Tara Mallen
Producer, actor, and director, Tara Mallen is the founder and Artistic Director at Chicago’s award-winning Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, Chicago’s premier theater dedicated to producing new works that advance the lives of women through the power of live theater. She is a 3Arts William Franklin Grisham Awardee, a 2024 Impact Award winner from the Chicago Foundation for Women and a Volunteers of America Silver Star Award. In 2024, Tara appeared alongside her husband, Keith and daughter, Katherine in Alex Thompson and Kelly O'Sullivan's film Ghostlight, premiering at Sundance in to rave reviews and released by IFC Films nationwide. Most recently she was onstage in Rivendell’s sold-out world-premiere production of Pivot. Recent credits include Gorgeous (co-production between Rivendell and Raven), directing the critically acclaimed world premiere Wipeout and Rivendell’s smash-hit production Motherhouse as part of their Jeff Award winning ensemble. In 2018, she won a Jeff Award for “Actor /Principal Role” for her portrayal of “Della” in The Cake. Other notable stage credits include The Luckiest (Raven Theatre - Jeff Nomination – Supporting Actor); the world premiere of Lynn Nottage’s Sweat (Arena Stage); Rivendell’s world premiere productions of Laura and the Sea, Look, We Are Breathing and Rasheeda Speaking; and How Long Will I Cry at Steppenwolf Theatre. Since Rivendell’s inception in 1996, Tara has produced and acted in over fifty productions. She received a Joseph Jefferson award for “Supporting Actress” for work in WRENS and was part of that production’s Jeff winning “ensemble”. She was nominated the following year for “Actress in a Principal Role” for her work in My Simple City.
Screen credits include the upcoming feature films Saturn Returns (Netflix) and Via Negativa (premiering at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival); Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion; The Last Shift (Sony Pictures); The Emperor of Ocean Park (MGM+); Dark Matter (Apple TV); Empire (Fox); Boss (Starz); Chicago Fire (NBC); Doubt (CBS/Sony Pictures); Chicago P.D.(NBC); Sense8 (Netflix) and the independent feature FOOLS. She plays a leading role in Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s soon-to-be-released feature Mouse that premiered at the 2026 Berlinale.
For Rivendell, Tara co-conceived and directed the critically acclaimed world premiere of Women At War, a theatrical exploration of women in today’s military that played to sold out houses in the fall of 2014 and is now touring throughout the mid-west; the Jeff nominated Midwest premieres of The Electric Baby by Stefanie Zadravec, 26 Miles (in co-production with Teatro Vista); Fighting Words by Sunil Kuruvilla; Psalms of a Questionable Nature by Marisa Wegerzyn; the co-production of Elliot, a Soldier’s Fugue with Stageworks/Hudson in Hudson, NT; and the brief and brilliant Shady Meadows by Lisa Dillman as part of the 2007 Chicago Humanities Festival.
For over eight years Tara was a lead teaching artist for the Goodman Theater’s “GeNarrations” program where she facilitates a memoir and performance workshop for Senior Citizens. She has taught, directed and led workshops at the Theatre School at DePaul University, Oakton Community College and Lake Forest College and currently teaches a master class at the Actor's Studio Chicago. She has been planning and implementing youth theatre programs for the past 25 years--including residencies as part of the City of Chicago “After School Matters” program; Chicago Arts Partnership in Education (CAPE); the Kildonan School (Amenia, NY); The International High School (Queens, NY); Open Eye: New Stagings (NY, NY); Camp Barney Mendintz (Atlanta, GA); and the Dutchess Arts Camp (Millbrook, NY).
Professional affiliations include membership in Actor’s Equity Association for the past thirty years as well as the Screen Actor’s Guild/AFTRA and the League of Professional Theater Women. Ms. Mallen graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BFA from Brooklyn College.
Profile caption: Tara Mallen, Chicago based Actor, Director & Producer
Artistic Director Tara Mallen
Photo Credit: Michael Brosilow
Featured Artworks
From PIVOT by Alex Lubischer
Pictured: Tara Mallen & Keith Kupferer
Photo Credit: Michael Brosilow
From Rivendell's World Premiere production of PIVOT
The Mallen/Kupferer family, stars of Ghostlight, with filmakers Kelly O'Sullivan and Alex Thompson
The Indie Hit IFC film Ghostlight
SAG screening of the 2024 Independent feature GHOSTLIGHT
from Gorgeous by Keiko Green
Pictured Tara Mallen & Stephanie Shum
photo credit: Jen Udoni
From Rivendell & Raven Theater's co-production of Keiko Green's Gorgeous
From From Rivendell's World Premiere production of MOTHERHOUSE by Tuckie White
Pictured: The Jeff Award Winning Ensemble of Motherhouse
Photo Credit: Michael Brosilow
Production photo from Rivendell's World Premiere production of MOTHERHOUSE
SWEAT by Lynne Nottage
The Firebirds Take the Field by Lynn Rosen
Grizzley Mama by George Brandt
Look, we are breathing by Laura Jacqmin
Tara Mallen has crowd-funded a project with 3AP
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- $7,900 raised of $6,000 goal
- 0 Days 0:00:00 LEFT
In collaboration with Tonika Lewis Johnson, the Rivendell Theatre Ensemble is adapting her Folded Map Project into a live theatrical production. Together, we will add another artistic form to this ground-breaking work that examines segregation and economic disparities on Chicago’s …
Read more about The Folded Map Project at Rivendell