Mary Chieffo
Mary Chieffo (she/her) is a queer actor/producer known internationally as the Klingon Commander turned Chancellor L’Rell on the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Discovery, returning as her iconic character for the highly popular Star Trek Online.
Theatre
Juilliard (select): Macbeth (Macbeth), Lear (King Lear), Queen Elizabeth (Richard III), Chris (Dancing at Lughnasa), Jessica (This Is Our Youth), Nat (Rabbit Hole)
New York: Iago (Othello, dir. Trezana Beverley/Harlem Shakespeare Festival)
Staged Readings/New Works: Carson McCullers in Lover, Beloved (one-woman show by Suzanne Vega with Duncan Sheik, dir. Jackson Gay/Rattlestick & The Alley Theatre), Annabelle in Wedding Band (dir. Awoye Timpo/Theatre for a New Audience), Macbeth in Macbeth (dir. Erica Schmidt/Seattle Rep), leading roles inBespoke Plays’ Heretics by Ellie Pyle in New York, Analogue by Christine Boylan, Lady Face and Systems by Madi Goff in Los Angeles.
Directing: In the spring of 2020, Mary developed and directed Closed Circuit, a new play premiering at the NYC Frigid Festival (WINNER Best Original Script).
Mary stretched her directing muscles again in March of 2021, shaping Ryan McCurdy’s musical one-man show Whiterock Cliff entirely remotely. Featuring 8 instruments and 3 cameras in one studio space, the piece had a successful run Off-Broadway via the Five OHM streaming platform.
TV: Star Trek: Discovery, NCIS, Girls5eva, The Mindy Project
Film: Mary stars in the short film Every Morning, a queer sci-fi love story, written by and co-starring her partner Madi Goff (Women In Media Parity In Action Badge, River Bend Film Fest WINNER Spirit of the Fest Award, Indie Short Fest WINNER Best Acting Duo, Best Original Score, Outstanding Achievement LGBTQ+ Short, LA Independent Women Film Awards WINNER Best Composer). Chieffo served as executive and creative producer on the film in partnership with Dr. Erin Macdonald’s LGTBQ+ owned Spacetime Productions.
Immersive/XR: In the spring of 2018, Mary produced, wrote, and starred as Iago in Operation Othello – a feminist, gender, and color-conscious VR adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello alongside Viola Davis and Julius Tennon’s JuVee Productions (Official Cannes XR and Raindance XR Selection). She has since developed her female interpretation of the notorious villain for Iago: The Green-Eyed Monster, a Musical AR Experience co-created with Josh Nelson Youssef in collaboration with JuVee and Verizon, premiering at Tribeca Film Festival in June 2022 (Webby Award WINNER Metaverse, Immersive & Virtual Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 2023, Tribeca X Finalist).
Training: Juilliard Drama (BFA, Elizabeth Smith Voice and Speech Prize, Saint-Denis Prize for “Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Drama”)
Mary is a current LAB student at genre and narrative-based Impro Theatre School and a frequent collaborator with all-female/genderqueer Ripley Improv.
Mary is a member of SAG-AFTRA and AEA.
IMDB: imdb.me/marychieffo
INSTAGRAM: @marythechief