Wayne Pyle

Biography

Wayne Pyle is originally from Chester, Pennsylvania. His parents got him into acting at the age of four when he appeared on the Philadelphia affiliate of the classic children’s television program “Romper Room”. Wayne trained as an apprentice at the famed Actors Theatre of Louisville apprenticeship program. Other actors from that same apprentice year include Rob Campbell, Kevin Farrel (IV), Matt Greenberg, Del Pentecost, Heidi Swedberg, Pamela Stewart and others. Pyle moved to Chicago and participated in the theatre, film and television community. He was once again working in children’s television by appearing as a series regular in the CBS affiliate WBBM’s “The Magic Door” which was shot in the same studio as Siskel and Ebert’s “At the Movies”. Pyle attended the University of Delaware’s Professional Theatre Training Program, known as the P.T.T.P., where he received his MFA in acting in 1995. During his three years at the P.T.T.P., he performed at Shakespeare festivals around the country and in international theatre festivals. After grad school, he founded the American Shakespeare Theatre Company and produced and appeared in a national tour of Taiwan with a production of “Hamlet” in 2000. He co-produced a documentary about the experience called “Within a Play” that appeared on the Sundance Channel. He has worked with the improvisational comedy group ComedySportz in Philadelphia and appeared in small background roles in Unbreakable and other films while living in the area. While pursuing work in regional theatre, he was cast in the first National Tour of Disney’s “The Lion King” appearing as Ed the hyena, and covering Timon and Zazu in 2001. When he left the road in 2006, after five years of touring, he settled in the Hudson Valley in New York in 2008 and along with his spouse, Heidi Eklund of Hudson Valley Casting, Pyle became part of a tight-knit filmmaking and theatre community with strong ties to New York City, Kingston, Newburgh and Albany. Eklund and Pyle had a son in 2010. His extensive work in independent films in the Hudson Valley is documented on his filmography page. In addition to his work as an actor, Pyle is involved in developing projects in theater, television, and film. He is also an acting coach, writer, and director. He is the host of Hudson Valley Casting Call, a podcast about acting in the Hudson Valley.