Jeffery Lyle Segal is an actor, director, singer and songwriter, who has also worked as a casting director for independent film, and spent most of the last many years as both a special effects makeup artist and leading practitioner of permanent cosmetics (www.bestpermanentmakeup.com). He is returning to the musical theater after a long hiatus as the author or co-author of several new musical theater project .
He attended Stanford University and Northwestern University (B.S. in Speech) as an undergrad, also working as the Drama Critic of The Stanford Daily and Arts Editor of WNUR Radio. Subsequently, he earned his M.A. in Theater from SUNY at Binghamton, in directing and dramatic literature.
He is proud to have been the Executive Director of Chicago’s acclaimed Steppenwolf Theatre Company during their debut professional season, and was assistant to producer Guy Little at the Little Theater on the Square as an Equity apprentice.
As a young performer, his favorite roles included Paul in Carnival (North Shore Theater Company), Doody in Grease (Beef & Boards Dinner Theater), and understudy for John Saxon in Man of La Mancha (Little Theater on the Square). He directed The Threepenny Opera (Little Theater On the Square), new works Not Like Him and The Madman of Madrid for Equity Library Theater, and the Chicago premiere of Sea Marks at Pegasus Players, which he transferred to Theater Building Chicago. During his master's program, he also directed productions of The Homecoming and Loot.
He has been the Chicago casting director for Fangoria Films, and has the unique distinction of having been both casting director and special effects makeup artist on Chicago's most famous independent film, Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer. First he found the heads...then he chopped them off!
As a songwriter, he was the winner of the Music City Song Festival in the country category for his song, “Somebody Else”. He wrote, produced and sang the end title theme song, “Forever Mine,” for the theatrical feature film, Trapped! As a cabaret performer in recent years, he has garnered acclaim for his original material. Cabaret legend Michael Feinstein says, “Jeff is a talented writer of words and music in an age when the craft of writing a good theatre song has all but disappeared. He has the ability to write songs of sustained humor, which are the most difficult kind of songs to create. He is worthy of attention!" Stephen Schwartz (composer/lyricist of Wicked et al.) calls his material "Very funny!"
As a composer, lyricist and bookwriter member of the Academy for New Musical Theatre in Los Angeles since 2003, he is the lyricist and co-composer of the one act musical, The Scout, presented at the Colony Theater in Burbank by the ANMT in 2004, and contributed songs to the musical revue, Duly Noted, which he produced and directed for the ANMT at Steinway Hall in 2005. He is co-author of book, music and lyrics (with fellow ANMT writer Terrence Atkins) of It Happened in Roswell (formerly I Come for Love) , about an alien girl who falls in love with a clueless reporter at Roswell in 1947, successfully presented at three festivals of new musicals including NYMF 2008. He is sole author of book, music and lyrics for Scandalous Behavior!, a new musical based on the hilarious 18th century English comedy, The School for Scandal, which he directed in readings at the ANMT, for the developmental reading series at the York Theater in NYC in 2010 and at City Lit Theater in Chicago in 2012, where he also performed Sir Peter Teazle. He is currently completing Mating, a musical revue about the tragicomedy of modern romance. He audited the BMI musical theater writers workshop in 2007-2008, and completed the Commercial Theater Institute 14 week producer program in 2010.
