Nashville actor Lauren Berst Awarded FY27 IAF in Theatre

From Jared Morrison, Director of Performing Arts

The Tennessee Arts Commission has awarded Lauren Berst its FY27 Individual Artist Fellowship in Theatre.

A classically trained actor, producer and voiceover artist originally from the Midwest, Berst holds a BFA in Acting from the University of Evansville and an MFA from the National Theater Conservatory. She spent nearly sixteen years building her career in New York City before relocating to Nashville in 2015.

Berst is drawn to roles exploring women on the edge of recognizing their own power, seeking out contemporary stories and bold reimaginings of classic texts. In Human Resources, an immersive play at OZ Arts Nashville that she also helped create, she played an HR representative investigating a workplace complaint as audiences split off to follow different characters through the story. In Megg the Egg at The Theater Bug, she played Molly, developing the role alongside the script as the piece grew from a short staged reading into a full-length play. Since moving to Nashville, Berst has also performed with Nashville Rep, Studio Tenn, Nashville Opera and the Nashville Symphony, and co-founded Nashville Story Garden.

Beyond the stage, Berst works extensively as a voiceover and on-camera artist, with credits including national commercials and promos for brands such as Verizon, Cheerios and HBO, narration for documentaries and audiobooks, and roles in the Amazon series Settling Up and the web series The Ultimate Wing-Woman Challenge.