

The Full Story
About...
Tesia Nicoli
Tesia Nicoli is a speaker, writer, performer, and creative producer who helps audiences explore clarity, agency, and alignment in their lives and work. Her message is grounded in lived experience and shaped by years of storytelling across stage, screen, and creative projects. Tesia's Make It Happen framework offers a simple language for navigating choice, momentum, and personal direction. She brings insight, warmth, and thoughtful presence to every room.


Vision
Tesia Nicoli is a speaker, writer, performer, and creative producer whose work centers on connection, meaning-making, and personal agency. As a seasoned performer, she was no stranger to live audiences, but her moment as the student commencement speaker for Kutztown University's December 2025 graduation shifted everything. Addressing an audience of 4,800 in the venue and many more online, she felt excitement rather than nervousness, which signaled that sharing ideas and frameworks was part of her purpose.
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Her signature framework, Make It Happen, invites people to examine whether they are letting, making, or forcing their way forward. By turning these modes into conscious tools, individuals gain clarity, alignment, and momentum in both personal and professional contexts. Tesia's commitment to storytelling stems from a lifelong desire to help others feel seen, understood, and equipped to make meaningful choices. She continues to speak and create with one intention: to connect in ways that spark insight, direction, and empowered action.
Creative + Professional Background
Tesia’s creative life began in performance, where years of acting on stage and on camera shaped her sense of timing, presence, and emotional truth. As a performer, she learned how story moves through a room, how to hold attention, and how to make characters feel recognizable and real. Voiceover work, hosting, and co-creating in media expanded that skill set into new formats, allowing her to connect with audiences she could not see but could still reach.
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Behind the scenes, Tesia built a parallel path in production, working across film, video, television, theatre, and digital media. She has contributed as a producer, casting collaborator, script writer, location and logistics coordinator, promotional designer, and project organizer. These roles grounded her work in teamwork, problem-solving, and the realities of getting creative ideas into finished form.
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Alongside her creative work, Tesia built a professional foundation in communication, leadership, and marketing. She has planned events, managed campaigns, written content, taught classes, and supported organizations with both storytelling and strategy. These experiences strengthened her ability to translate ideas into action and to shape messages that resonate. She holds a B.A. in Communication Studies with a minor in Performance and Storytelling and completed her degree magna cum laude.
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Across all of it, the through-line has been connection: connecting with audiences, connecting stories to meaning, and connecting people to their own agency. This blend of creative expression and practical experience is what makes her work feel lived-in, authentic, and useful.


Credibility Snapshot
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Student commencement speaker at Kutztown University in 2025
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Award-winning writer for the short film script Torn (100 Hour Film Race, 2019)
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Finalist in multiple national playwriting competitions
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Author of Acting Honestly, second edition updated in 2025
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Instructor of adult acting classes for nearly 20 years with numerous testimonials
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Production experience across film, television, theatre, video, and digital media
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Performer with stage, on-camera, and voiceover credits






Philosophy
I do this work because I believe clarity creates possibility. When people have language for their inner experience, decision-making becomes easier, alignment feels accessible, and life begins to move in a direction that makes sense. Stories and lived experience help illuminate that path.
My philosophy centers on agency, curiosity, and connection. We learn by paying attention to ourselves, by noticing our patterns, and by understanding how we respond to the world around us. When we share those observations with others, we create connection and momentum that benefits everyone.