Orion Barnes

Orion Barnes is currently the Head of Stage Combat and Intimacy Direction at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (LA Campus).  He is also the Intimacy Director at AMDA, LA.  Since receiving his BA in Acting at Columbia College in Chicago, he has been choreographing, teaching and performing stage combat and theatrical intimacy for over 25 years.  In that time, he has also taught fencing to children and young adults at studios in New York, Boston and Los Angeles. 

Orion believes in a consent-based approach to intimacy and stage combat and that actors of every shape, size and skill level must have a solid foundation in both.  Intimacy training includes Theatrical Intimacy Education and Intimacy Directors and Coordinators (Certified Consent-Forward Artist).  He is certified in both Adult and Youth Mental Health First Aid.

In addition to the many projects, shows and scenes he has coordinated for college productions and summer camps, he has also built fights for East West Players, The Group Rep, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival & Oak Park Shakespeare Festival. He appears in several high profile film, television and stage projects and has trained A-List celebrities (Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway, Chris Pine, Sandra Bullock, Sir Ben Kingsley...) for film and television.  Orion would like to thank Sword Fights' Inc., Columbia College, David Woolley and Sheldon Patinkin for setting on the path to his life’s work of keeping actors safe, both physically and emotionally.