About Susan Tolar Walters, Owner

Susan started in theatre at the young age of 9 at the Fayetteville Little Theatre in Fayetteville, North Carolina. She performed throughout her teen years winning accolades for her performances in state High School competitions. Susan went on to earn her Bachelor of Fine Arts at East Carolina University with a Major in Acting and a Minor in Dance with special Vocal training for Theatre Majors. From there she headed to Los Angeles where she did post graduate study in Film Acting. While Susan performed in professional plays in North Carolina, Texas and California, she continued her love of Film Acting by always staying involved in film classes. After taking classes at the IMPROV in Hollywood, she was commissioned to teach children and teen acting classes for her Management Company, Marina Management of Hollywood. This is where she found her love for teaching Children and Directing. Her unique gift is that she teaches as she directs and makes every situation a learning experience. She has performed in over 70 plays, numerous commercials and several films. She is the voice of the Anime character NENE in 12 of Bubblegum Crisis and 4 Bubblegum Crash episodes.

After having children of her own, Susan moved back to North Carolina and opened The Actors Workshop in downtown Wilmington across from the Cotton Exchange (known as Susan Grillo at that time). It was a successful acting school for 10 years with a variety of teachers (including Wilmington’s own Linda Lavin teaching the Master Classes when she was available).

In 2000, family matters took Susan and her family back to Fayetteville where she still traveled back and forth teaching her classes in Wilmington for almost 3 years before opening The Highland Performing Arts Center in the Haymont area of Fayetteville. There she taught hundreds of students in Musical Theatre, Film Acting with Audition Technique, Commercials and Scene Study. Susan found a new love for writing original scripts for her Film classes then shooting on video while directing them. She then added editing to her list of accomplishments first with MAC I-movie then with Final Cut, giving the students a real quality short film to keep at the end of the project. Susan also found time to Direct 13 plays/Musicals in the last 5 years. 
In the Summer of 2008, Susan moved back to Wilmington.  She has always loved Wilmington and the Film Industry and is looking forward to helping local Actors pursue a meaningful career on the East Coast with the opening of the STW Talent Agency.

Susan Tolar Walters
Formerly known as Susan Grillo

Owner of Wilmington’s 
The Actors Workshop 
for 10 years.

Mission Statement
Appeal to the established actors in the Southeast who would like specialized attention in representation on southeastern Film and Television projects. Also, to help the up and coming actors break into small day player roles and non verbal commercial work, while they hone their skills to prepare for bigger projects. And finally, to help fill the regional casting needs with prompt professionalism as a top notch talent agent.