June Angela

June Angela Profanato (born August 18, 1959) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. Her best-known role is that of Julie, the mainstay member of the Short Circus band that was featured in the PBS children's television series The Electric Company during its entire six-year run.

June Angela
Born
June Angela Profanato

(1959-08-18) August 18, 1959
Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
OccupationActress, singer, tap dancer
Years active1971–2018
Websitewww.juneangela.com

The Short Circus

As Julie, Angela grew up on The Electric Company. She was awarded an Emmy of Honor for her work on the series.[1] Angela sang on the Grammy Award-winning 1971 soundtrack album of The Electric Company as well. Angela said she named her Short Circus character Julie after her idol at the time, Julie Andrews.[1]

Career highlights

When The Electric Company began wrapping production, Angela became a regular as Pat Morita's daughter on the first Asian American TV comedy series Mr. T and Tina (ABC). Numerous works in theater and television followed. Most notably she was nominated for Broadway's Tony and Drama Desk Award as Best Leading Actress in a Musical for Shogun: The Musical. In 2017, she starred opposite Danny Glover as his wife in the two-character play Yohen at East West Players in Los Angeles [1] and currently recurs as Madame Xing, Jessica’s psychic on the ABC TV series Fresh Off the Boat.

She co-starred as Tuptim with Yul Brynner in the Broadway & London Palladium Revival of The King and I and starred in many world premieres including Sayonara[2] and Off-Broadway's Cambodia Agonistes at Pan Asian Repertory Theatre.[3] For Velina Hasu Houston's Tea,[4] she won a Theater Guild Award for Best Lead Actress.[1]Additionally, on television, she starred alongside Cloris Leachman and Pat Morita, once again, in a TV drama, Blind Alleys written by David Henry Hwang and Frederic Kimball. She then went to Kyoto to film the TV movie "American Geisha" (CBS) which was based on the autobiographical book by Liza Dalby.

Other TV roles include recurring on "MAD-TV", starring in Nightingale, ER, Step By Step, Hannah Montana and Dexter. She was also featured on the Emmy-Award-winning special Free to be You and Me which starred numerous luminaries. Her voice work includes the Emmy-Award-winning series The Big Blue Marble Nickelodeon's The Wild Thornberrys, Danny Phantom and Walt Disney Studios' English dub of the acclaimed Hayao Miyazaki animated film Kiki's Delivery Service for which she did voices and is also co-writer of Soaring, the main title song.

June Angela holds the distinction of making the youngest solo soprano debut at age 10 as Flora in Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw with the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center.[5] Later, Angela's solo album, released on Original Cast Records, features a full orchestra on songs from shows she has done, which includes a medley from The Electric Company and several jazz numbers.

Angela was interviewed for the 2006 DVD release of The Best of The Electric Company. She was one of several Electric Company alumni (along with Morgan Freeman and Rita Moreno and Children's Television Workshop founder Joan Ganz Cooney) who shared their memories of working on the show.[1]

Angela was levitated atop the World Trade Center by Doug Henning in the "highest levitation in the world".[6] In June 1976, the photo was featured on the cover of The Electric Company Magazine.[7]

She has recorded over 30 audiobook titles using different character voices primarily for children on Audible.

References

  1. June Angela - the official homepage
  2. Klein, Alvin (October 18, 1987). "Theater; Sumptuous 'Sayonara' at Paper Mill". The New York Times. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  3. Gussow, Mel (November 13, 1992). "Review/Theater; Destroying Its People, A Nation Loses its Soul". The New York Times. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  4. Foley, F. Kathleen (September 22, 1995). "'Tea' Makes Strong Feminist Statement". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  5. "Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw performed in English". Operadis-Opera-Discography.org.uk. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  6. "Doug Henning, June Angela Defy Gravity on High, Photo's Unretouched, Folks". Eugene Register-Guard. April 25, 1976. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  7. "1976 The Electric Company Magazine, Magician Doug Henning Cover". eBay. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
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