Bill Bowers

Bill Bowers is an American mime artist, actor, and educator born on April 16, 1959, in Missoula, Montana. He is based in New York City and has performed across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Bowers studied with legendary mime Marcel Marceau before committing to mime as a full-time pursuit.

Bowers completed his undergraduate education at Rocky Mountain College in Montana, where he graduated as valedictorian and received both the Dean's Cup and the President's Award. He subsequently moved to New Jersey to pursue graduate studies, earning an MFA from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Rocky Mountain College later awarded him an Honorary Ph.D. in 2001 and invited him to deliver the Commencement address in 2011.

His Broadway career includes two productions from 1997: he played Leggett in The Scarlet Pimpernel and originated the role of Zazu in Disney's The Lion King. During his time on Broadway, he made appearances on The Rosie O'Donnell Show, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. Regional theater credits include engagements at the Berkshire Theater Festival, the Denver Center Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse, George Street Playhouse, Montana Rep, Two Rivers Theater, Paper Mill Playhouse, and the Chester Theatre Company.

Bowers wrote and performed the autobiographical solo play It Goes Without Saying, which opened Off Broadway in 2006 at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in an extended, sold-out run. The production subsequently toured throughout the United States and earned awards including Best Production at the United Solo Festival, the International Fresh Fruit Festival, and the Dallas/Fort Worth Critics Forum. At the 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the show received multiple five-star reviews and was rated an audience favorite. The following year, Bowers received the Grand Prix at the International Thespis Festival in Kiel, Germany, and the production has since been recognized at festivals in Estonia, Serbia, Macedonia, Norway, and Korea.

His solo work Beyond Words premiered at Urban Stages in New York City in the fall of 2011 and was named Best Solo Performance at the United Solo Festival, as well as Best Encore Performance in 2015. The International Fresh Fruit Festival also honored the production, and it was featured in the New Masculinities Festival in New York City. In November 2013, Beyond Words ran at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City. Bowers premiered another solo play, All Over The Map, Off Broadway in April 2016, produced by All For One Theatre, where he also held a residency. His ensemble play Heyokah/Hokahey premiered at the University of Wyoming in Laramie in 2009 and has since been produced in Colorado, Montana, and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. With director Scott Illingworth, Bowers developed an ensemble play based on Dalton Trumbo's novel Johnny Got His Gun, supported by the Harold Clurman Center for New Works and later produced by the NYU Tisch Graduate School of Acting. In 2019, he created The Traveler, a silent play about immigration and asylum seekers, with New York City Children's Theatre. His original mime productions Night Sweetheart, Night Buttercup and Under A Montana Moon were produced Off Broadway, with Under A Montana Moon performed internationally in Romania, Macedonia, China, Japan, and Norway. He has performed on the stages of Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden, the Kennedy Center, and the White House.

On television, Bowers has appeared in All My Children, One Life to Live, Remember WENN, Law & Order, Disney's Out of The Box, and The Meredith Vieira Show. He appears in the feature film Two Weeks Notice, starring Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant, and is featured in the Apple TV series Before, starring Billy Crystal, as well as the upcoming feature film Lost Cause. In 2017, PBS NewsHour included him in a short documentary as part of its Brief But Spectacular series.

As an educator, Bowers teaches movement for actors at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, the William Esper Studio, and the Stella Adler Studio in New York City. He has received fellowships from the Hermitage Retreat, the Eugene O'Neill Foundation, Open AiR, and the Gliddon Foundation, and was a featured artist in The Atelier at Princeton University. The University of Wyoming named him Artist of Eminence in 2009, and Ohio University awarded him the Glidden Fellowship in 2011. He also served as Artist in Residence at the Harold Clurman Center for New Works in Movement and Dance for 2015–16. Bowers is married to costume designer and supervisor Michael Growler.