Braden Cleary

Braden joined A.B.L.E. as a volunteer facilitator in 2016 before joining the Teaching Artist team in 2020 when his adaptation of The Comedy of Errors became the Ensemble’s first digital web series project.

Braden has nearly 10 years of experience in theatre education in Chicago with companies like Imagination Theater, Chicago Children’s Theatre’s Red Kite program, and as an artist-in-residence with Chicago Public Schools through the Columbia College Chicago Center for Community Arts Partnerships.

Other A.B.L.E. credits include co-adapting and co-directing 2023’s production of The Odyssey. In the other half of his life, Braden works in philanthropic consulting where he supports philanthropists working to achieve their goals through grant-making, advocacy, impact investing, and more.

Braden holds a BA in Theatre & Drama and a BS in Arts Management from Indiana University and a certificate in Managing Effective Arts Organizations from the University of Maryland College Park.

He is always ready to lip-sync for his life when “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” comes on during dance party.

Photo credit Joe Mazza/Brave Lux