2-time winner of SDA’s William C. White Faculty Recognition Award, John DeMita came to USC in 2012 as a guest director and became Associate Professor of Theatre Practice in Acting in 2013. A graduate of Yale University (BA Theatre Studies and English), he was among the first students to receive an MFA in Acting from the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. Since then, he has worked extensively in all aspects of the performing arts.

As a theatre actor, on the stages of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, as well as the Hollywood Bowl, Pasadena Playhouse, Antaeus Theatre Company, Andak Theatre Company (Garland Award, Best Actor in a Musical for Liberty Inn), Victory Theatre, and the Pacific Resident Theatre — of which he was a founding member (Dramalogue Award, Best Actor for Happy End). Selected film and television credits include four seasons as Marine Colonel Clifford Blakely on CBS’s JAG, series regular on Comedy Central’s The Clinic, and in over 30 guest star and recurring roles.

Selected directing credits include USC Thornton School of Music: The Opera Postcard from Morocco (MFA 2018); USC School of Dramatic Arts: Trouble in Mind (BA 2019), Rough Magic (BA 2019), Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play (BA 2017), The Country Wife (BA, 2016), The Way of the World (BA 2015), Dark of the Moon (BFA 2014), and 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Plays (MFA 2012). Andak Theatre Company (North Hollywood): The Elephant Man, Betrayal (Garland Award), The Misanthrope (Backstage West Award); Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center: SubUrbia, Equus, Death of a Salesman, As You Like It, Rumors; El Camino Center for the Performing Arts: Six Characters in Search of an Author, The Crucible, Picnic, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, The Hot l Baltimore, Mother Courage and Her Children and Hay Fever.

As a voice actor, DeMita has performed in hundreds of animated features, cartoon and live action series, and video games. Selected voice acting credits include: Hayao Miyazaki’s classic Princess Mononoke, Star Trek Discovery, Cars 3, Ninjago, Sing, The Lego Batman Movie, Friday the 13th: The Game, Happy Feet, Lilo and Stitch, The Simpsons Movie, the anime series Dragon Ball Super, One Punch Man, Hunter X Hunter, Naruto, The Animatrix, and the Final Fantasy and Dynasty Warriors video game series. His work has taken him to Japan, India, Switzerland, France, London, Amsterdam and Montréal.

DeMita currently works in localization for Netflix as a Language Production Manager and has directed English language dubs of films and TV series in more than a dozen languages, working with local and international voice actors, and giving many USC SDA students their first professional jobs.