Sean Barnett is a director, writer, & actor, centering joy and embracing radical sincerity. An energetic, geeky fanboy at heart, he is fascinated by how the uniquely silly and absurd often reveal our most honest humanity. Drawn to comedies, musicals, and developing new work, his art strives to challenge often-cynical postmodernism, celebrate human connection, and leave audiences energized with a little more hope for a better tomorrow (Yes, that is indeed a Superman quote!)

EARLY ROOTS

Growing up in sunny Southern California and now being a proud East Coast transplant, Sean doesn’t remember a time when he was not playing pretend in some capacity. His childhood fixation with going to the movies, followed by immediately reenacting them on the car ride home, brought him to the theater as an actor. He then went on to work professionally in the SoCal theater scene through his teenage years. He quickly found joy in being the architect of the story as a director, founding a student-led theater program in his hometown of Temecula.

EDUCATION

Sean recently graduated with his BFA from The John Wells Directing Program at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama. While at CMU, he directed his capstone production, Matt & Ben, by Mindy Kaling & Brenda Withers, which explored resentment and platonic love in long-term friendships. He has since found a passion for developing new musicals, directing three original pieces by collaborators Catcher Fox Sanchez and Noah Van Ess for CMU’s Playground Festival. The team was recently approached by the New Hazlett Theater to present a staged reading of their romantic comedy musical, There Goes The Bride, which they are continuing to develop, alongside other projects.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Sean made his professional directorial debut with 13: The Musical (San Diego Musical Theatre), winner of six Broadway World San Diego Awards, including Best Musical & Best Direction of a Musical. During the pandemic, he founded Bohemian Arts, a non-profit based in Temecula, California, dedicated to providing accessible arts programming. As Artistic Director, he produced numerous podcasts, a YouTube talk show (The Theatre Project), 24-hour theatre festivals, and the first full-length musical to reopen the Old Town Temecula Community Theater, [title of show] by Hunter Bell & Jeff Bowen.

In Spring 2025, Sean made his Off-Broadway debut, assisting Jonathan Silverstein on the world premiere of All The World’s A Stage, a new musical by Adam Gwon (Keen Company), which won the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Musical.

FILM & AUDIO

As a filmmaker and audio storyteller, Sean co-wrote the screenplay for The Job, a neo-noir thriller short film screened at the London Lift-Off Film Festival and IndieX Film Festival in LA. In 2022, he co-wrote, co-directed, edited, and sound-mixed PowCast!, a fiction-comedy podcast series depicting the secret exposé interviews by America’s top alpha-human journalists, satirizing superhero storytelling tropes. The full series can be found on YouTube and Spotify. 

He continues to be excited by telling heart-forward stories that generate hope for a better tomorrow.