2025 recipient

Chelsea Russell

Chelsea Bria Russell is a Chicago-based actor, movement educator, and teaching artist. She is a 2025 MFA Acting graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University and an incoming trainee at Alexander Technique Training in Chicago (ATTiC), under the direction of Daria Okugawa.

With a background in Laban Movement Analysis, yoga, Pilates, and over 15 years of embodied practice, Chelsea’s work lives at the intersection of breath, presence, and creative sovereignty. She sees movement as a pathway to return to the self—a way to soften survival patterns, reawaken agency, and make space for truth to rise.

Chelsea is passionate about expanding access to somatic work, especially for Black and Brown communities, young artists, and those navigating high-performance environments. She envisions her teaching as a form of quiet activism—gentle, liberatory, and deeply human.

She is honored to be a Judith Leibowitz Scholarship Fund recipient and looks forward to using this work to support greater access, presence, and possibility for others.