Julie Staley has been performing since the age of nine when she began studying vocal music under Christine Brewer. She entered her first national vocal competition within that year, held at Notre Dame, and won 7th place in her division.

Since moving to Springfield, she’s been seen on stage at the Hoogland Center for the Arts, The Muni, Theatre in the Park, and Playhouse on the Square. Favorite roles, some she has had the pleasure of reprising, include Mrs. Lyons in Blood Brothers, Martha Jefferson in 1776, Morticia Addams in The Addams Family, Myra Bruhl in Deathtrap, Annelle in Steel Magnolias, Baroness Elsa Schraeder in The Sound of Music, Mrs. Woods in Legally Blonde, Cassie in Rumors, Lexie in The Dixie Swim Club, Liza in Peter Pan, Hope in Anything Goes, Marian, in The Music Man, as well as featured performances in A Very Hoogland Christmas, and Nora Ephron’s Love, Loss, and What I Wore.

She has also been be a featured soloist with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra. Julie is the past president of the Board of Trustees for the Hoogland Center for the Arts, and was the producer for the Illinois Bicentennial Series of shows for HCFTA, which included performances of 1776, Hamilton and History, Lincoln and Shakespeare (all at the Old State Capitol), The Fabric of Friendship, and Mrs. Lincoln’s 200th Birthday (at the Illinois Governor’s Mansion). Julie was an award-winning television news anchor for more than two decades and is talent for TV specials and commercials. Julie also manages her two boys as on-air talent. They have appeared in national ads in print, television, and product packaging for companies like V-Tech, Radio Flyer, Tomy Toys, Nickelodeon, Kraft Foods, Kohl’s, Sears, and State Farm Insurance. They have also performed at the Chicago Lyric Opera.

Julie received an MS Summa Cum Laude from Southern Illinois Univeristy – Edwardsville in Mass Communications, and was an honors student receiving a BA from SIU-C in Radio-Television, with a minor in Musical Theatre. She was the first Mass Communications student to win the University Symposium award for her thesis at SIU-E, and was the Broadcast Student of the Year at Southern Illinois University – Carbondale. She also was an SIU Radio-Television Study Abroad student in London, England. She is a doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Springfield in Public Administration.

She has studied ballet in Belleville, IL, and studied acting and performed in Kansas City, MO. Julie is the owner and CEO of Spencer Films LLC.