
ABOUT
Joseph Robert Blakey is a Los Angeles-based actor, writer and director and one of the co-founders of the original Acting for a Cause, a non-for-profit initially focused on creating original theatrical work for charity and now focused on providing free entertainment via livestream and economic relief for those hit hard by the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic. For more about Acting for a Cause's current work, see actingforacause.org.
Joseph has worked as an actor for more than a decade. In 2020, he graduated with his BA in Film, Television and Theatre from the University of Notre Dame. Some of his theatrical credits there and beyond include Berenger in Rhinoceros, Lucifer in Christ’s Passion, Lancelot in Spamalot, Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein, John Barrymore in I Hate Hamlet, Randolph in Wildflower, Iachimo in Cymbeline and Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He has since worked with various Chicago theatre companies, including Irish Theatre of Chicago and A Red Orchid Theatre (co-founded by Academy Award-nominated actor Michael Shannon).
As a writer and performer on the autism spectrum, Joseph has also worked to help craft stories that give autistic people agency and representation, with the hope of eventually being involved in a film with an autistic writer, protagonist and lead actor. He has recently finished a full length screenplay, Day of the Greeks, a coming-of-age comedy about a gang of high schoolers saving the world from impending doom through a play, and is looking forward to sharing it with new audiences.
He has recently found success as an editor and associate producer for the new Acting for a Cause, founded by Brando Crawford, where he has aided in filmed play readings with high profile talent including Nat Wolff, Kaia Gerber, Mason Gooding, Josephine Langford, Rivkah Reyes, Zelda Williams, Cameron Monaghan, Bella Thorne and Vanessa Burghardt. He is currently hard at work helping produce the next reading, The Room Returns, starring Bob Odenkirk.
When he is not writing, acting or directing, he is usually playing video games with his three brothers or playing Dungeons and Dragons with his friends. He also enjoys reading in solitude, building LEGO sets and listening to the same song over and over again.
For his full list of credits, please visit "Resume".