Marina Shay is a New York City-based actor, writer, and teaching artist. Currently performing in the world premiere of An Old Fashioned Family Murder starring Sally Struthers at the New Theatre in Kansas City, Marina also recently she debuted the world premiere of JBKO, a one-woman show about the life of Jackie Kennedy at Seven Angels Theatre. You can also catch her in the indie film Floor, which recently premiered in the 2024 Art of Brooklyn Film Festival and is currently making festival rounds.
Notable credits include Jules (with Ben Kingsley), The Good Fight, Theater For A New Audience, Theater Row, The Guthrie, Cleveland Play House, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Syracuse Stage, Geva Theater, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Virginia Stage, Trinity Repertory Company, and the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. She made her off-Broadway debut in a modern adaptation of Paradise Lost and has appeared in numerous independent shorts. She was nominated for Best Actress for her work in Great Expectations at Syracuse Stage and the world premiere of Secret Hour at Capital Repertory Theater. She holds an MFA in Acting from Brown/Trinity Rep.
Marina is also a writer with several plays and screenplays currently in development. She has directed and assistant directed a smattering range of work, including a production of Matilda with a cast of 80 children and a Guggenheim awarded film/theater experimental hybrid of Hamlet. She’s currently producing her first feature film set to shoot in July 2025.
Marina has taught Acting, Voice, and Shakespeare at the Hudson Valley Conservatory and the Montclair Academy of Music, Dance and Drumming. She has devised and developed original work with students at the Speyer Legacy School, a private independent school for gifted learners in Manhattan. She also coaches privately in NYC for professional actors and students aiming to succeed in higher educational training programs.