Ms. Perez is the founder and director of Kids Performance Academy as well as a producer and filmmaker who has produced feature films, music videos, educational videos and documentaries. She began her entertainment career on stage in high school, and then continued to study theatre in college on a full tuition scholarship. There she earned a national gold medal in poetry interpretation at the Phi Rho Pi collegiate speech competition. Ms. Perez starred in several plays including the role of Shelby in “Steel Magnolias,” Liat in “South Pacific,” and LeAnn in “A Piece of My Heart, and has been an instructor at the renowned John Robert Powers School of Acting and Modeling.”
Ms. Perez first expanded her theatre acting career as a writer with the stage play “No More Empty Chairs” inspired by the rise of suicides among teens and youth. This collection of vignettes which she co-wrote and co-directed was performed all over Texas, including juvenile detention centers, and used as a tool to facilitate difficult yet helpful conversations between teens and their parents. “No More Empty Chairs” was recognized by The National Coalition of Hispanic Health for it’s positive message of hope and youth advocacy.
Laura continued to expand her writing, and ventured into screenplay writing with “Harvest of Redemption,” which she also co-produced and starred in. “Harvest of Redemption” won the “Best Foreign Feature” award at the International Family Film Festival in Hollywood, and was distributed nationwide by Target and WalMart and featured on the Mexican television channel CineLatino.
After completing “Harvest,” Ms. Perez moved to Los Angeles, where she continued working as a producer and filmmaker for six years. She is currently in pre-production for the feature film “The Place in Between” which she is producing and directing, and highlights the difficult reunion between a mother and daughter who are meeting for the first time after 15 years. “The Place in Between” is set to shoot this July 2019. She is also producing and directing a feature documentary entitled “American Orange,” which explores the high cancer rate of an impoverished border community that also housed an Agent Orange plant during the Vietnam War.
Laura is the Theatre Director at Park Crest Middle School where she leads the school productions including the Fall One Act Play and the Spring Musical. She is a 5-year member of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers and has been a screenplay judge for Final Draft’s Big Break Script Competition, The American Screenwriter’s Association International Screenplay Competition, Scenarios USA’s “What’s The Real Deal” Screenplay Competition, and a consultant and panelist for The CineSol Latin Film Festival.
Sergeant Groft is the musical director of Kids Performance Academy. He began touring internationally as a professional pianist at age 15. While serving as a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps, he performed with the Marine Corps Band, and thereafter graduated Magna Cum Laude from Duquesne University’s prestigious Mary Pappert School of Music. He has performed in and served as the music director for many Austin musicals including Oliver, Once Upon a Mattress, Grease, Chicago, Assassins, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hairspray, Shrek, and The Fantasticks, to name a few. Tyler currently directs the award-winning choir at Park Crest Middle School, where he also teaches guitar, piano, and musical theatre.