An award-winning actor and director, Murisa Harba lives to push boundaries. She is a leading acting coach, author, thought leader and speaker in Los Angeles, passionate about empowering actors to elevate their truth in storytelling, ultimately unlocking their creative genius.
Murisa Harba made her directorial debut in 2005 with new play WHITE RABBIT which premiered at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, and then went on to spotlight at A Play Festival For New Works. With Murisa still at the helm, WHITE RABBIT had its Chicago premiere in 2007, a 4 week run at the Bailiwick Theatre, which launched the Bricklayers Theatre Company.
In 2008, Murisa moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and television direction. After numerous smaller projects and successful acting and ballroom dance careers, in 2013 Murisa directed a six-episode spy comedy series, SKIDDLE & BANG IT. Murisa was then invited to join and guest direct for Girls On Top Productions for their 2013 holiday series, STRESS FACTOR.
In 2014, Murisa directed dramatic short film, GRUYERES which is now being pitched to fund the feature film length version. Murisa pushed boundaries with her experimental silent short film, DANSARE, in which she directed, acted and danced in, premiered at NoHo Cinefest 2019. She also directed the pilot for new comedic series GAS, written by Matt Vlahakis.
She was then asked to direct 3 episodes of dramatic web series, F#@K I LOVE U, in which she also starred. In September 2015, Murisa's first episode screened at ITV Fest in Dover, VT, and won for BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE, also being nominated for BEST DRAMA. She recently directed TELL YOUR STORY, A PSA on sexual assault and female empowerment.
In 2018, Murisa co-directed F#@K I LOVE U: Alive, the stage play version of the web series at the Dorie Theatre in the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
In 2024, Murisa directed the pilot of dark comedy series Bad Therapist which has won multiple awards including recently won the "Best Television Video Project Award" at the Asian Talent International Film Festival (ATIFF) 2025 and “Festival Special” at the Synergy Film Festival in Los Angeles.
In 2025, she directed, produced, acted in and raised the capital for feature film MattBeth, a psychological spectacle & modern day version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Her directorial debut on this project also featured 44 of her acting students who were all trained in her Chakra Approach® performance method.
This project is in post production and is expected for release in late 2026.
Check out our press articles here:
: https://deadline.com/2025/08/obi-wan-kenobi-princess-leia-vivien-lyra-blair-mattbeth-1236493930/
https://screenrant.com/mattbeth-vivien-lyra-blair-casting/
As an actress and director, she has earned multiple "BEST ACTRESS IN A FEATURE FILM" awards for her work in The Shattering (avail on Amazon Prime) at Depth of Field Film Festival, LadyFilmmakers Festival, Studio City International Film Festival and SYTYCA Festival as well as BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE awards for her acting and directing work in popular dramatic series, F#@K I Love U and hilarious dramedy BAD THERAPIST which is currently snagging awards on the festival circuit.
As a professional dancer and choreographer, she thrives on the different ways our bodies can communicate, leading to the creation of her custom signature techniques, THE CHAKRA APPROACH® which involves tapping into the body's natural energy centers as a way to build compelling performances and THE MACRO METHOD which is an efficient, empowering way to breakdown a script complete with strong choice formulas for actors to nail their auditions in less than 5 minutes.
Critical to Murisa's education and perspective as a director, she founded ABOUT THE WORK Actors Studio, in 2013 on the principle of challenging actors to dig deep within to uncover their truth in performance. Her custom "7 Steps To Elevated Truth" Mentorship Program supports the actor by empowering them to think differently about the craft, digging into what makes them unique and likeable so they can up-level their career. Murisa teaches at the Los Angeles SAG-AFTRA Conservatory, sits on the Conservatory Committee and is also a recognized Backstage Expert regularly contributing articles to the widely known industry publication. She authored Acting With Energy: Creating Brilliance Take After Take based on her signature technique The Chakra Approach®, which is available on Amazon and major book stores.
