Clay Cooper is a 3rd year MFA acting student who is planning to relocate to New York City this coming fall. Clay has loved being on stage since he was five years old when he played the ass a record breaking three years in a row in the Our Savior Lutheran Church Christmas Pageant. Since then he has chased after performance opportunities wherever he could find them, whether it be playing at local bluegrass Jams, performing touring Shakespeare and children’s theatre or working with Broadway level talent like Jason Daniely and Hannah Ellis at the Clarence Brown Theatre. Clay has an intense passion for storytelling, and has high hopes of working with people who share this passion in any medium.

While at UTK Clay has had the opportunity to play many leading and featured roles including Tony Kirby in You Can’t Take it With You, Edward Ferrars in Sense & Sensibility, Bertram Cates in Inherit the Wind, Proteus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol. He has always had a soft spot for musical theatre and in the past four years he has played: Andrew Lynch in Ahrens & Flarety’s Knoxville, Harry in Kinky Boots! Jimmy Ray Dobbs in Bright Star! (twice!) and Orville Wright in The {W}right Sister, a new musical workshop about the story of the Wright Brothers.

While training Clay has sought to understand theatre and acting holistically, he considers himself a multifaceted artist who has received training in acting, directing, music and teaching. He has a strong appreciation for the ways the skill inherent to each of these disciplines can be applied to, and improve his understanding of the others. When he isn’t acting he enjoys hiking, fiddling around on his guitar and going camping with his dog Sophie. Has a thirst for adventure and the outdoors, going as far as living out of his Subaru Crosstrek for a month while touring Nova Scotia and Canadian Gaspe with his dog and girlfriend to quench it.