I’m Anne Hallinan and, after decades doing other things, I returned to my first love: acting.

It all started in 1999, when the San Francisco Mime Troupe celebrated its 40th anniversary and I got to perform the role I’d first created at 21 with other members of the original cast of Olive Pits, (scandalizing my then 17-year-old son, who, seeing me groped on stage by Peter Coyote, told his dad that he’d have to beat him up after the show).  

Since then I’ve been thrilled to work with some wonderful actors and directors at such theaters as the Magic Theatre, El Teatro Campesino, Cutting Ball, Shotgun Players, San Francisco Playhouse, Stanford Repertory, theatre Q, Woman’s Will, Theater Rhinoceros, Tabard, Boxcar and Berkeley Rep, among others.

My early training as an actor included such notables as Jasper Deeter, Del Close, and Sandra Archer, along with the excellent Brandeis University faculty. And in 2005, I began to study with the incomparable Richard Seyd at Seydways Acting Studio, where I continue in ongoing stretch classes for professional actors. Hearing that all (okay, there were only three) of the actors I’d kissed on stage had gone on to successful careers in Hollywood, one of my fellow students was disappointed to learn that the charm only worked if the kiss occurred during a performance.

On camera, in independent films and web series, I’ve played a judge, a teacher, a political activist, a medium, a professor, an organizational consultant and—on both film and stage—a Jewish mother (no, I wasn’t born Hallinan).  I am a member SAG/AFTRA and Actors Equity.

My favorite off-stage role now is grandma, with four grandchildren, now 10-13.