BIO
Alba Albanese is an American actress, creator, and multidisciplinary artist from Brooklyn, New York. Known for her meticulous attention to detail and emotionally resonant performances, Alba seamlessly merges classical technique with emerging technologies to build immersive, transformative experiences across film, television, theater, and new media.
As co-founder of NYCXR, a visionary production studio evolving traditional storytelling through emerging technology, Alba works at the forefront of experiential innovation. NYCXR is a multidisciplinary team of artists and technologists designing and producing original mixed-reality, cross-media experiences that heighten the senses and awaken the spirit. Founded by Alba and mixed reality technologist Phil Olarte, the studio is trailblazing the future of entertainment, fusing immersive narrative with spatial computing, interactive design, and soul-driven storytelling.
Alba’s original projects, including Fairyland, a supernatural urban fantasy rooted in ancestral memory, recovery, and myth exemplify her commitment to storytelling as a form of healing and transformation. Her work lives at the intersection of storytelling and soul, inviting audiences not just to watch, but to enter the world she creates. She designs narrative realms that move beyond the screen, weaving performance, ritual, and technology into experiences that linger long after they end.
Her artistic foundation is built upon rigorous training. Alba studied under revered acting mentors William Esper, Maggie Flanagan, and Terry Knickerbocker in the Meisner technique. She further enriched her classical training with Shakespeare at The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Los Angeles, trained with Alec Baldwin at Southampton College, and pursued additional study at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and The New School in New York.
Alba’s theatrical performances are marked by bold choices and deep emotional complexity. She performed for seven years in the critically acclaimed immersive Off-Broadway production Sleep No More, where she developed and performed an original role that captivated audiences nightly. Her self-created immersive musical Serenade, praised by The New York Times, showcased her strengths as both a writer and performer. Her one-woman multimedia work The Raven, created in collaboration with Microsoft, blended classical theater with cutting-edge tech, earning honors at the New York Film Festival and acclaim from the American Irish Historical Society.
Pushing boundaries in immersive media, Alba wrote, directed, and starred in Annabellee: As Above So Below, a groundbreaking virtual reality and live theater hybrid that premiered at the Future of Storytelling Summit and the North Bend Film Festival in Twin Peaks. She was also an early performer in Warner Bros. and Amazon Prime’s interactive virtual premieres, and her immersive work Home of Enchantments sold out at The Overlook Film Festival.
Her screen work includes collaborations with acclaimed directors such as Tony Scott (The Taking of Pelham 123) and Joss Whedon (The Avengers), and a recurring role opposite Paul Giamatti on Showtime’s Billions. Her projects have been featured at Tribeca, Lincoln Center’s New York Film Festival, and the Future of Storytelling Summit.
Alba is also the co-founder of Actors Theater (ATNYC), a nonprofit theater company dedicated to creating original works that inspire, challenge, and connect audiences. Her recent original immersive work Emily Was Here, written, directed, and performed by Alba premiered as a live experience currently featured on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Her contributions have earned support from the New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Artists Corps, and NYC Cultural Affairs.
Alba’s mission is clear: to perform and create stories that awaken, challenge, and heal. Through art, she continues to shape the future of storytelling offering audiences meaningful experiences that transcend time, format, and reality itself.
Critical Praise:
Perri Nemiroff (Collider) wrote of her role in Home of Enchantments at The Overlook Film Festival:
“I was absolutely floored by Alba Albanese’s work It’s an extensive tale that requires a powerhouse performance that not only hits the beats of the story crafted, but also comes with interactive emotional elements that feel deeply personal. It’s a beautiful mix of making the participant feel vulnerable and on edge while also sending you on your way with a surprisingly full heart.”
The New York Times captured the core of her mission:
“It comes down to a longing for human contact,” she said. “Today, everything is dehumanized by technology. We miss the intimacy of the Gilded Age a handwritten letter, flowers at the door, giving a lock of hair, looking into someone’s eyes, feeling a human touch. There is a void today, and people want connections. We want storytelling and poetry in our lives.”
In Barbed Wire, Saunder Gusinow wrote:
“Creator Alba Albanese is exceedingly inventive; she’s taken the things most bothersome about immersive theatre and banished them from her work.”
Haleigh Foutch of Collider called her performance:
“…not-to-be-missed world premiere of the immersive and intimate art performance from Alba Albanese.”