nicole schiro

I grew up under the shelter of the Pineywoods of East Texas.  My passion for storytelling began with a seventh-grade English assignment, which was to write an original character monologue based on a current news story and perform it for the class. I read an article about the Hemlock Society and was inspired to write and perform a monologue about an elderly and terminally ill woman who was seeking assisted suicide. My work turned out to be controversial for my small-town junior high, which taught me about the power of performance to challenge perspectives and make people think. I never looked back.   

As a sophomore in high school, I earned a place at The University of Texas Summer Theatre Workshop for my portrayal of Roxanne in Cyrano de Bergerac at the District UIL One-Act Play competition. I was awed by the teachers, facilities, and shared love of the arts I experienced while at the Workshop and decided to return to UT to earn my BFA in Acting. While there, I performed in mainstage productions including The Enchanted, Medea, West Side Story, The Comedy of Errors, and Robert Wilson’s workshop of Gertrude Stein’s opera Four Saints in Three Acts.   

After college, I moved to New York and gained experience acting in various off-off Broadway productions before landing my first significant role as Mary Todd Lincoln on a regional tour produced by the Fulton Opera House. Soon after, I appeared in the Warner Brothers feature film The Replacements and became a proud union actor, joining both SAG and AEA.  

A few years later, I met my husband, Ted Magee, when he cast me in The Ranch, a short film he made while completing his MFA in Directing at Columbia University. We returned to Austin right before our daughter was born, where I continued acting in commercials and film, and notably portrayed Lady Bird Johnson in Zach Theatre’s production of Pulitzer Prize winning dramatist Robert Schenkkan's play All The Way.

Ten years ago, I decided to take time off to devote myself to raising my daughter and caring for my parents, who were in decline. After a decade devoted to family, I am thrilled to return to acting and am ready to take on more mature roles with a renewed passion and deeper understanding of the human experience.