Ilana Meredith was raised in Rockland County, N.Y. where she obsessed over Broadway musicals and plays. As a three year old, she had already (in her mind) "mastered" the songs and choreography to "Pippin," after watching the Ben Vereen version on VHS no less than a hundred times. Her middle and high school years were consumed with play rehearsals and becoming a semi-professional Broadway backstage door groupie. When she aged out of that promising career, she started training in Drama at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts.
Throughout her four years at N.Y.U, she attended the CAP21 Musical Theatre Program, The Classical Studio, and the Experimental Theatre Wing. During her time there and after graduating, she performed in tours, regional shows and summer stock companies. Her most notable performances were as Sally Bowles in Cabaret at the Broward Stage Door Theatre (FL), Frenchy in Grease at The Shawnee Playhouse (PA), Mrs. Bleakman in Phoenix Production's National Tour of Clifford The Big Red Dog - Live!, and various roles in Vanjo Production's National Tour of If This Hat Could Talk. She also did several voice-overs and on-camera commercials.
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Ilana returned to school for her Master's Degree in Theatre Education at City College of N.Y. and is currently a Drama Teacher / Theatre Director at Great Neck South High School on Long Island.
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Since 2018, she has been singing with pianist / accordionist Joseph Rutkowski at various venues throughout the NYC & Hudson Valley region. They also often pair with NYC historian Jim Mackin, for performances on 20s music and the Tin Pan Alley era. This past year, she was seen performing at the Stuyvesant Cove Concert Series (NYC), The Copake Grange - Tin Pan Alley Cabaret (Copake, NY), The Starving Artist Teacher's Unleashed Cabaret (City Island, NY), The Rogers Memorial Library (Southampton, NY), The Tin Pan Alley Project Outdoor Concert Series on 28th Street (NYC), and various assisted living centers on Long Island.
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Ilana also continues to study theatre, and has taken several acting and directing classes at The Barrow Group. Most recently, she took Professional Scene Study III with Seth Barrish (Spring 2024). In the summers of 2022 and 2023, she took week long courses (Shakespeare / Play Study) at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. She has also trained at UCB in Improv and Sketch, and The Movement Studio Theatre / The Funny School of Good Acting in Bouffon, Clown, and Commedia Dell'Arte.
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