NAKED ANGELS BOARD
ALYSON BRANDT (PRESIDENT) is a board advisor and nonprofit leader with a long-standing commitment to the arts and community-based organizations. She currently serves on several nonprofit boards, including the Berkshire International Film Festival, and field, a Berkshires Ideas Festival, and chairs the board of Naked Angels Theater Company. Aly brings over 35 years of executive leadership experience to her board work, with deep expertise in organizational growth, governance, and strategic transformation. She has held senior roles including EVP, President, and Global Managing Director at Forum Corporation (now part of Korn Ferry), Fusion Learning, and dss+ (formerly a DuPont company), where she led global teams and advised organizations on performance and leadership. She has partnered with leading institutions, such as American Express, BlackRock, Deloitte, Starwood Hotels, Unilever, and GE, and now supports nonprofit leaders and businesses in expanding impact and sustaining growth. Aly splits her time between the Berkshires and New York City and has been actively involved in the New York theater community for over 25 years.
BETH EMELSON (SECRETARY EMERITUS) is the Interim Director of Artistic Programs at Folger Shakespeare Library and the Director of Producing at Folger Theatre in Washington, DC. Her producing experience includes leadership roles at Atlantic Theater Company, Classic Stage Company, Lincoln Center Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Public Theater and Naked Angels. She brings extensive expertise in producing, institutional leadership, and artist development to the company.
TIM RANSOM (TREASURER) is a founding member of Naked Angels and former Artistic Director. He is a film, television and theater actor, as well as a theater producer, active in both fields for over 35 years. After graduating from high school, Tim moved to New York City to work as an intern at the famed Off-Off Broadway theater institution, The Ensemble Studio Theater. It was there that Tim met many of the people he would go on to form the prestigious Naked Angels Theater Company with, where he cut his teeth on scores of productions with fellow Angels Jon Robin Baitz, Kenneth Lonergan, Lili Taylor, Matthew Broderick and Joe Mantello. His continued involvement reflects the organization’s strong founding leadership and artistic legacy.
GEOFFREY NAUFFTS is an actor, writer, and director whose work spans Broadway, Off-Broadway, film, and television. His play Next Fall, originally produced by Naked Angels, transferred to Broadway and received the Outer Critics Circle’s John Gassner Award for Best New American Play, along with Drama League, Drama Desk, and Tony Award nominations. His career reflects Naked Angels’ core mission of developing new work and advancing artists.
JASON NUZZO is an actor, writer and producer. Classically-trained, he studied at the Atlantic Theatre with David Mamet, William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman, the Stella Adler Studio and the graduate conservatory at Temple University. He has performed at the Shakespeare Theatre, Studio Theatre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, as well as in television & film, working with directors including Michael Kahn, Henry Woronicz, Kevin Moriarty, John Clancy, David Koepp and Brian DePalma. He has performed his solo works at the Bowery Poetry Club, the Red Room and the Clemente Soto Velez Center and worked extensively as a voice artist for television, radio and video games. He also served in executive, general management and strategic consulting capacities for nonprofit and performing arts organizations including the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, Kalamazoo Valley Community College and Whole Art Theatre in Michigan and works with the Board of Elections in New York City. He is a former Creative Director of Naked Angels' Tuesdays@9 and is a dedicated member of its cold-reading community.
MELISSA WOLFF is an active member of the Tuesdays@9 community in NYC. She is an actor, writer, producer, product manager and marketer. Melissa has appeared in web series, short films and in numerous plays in NYC, regional theaters and in the Edinburgh; Washington, DC; and New York fringe festivals. She has also recorded voiceovers for television and radio. She currently works in Product Management. Previously, she was the Director of Client Services and Marketing at Tierra Innovation, whose clients include CBS, Warner Bros., The New Yorker and The Paris Review. As a marketing executive, Melissa has extensive experience building brands and managing products for media companies, including A&E Global Media, Oxygen, MTV and Nickelodeon. Yale graduate. www.melissawolff.com
JAN JALENAK is a playwright, filmmaker, and actor. Jan’s plays have been presented at theaters including Naked Angels, New Georges, Playwrights Horizons, UBU Rep, and The Actors Studio. She wrote, directed and produced the award-winning short films, You Can Kiss Me and A Shattering. She is currently in preproduction with her feature, The Happy Family and a short, Misanthrope on Vacation. Jan is a lifetime member of The Actors Studio. In addition to her artistic work, Jan is cofounder of Jules Thin Crust, a chain of restaurants with locations in the Philadelphia area and Princeton, NJ.
DJ DAVIS is a multidisciplinary artist working across theater and film. He is the founder of Outside Entertainment, a production company dedicated to creating work that amplifies the voices of marginalized communities, and the visionary behind the Outside Entertainment Festival of Arts, a festival committed to reducing stigma and encouraging open conversations about mental health. A frequent actor and director at Tuesdays@9 in NYC with Naked Angels, DJ is also a Teaching Artist with Naked Angels’ 3T Program, where he helps young people develop confidence and their creative voices through performance and storytelling. He serves as an instructor at Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute and Atlantic Acting School.
CHRISTINE RENEE MILLER is a writer, director, actor, and educator. As the former Head Teacher at GO-SOLO, she helped develop more than 70 autobiographical works for the stage, and has served as a Teaching Artist with Naked Angels’ 3T Program. Her directing work has been recognized at FringeNYC, United Solo, and Frigid Fest, with productions staged at BAM Fisher and Dixon Place. Her solo work Such Nice Shoes earned a New York Innovative Theatre Award nomination, and her writing was recently recognized as a quarterfinalist in The Writers Lab International (2025). As an actor, Christine has appeared in the film Spoiler Alert and on TV in Law & Order, Power Book II: Ghost, Blue Bloods, BULL, and others. She is also a co-host of The Beautiful and Banned podcast and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Wilkes University.
IN MEMORIAM: PAUL ECKSTEIN was a founding member of Naked Angels and the co-creator and executive producer of Godfather of Harlem. An accomplished writer and producer, he was widely recognized for his work on the Netflix hit show Narcos, as well as the MGM/UA film Hoodlum and the television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Paul’s creative vision, generosity of spirit, and enduring commitment to writers helped shape Naked Angels’ artistic community, and his legacy continues to inspire the company’s mission to champion bold new voices.