ACTOR. SINGER. DANCER.

Samantha Rose Cárdenas is an actor, singer, and dancer based in New York City. She has shown extensive range in both acting and singing, having portrayed roles ranging from Maria in West Side Story to Heather Duke in Heathers: The Musical to Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie to Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ms. Cárdenas graduated from the USC Thornton School of Music with a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance. During her time at USC, she studied classical voice as a coloratura soprano and gained extensive experience in art song and opera of all styles. Her operatic studies culminated in the portrayal of Papagena in The Magic Flute, performed in German at the Harrower Opera Workshop. With her classical music studies, also came extensive study of languages. She is conversational in Spanish, and also studied Italian, French, and German language and diction.

Ms. Cárdenas continued her vocal training in San Francisco under Mindy Lym, focusing on musical theatre styles, and her acting training at Seydways Studios under Bobby Weinapple. She is also a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Summer Shakespeare Intensive in London. She has eight years of gymnastics and acrobatics experience, as well as training in ballet, jazz, tap, and salsa. She is even skilled in using Heely’s, which she learned when portraying Ariel in The Little Mermaid. Ms. Cárdenas was honored with a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC) Award nomination for Best Principal Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Peggy Sawyer in 42nd Street, as well as a Theatre Bay Area (TBA) Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Olive Ostrovsky in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Additional honors include: TBA Award Winner for Outstanding Production of a Musical for Broadway By the Bay’s In The Heights, in which she portrayed Nina Rosario; TBA Award Winner for Best Ensemble of a Musical for Ray of Light Theatre’s Heathers: The Musical; Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (BATCC) Award Winner for Best Ensemble and Best Production for SF Playhouse’s City of Angels. In addition to her performance pursuits, Cárdenas is also a private voice teacher, performance and audition coach, and music educator.

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