Our ATLexis Storytellers
- Brooke Adams
- Brenda Bynum
- Kate Campbell
- Shirley Franklin
- Tom Key
- Susan Shalhoub Larkin
- Carl V. Patton
- Monica Pearson
- Ferrol A. Sams, Jr., M.D.
- Tony Shalhoub
- Scott Slade
Brooke Adams
Born in New York City, Adams began acting at age 6 in her father’s summer theaters. Her stage credits include The Heidi Chronicles on Broadway, Key Exchange at the Orpheum, Split at Second Stage Theatre, The Old Neighborhood at A.R.T., If Memory Serves at the Pasadena Playhouse, The Philanderer at Yale Repertory Theatre and most recently The Cherry Orchard at The Atlantic Theatre Co. in N.Y.C.
Her film credits include Days of Heaven, Gas Food Lodging, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Dead Zone, Cuba, Tell Me a Riddle, and the film version of Key Exchange. Most recently she produced and starred in Made-Up, directed by Tony
Shalhoub. On television she appeared in thirtysomething and in recurring roles on Moonlighting and Family, in The Lion of Africa and the miniseries LACE and LACE II. She is married to actor Tony Shalhoub, and they live in Los Angeles with their two daughters.
Brenda Bynum
Bynum has an extensive resume as a theater performer, teacher, and arts advocate. She has acted and directed professionally since 1962 and has appeared on the stages of the Alliance Theater, as well as most other professional theaters in Atlanta, in a number of roles over the last 25 years. She was named “Best Actress” in 2004 by the AJC for her performance in Sandra Deer’s The Subject Tonight is Love, directed by Kenny Leon. From 1984 to 1998, she served as the Acting Teacher for the Alliance’s Professional Intern Program. Brenda was on the faculty of the Department of Theater Studies at Emory University and a resident Actor/Director at Theater Emory for 17 years until her retirement in 2000. While there, as a specialist in the performance of works by Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, Bynum realized a dream by overseeing the completion of a long-term project to mount professional productions of Beckett’s entire dramatic canon in Atlanta (a distinction shared by few other cities in the world) and was invited to appear at the International Beckett Festival in The Hague. She was founding artistic director with her husband Cary of The Southern Poets Theatre, whose most well known production has been the perennial favorite Cabbagetown: 3 Women, which became a local cult classic after its premiere in 1978 and garnered Bynum an Emmy nomination for the production when it was filmed for public television. Brenda also was one of the founding directors of the critically acclaimed Callanwolde Theater — the first professional theater in Atlanta run entirely by women. She has developed eleven original plays and performance pieces based on the lives of real women and has toured in a solo show Notional Women, dedicated exclusively to fund-raising for worthy causes. In 1980, she was elected as the first president of the seminal Atlanta New Play Project, an organization which crossed lines and brought together theater artists from every segment of the city’s population, working toward the common goal of encouraging and producing new work, the achievement of which is evident in the vital and generative theater community we all enjoy today. Bynum fell in love with the theater while earning a bachelor’s degree in drama from Mercer University. She and her husband Cary live in Druid Hills, have two grown sons and a brand-new grandson and travel the world, whenever possible.
Kate Campbell
Campbell released her debut album Songs from the Levee in 1995, beginning a tradition of songwriting and performance that taps into her Alabama upbringing and the Southern literary bloodline of Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner. Her latest collection For the Living of These Days reflects her abiding fascination with storytelling, race, religion, history and the day-to-day happenings of people’s lives. Similarly, an ongoing love affair with the musical traditions and folkways of her native South led her to once again record at the hallowed Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and choose the legendary Spooner Oldham as her musical partner for the project. Kate’s relationship with Spooner goes back to the 1960s when she became fascinated with the sounds emanating from Muscle Shoals on tunes such as Percy Sledge’s “When A Man Loves a Woman” and Aretha Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man (The Way That I Loved You)” — which are but two examples of Spooner’s vital contributions to American music. After opening a few shows for Spooner and his longtime writing partner Dan Penn, Kate invited Spooner to play organ on her 1997 release Moonpie Dreams. He’s appeared on nearly every one of Kate’s albums since, including 1998’s Visions of Plenty, 1999’s Rosaryville, 2001’s Wandering Strange and 2003’s Monuments, providing a direct link to the Southern soul Kate counts as a primary source in her music. When choosing the songs for the albums, Kate relies on her favorite source materials: her parents’ small but vital record collection, the Baptist hymnal, classic folk, soul and country music, and the pens of Alabama’s finest songwriters.
Shirley Franklin
Elected in 2001 as Mayor of the City of Atlanta, Franklin is the first female and the first African American woman to serve as mayor of a major Southern city. While in office, Mayor Franklin has received national recognition for such accomplishments as returning accountability to city government and restoring financial stability; implementing a strong ethics reform program; strengthening and improving the city’s existing frameworks, infrastructure and transportation systems; addressing the problem of homelessness; creating the “Mayor’s Youth Program” and other quality-of-life improvements for children; working with elected officials and citizens to establish “Clean Water Atlanta” and other programs to preserve the environment; and with corporate and community partnership, securing the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers for the City of Atlanta. Governing magazine named her 2004 Public Official of the Year. In 2005, Time Magazine named her one of the top five mayors in the country; she is ranked among the top ten mayors in the world by the World Mayor Internet organization; and she has been named one of “America’s Best Leaders” by U.S. News and World Report and the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. In 2005, Esquire Magazine named her one of the best and brightest, and American City and County Magazine named her Municipal Leader of the Year. Mayor Franklin is also a recipient of the 2005 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. In 2006, she won the Southern Institute for Business and Professional Ethics’ Ethics Advocate Award. Mayor Franklin currently serves as Co-Chair of the 2008 National Democratic Convention, is a member of the Democratic National Committee and Treasurer of the Democratic Party of Georgia. She serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). She is Chair of Atlanta Development Authority, Chair of the Brand Atlanta Campaign, Chair of the Board of Trustees of CIFAL-Atlanta, a CARE USA ambassador and a member of the National Conference of Black Mayor’s Business Council. She is secretary of the Board of the Atlanta Regional Commission and serves as Chair of its Ethics Committee and Secretary of the Executive Committee. Mayor Franklin earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Howard University and was awarded her Masters of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. Mayor Franklin has received honorary degrees from Howard University, the Atlanta College of Art, Cambridge College, Spelman College, Morehouse College, Tuskegee University, Oglethorpe University and the University of Pennsylvania. She resides in southwest Atlanta and is a proud parent of three adult children, one daughter-in-law and proud grandmother of her two grandchildren.
Tom Key
As Executive Artistic Director of Theatrical Outfit since 1995, Key has led the organization to the creation of The Balzer Theater at Herren’s, produced five world premieres and numerous scripts by the best authors and composers of the American South, including Tennessee Williams, Walker Percy, Flannery O’Connor, Truman Capote, Harry Chapin and Hank Williams. He has earned fourteen “Best of Year” notices from Atlanta Journal Constitution, Creative Loafing, Southern Voice and Atlanta Magazine; won two Arts and Business Council Abby Awards; been recognized for career achievement by the Georgia Theater Conference and received two Mayoral Proclamations for Outstanding Service. Mr. Key has been especially noted for his direction of Hank Williams: Lost Highway, Tom Huey’s Mortal Acts, Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer, Horton Foote’s The Chase and Thomas Ward’s play Keeping Watch (Best Production 2006 Creative Loafing). Over two decades, Key has become one of Atlanta’s most prominent actors, especially noted for his appearances in Theatrical Outfit’s Bloodknot, Hard Times, Summer and Smoke and Our Town and The Alliance Theater’s Art, Christmas Carol, Grapes of Wrath, Woody Guthrie’s American Song and Candide. He has been a solo performer in demand across North America, including appearances of his C.S. Lewis on Stage and The Revelation of John at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Lamb’s Theater off-Broadway, The Westwood Playhouse of Los Angeles, The Alliance Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Oxford University, England, Harvard and Yale Universities; as Narrator for Beethoven’s Egmont with The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, for Peter and the Wolf at The Atlanta Ballet and as the artist Whistler at The Atlanta High Museum of Art. His achievements also include: the off-Broadway hit Cotton Patch Gospel, published by Dramatic Publishing Company, which he conceived and co-authored with the late singer-songwriter, Harry Chapin, earning two Dramalogue Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Theater, a nomination as Best Actor by Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, and publication by Dramatic Publishing Company for which it is still, twenty five years later, one of the most produced plays in the musical catalogue. Currently, Tom serves on the Board of The Metropolitan Atlanta Arts and Culture Coalition and resides in Atlanta with his wife, Beverly, who is a visual artist. They have three sons, Simon, Stephen and Charlie.
Susan Shalhoub Larkin
Larkin is a professional actress and proud member of Actors’ Equity for over 35 years. She has performed with Theatre in the Square, Theatrical Outfit, Atlanta Lyric Theatre, Georgia Ensemble Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Theatre Emory, The Center for Puppetry Arts, and Theater of the Stars. This season, she appeared as Mrs. Dubose in Theatrical Outfit’s production of To Kill A Mockingbird. She has done Broadway, summer stock and even puppets (as a co-founder of the Center for Puppetry Arts). She can be seen in the independent film Made Up, starring Tony Shalhoub, Brooke Adams, and Gary Sinise. She is a voice teacher and professional make up artist (among other things).
Carl V. Patton
Patton became president of Georgia State University on July 1, 1992. Under his leadership Georgia State has become a leading urban research university and a vital part of the downtown Atlanta community. He also introduced a strategic academic plan that strengthens academic programs and recruits world-class faculty and high-achieving students. To support the strategic plan, President Patton launched a university-wide planning effort in 1997 called the Main Street Master Plan, intended to improve campus infrastructure and transform the campus into a vital hub for research activity where students can live, learn and work. All of the projects listed in the Master Plan have been completed. They include the Rialto Center for the Arts, Helen M. Aderhold Learning Center, Student Center, Student Recreation Center, the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, University Lofts and the University Commons. In 2005, he announced the Master Plan’s next $1 billion phase, which includes a University Science Park, housing for freshmen and fraternities and sororities, a Humanities Building and a Professional Education Center for business and law. President Patton and his wife Gretchen have designated much of their personal philanthropy to Georgia State, investing in, among various initiatives, the Rialto renovation, the Aderhold Learning Center, the Science Park, and, most notably, the University Library Transformation where they financed the Carl and Gretchen Patton Children’s Book Collection. The Patton’s live downtown within walking distance of the university. They have two children and three grandchildren.
Monica Pearson
Pearson is WSB-TV’s 5, 6, and 11 p.m. Action News anchor; she joined the Channel 2 staff in August, 1975. A graduate of the University of Louisville, Pearson was a reporter with The Louisville Times for 5 years before she joined WHAS-TV in Louisville as a reporter and anchor for 3 years. Included in her many honors are 28 Local and Southern Regional Emmy Awards (for Talent, Reporting, and CLOSEUPS), the Distinguished Service to Broadcasting Award, the Metropolitan Atlanta YWCA’s prestigious “Woman of Achievement Award,” the Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ “Friends of Children Award for 1992,” and the “Women’s Sports Journalism Award for Local Television Reporting.” She was inducted into the NATAS Silver Circle and in 2007 received the Board of Governors Award from the Southeastern Chapter of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2001 she was named “Broadcaster of the Year” at the DiGamma Kappa Broadcast Pioneer Award at the University of Georgia for the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications. Jezebel Magazine named her “One of the 50 Most Beautiful Women” in 2003. The National Foundation for Women Legislators presented Monica with a Media Excellence Award at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., in February, 2004. She serves on the Board of Directors of True Colors Theatre Company, The High Museum, and the Advisory Committee for the Alliance Theatre Company. The Georgia Commission of Women and Georgia Women of the Year elected her as “2004 Georgia Woman of the Year.” She also has received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University) in 1986 and another from Oglethorpe University in 2007. Since 2002 Pearson has read weekly to first graders in Atlanta Public Schools through the BookPals program of the Screen Actors Guild.
Ferrol A. Sams, Jr., M.D.
Sams is a physician, humorist storyteller, and best-selling novelist
and is the author of seven books. Most notable is his trilogy of novels in
which an eccentric and quixotic hero, Porter Osborne, Jr., mirrors Sams’
own Georgia boyhood in Fayette County. All of his works are rooted in the
oral traditions of Southern humor and folklore. Sams and his wife have
been in private practice together in Fayetteville since 1951, and in 1987
they established the Fayette Medical Center.
Tony Shalhoub
Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Award winner Tony Shalhoub stars as Adrian Monk and also serves as executive producer on the sixth season of the USA Network original series MONK. Shalhoub, a triple threat as an actor-director-producer, has established himself as one of the most versatile and popular character actors working today. On television, Shalhoub was a series regular on the sitcoms Stark Raving Mad and the long-running hit series Wings. His numerous film roles include Spy Kids, Galaxy Quest, The Siege, A Civil Action, Searching for Bobby Fischer, The Impostors, Primary Colors, Gattaca, Men in Black, Big Night, Barton Fink, Honeymoon in Vegas, Quick Change, Longtime Companion, Thir13en Ghosts and Life or Something Like It. He also reprised his roles in sequels for Men in Black II and Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. Shalhoub also appeared in The Last Shot with Matthew Broderick and Alec Baldwin; The Great New Wonderful with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Edie Falco and Olympia Dukakis; and in USA Films’ The Man Who Wasn’t There (Winner for Best Director-2001 Cannes International Film Festival) by Joel and Ethan Coen, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Frances McDormand.
Most recently, Shalhoub was “heard” as the voice of Luigi in the Pixar hit film, Cars. He was also seen in 1408 with John Cusack, as well as in AmericanEast, an independent film that he also co-produced, which will be released later this year. Shalhoub made his feature directorial debut with the independent film Made Up, in which he co-starred with his wife, Brooke Adams, and Gary Sinise. An accomplished stage actor, Shalhoub’s New York theater work includes Waiting for Godot, Conversations with My Father, The Heidi Chronicles and The Odd Couple and the New York Shakespeare Festival productions of Henry IV Part 1 and Richard III. Most recently, he was seen in Theresa Rebeck’s The Scene, along with Patricia Heaton in New York City.
Scott Slade
Slade is host of "Atlanta’s Morning News with Scott Slade," consistently the number one rated radio program in metro Atlanta for over ten years in a row. The show airs weekdays, 5:00-8:30 AM, on WSB-AM Radio 750. Slade is a rare two-time winner of the National Association of Broadcasters Marconi Award as Best Radio Personality in America, in 2004 for Large Markets and 2006 for Major Markets. “Atlanta’s Morning News with Scott Slade” has won numerous awards since its inception in 1991, including the national Edward R. Murrow Award as Best Radio Newscast in the nation. Slade initiated the WSB Radio Care-a-Thon for the AFLAC Cancer Center in 2000, raising over six million dollars to fight children’s cancer and blood disorders. Slade has been with WSB Radio since 1984 as a producer, show host, and helicopter traffic reporter. His career includes all facets of media since 1970. He has won numerous news, programming and advertising awards. He is an Atlanta native who grew up in Griffin. He is a graduate of Georgia State University, a commercial airplane and helicopter pilot, and enjoys hiking, playing jazz saxophone, and horseback riding among his hobbies.
