous physical Japanese technique of the Suzuki Method. After graduating with honors from UW in 1998, Stefanie worked with Pacific Performance Project in Seattle, learning more about movement, dance, clowning, and physical comedy.
At the start of 2000, Stefanie moved to New York City. She took several intensive workshops; studying Meisner Technique with Bill Esper at William Esper Studios, learning Viewpoints at SITI Company with Broadway Actor Tom Nellis, and continuing workshops with Robyn Hunt and Steven Pearson at Marymount Manhattan College. She performed in off-Broadway showcases produced by David Spera, and was cast in plays in the New York International Fringe Festival. Commercially, Stefanie was represented by Ann Wright Representatives, and she booked a national Domino's commercial which aired in conjunction with VH1's Behind the Music. She landed a commercial campaign in Tokyo for the company AEON. Toward the end of her ten years in NYC, Stefanie worked with two productions of Cirque This! at Triskelion Arts in Brooklyn, reinvigorating her love of physical comedy and avant-garde ensemble performance.
Stefanie moved to Los Angeles in December 2009 to focus her work on Film and Television. She hit the ground running, working on student films, music videos, industrials, and joined ongoing classes at John Rosenfeld Studios. Stefanie booked a job with Veteran's Affairs, playing the role of a Veteran with bi-polar disorder on two videos for the Behavioral Family Therapy program with National Education Director, Dr. Noosha Niv. Stefanie continued working with the VA in a study for the program, playing the wife of a Veteran in over 100 mock therapy sessions.
In 2016, Stefanie helped produce and acted in Actor Salon's 5th annual Hollywood Showcase at Zephyr Theater in West Hollywood. This networking opportunity led her to working in television on Investigation Discovery and Lifetime shows among others. She recently tackled a challenging leading role as an I.C.E. agent in the film Here I Am by Kevin Desmond, produced by RAI Pictures.
