For many, The Blumey Awards program was a steppingstone on the way to a wide range of incredible achievements and careers in the arts and entertainment industry. Here’s a look at what some of these talented Blumey Awards alums have been up to.

Charlotte Latin alumnus Will Branner was a Best Actor nominee at the inaugural Blumey Awards in 2012. The actor/director has been busy with numerous projects. He was part of the first national tour of Mean Girls and has won several awards for filmmaking through his production company Dawg Paw Productions. Most recently, he made his Broadway debut in the ensemble of the new Broadway musical Back to the Future now playing at New York’s Winter Garden Theatre.

Naiylah Gardner, formerly of Northwest School of the Arts, was a Best Featured Performer nominee in 2018. You may have spotted her and her gorgeous voice last spring on ABC’s hit show, “American Idol.” Using the name Nailyah Serenity on the show, she made it to the series’ Top 20 round.

Providence Day School grad Tessa Giordano was nominated three years in a row for the Best Actress Blumey Award, including in 2018 for Leading Player in Pippin. Although she didn’t nab that award, she did win a 2017 University of North Carolina School of the Arts Drama Intensive Award and has gone on to other exciting endeavors. She received her bachelor's in fine arts in musical theatre performance from the University of Oklahoma last spring and was an intern in Blumenthal’s development department. She is now attending Georgetown Law and says musical theater has been a key part of her success. “It gave me a community and it gave me a sense of confidence and poise that I don’t know I would have had as naturally if I had not been participating in theater my whole life.”

“I knew that I never wanted to be onstage,” she said. “I was more of a shy, introverted high schooler, but I loved the idea of being able to help make the theater come to life, and doing that as a backstage technical person seemed to be the best way to do that to express my creativity.” She studied art history at Duke University, worked as a production assistant on the national tour of Disney’s The Lion King, and spent several years working in booking and programming roles in New York before returning to Charlotte. “The Blumey Awards was the most instrumental program that I ever participated in in high school,” she says. “It helped me grow as a leader, as a community member of the Charlotte theater scene … gave me confidence.”

Thomas Laub, another Providence Day School alumnus, has also built on his strong Charlotte theater roots to land a big role behind the scenes of many current hit shows. The 2014 and 2015 Best Actor nominee is the founder of Runyonland Productions, which he started while still a student at the University of Michigan. The company produces on Broadway, off-Broadway, and in cities across the country. Some of his latest productions include Tony Award® winners Parade, A Doll’s House, Gutenberg! which opened on Broadway this fall, and the new revival of The Wiz, which is selling out in cities around the country before opening on Broadway this spring. Outside of theater producing, he also works for Apple TV+ in studio strategy.

Central Academy of Technology and Arts alumna Nkeki Obi-Melekwe was nominated for best actress in the 2013 and 2014 Blumey Awards. She attended the University of Michigan’s musical theater program and performed locally in Charlotte Squawks before going on to star in the West End and Broadway productions of Tina - The Tina Turner Musical. She was recently part of the cast of “King Shaka,” originally set to be a Showtime limited series. According to a recent Variety article, the show is currently being shopped to other potential networks.

He told Blumenthal recently: “There’s nothing more valuable than studying the thing that you love. It feeds into anything that you want to do.”

Maya Sistruck, formerly of Northwest School of the Arts, is an actor, model, and writer. She was nominated for Blumey Awards in 2017 (Best Actress) and 2018 (Best Supporting Actress).