Brian McManamon is an actor, teacher, director and acting coach based in New York City.
Brian is best known for his portrayal the shape-shifting DC Comics villain Clayface on the FOX TV show Gotham.
On stage, Brian has appeared in A Power Play; Or, What's-its-Name by A. Rey Pamatmat at the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and These Paper Bullets! Rolin Jones's modish ripoff of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing at Yale Rep, with brand new songs by Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong. Other world premieres include the New York productions of Jake Jeppson's play The Clearing directed by Josh Hecht (Theater at St. Clements), Bodega Bay (Abingdon Theatre), The Boat in the Tiger Suit (The Brick) and Chisa Hutchinson’s Alondra Was Here (Wild Project). Brian has performed with MCC Theater, Mabou Mines, the Irish Repertory Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theater, the Abingdon Theatre, Youngblood, P.S. 122, Target Margin Theater, Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB) among others.
Brian has played leading roles at regional theaters around the country including the title role in Hamlet at Burning Coal Theater, Grand Horizons at People Light, American Buffalo and Skylight (IRNE Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor) at the New Repertory Theater, The Clearing at Axial Theater, Single Lives at Boston Playwrights’ Theater, the world premiere of Sinan Unel’s play The Three of Cups at the Provincetown Theater Company and Aaron Jafferis’ Shakespeare: The Remix at Capital Repertory Theater among others.
Internationally, Brian traveled to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland performing in the world premiere of Pulitzer prize nominee Rolin Jones’ play The Jammer which received the festival’s top prize, the Fringe First Award. Brian also toured to Zagreb, Croatia with the critically acclaimed New York based theater company, Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB), a company of sighted, visually impaired and blind actors. He received a full scholarship to attend the British American Drama Academy (B.A.D.A.) at Oxford University where he worked with Caryl Churchill on her opera Hotel: Eight Rooms and She Bit Her Tongue both directed by Mark Wing-Davey.
Film: The Subject, The Path, Seeking: Jack Tripper, I am a Big Ball of Sadness... TV: “Gotham”, “American Horror Story”, “Succession”, "Annie and Brie", "Gossip Girl".
Brian has studied with some of the most respected teachers of acting in America and abroad including Ron Van Lieu, Evan Yionoulis, Mark Wing-Davey, Austin Pendleton, Andrew Wade and John Barton. He has an MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama and a BFA in acting from the School for Theater at Boston University. Brian is a proud member of the Actors Center Workshop Company.
Brian currently teaches acting for the Juilliard School Extension Division and Syracuse University's Tepper Semester in New York City as well as privately. He has taught and/or directed for the Juilliard School Drama Division, New York University/Tisch School of the Arts, Columbia University’s MFA Acting Program, the National Theater Institute (NTI) at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, NYSF/Public Theater, Manhattanville College, Vassar College’s Powerhouse Apprentice Training Program, CAP21 and Yale University’s Dwight-Edgewood Project. Brian served as Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Academy at Stratford from 2015-2018.
As an acting coach, Brian works with beginning and established clients for film, television and theater. He specializes in preparing actors for graduate school auditions. Each year his clients have go on to attend the top graduate acting schools in the country. CLICK HERE FOR CLIENT TESTIMONIALS
