Jennifer Elia studied and trained as an actor at The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in New York while also earning her BFA in Drama at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Prior to that, Jennifer was introduced to The Method at age 16 through The Young People’s Program at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Jennifer believes that she has had the honor of studying The Method from giants like Hope Arthur, Geoffrey Horne, and Bill Balzac. She credits the legendary Hope Arthur for teaching her the foundation of Lee’s Method.
For most of her career, Jennifer worked steadily as a voice actor on several television series including Shades of Blue, Dead to Me, The Village, Insatiable and Army Wives. Most recently, Jennifer workshopped scenes for the film Frybread Face and Me (Writer/Dir. Billy Luther). Additionally, Jennifer was featured in World of Wonder’s documentary Becoming Chaz (Dirs. Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato). Having a near lifelong love of Improvisation, Jennifer studied and performed at The Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles as well as writing and performing in the spoken word series, Tasty Words. A proud SAG member, Jennifer earned her union card through work on the television series Scrubs. Later, discovering her enjoyment of teaching, Jennifer returned to school and earned her Master’s degree in Education from UCLA.