OUR GUEST: FEBRUARY 21

MILES DOLEAC, a native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is an actor, director, writer and producer in television, theatre and film and a professor of Classical Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi. Miles’ feature-length directorial debut The Historian, starring William Sadler, John Cullum, Colin Cunningham and Glynnis O’Connor won Best First Feature, Best Actor (William Sadler) and Best Supporting Actor (John Cullum) at the 2014 Long Island International Film Expo and, thereafter, received a theatrical release and was distributed in various video, internet and retail outlets in North America and internationally by Devolver Digital Films. Miles also wrote, produced and starred in the film, which was shot in Hattiesburg and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Miles’ second feature, The Hollow, a southern noir murder thriller, which he also wrote, directed and produced was released October 7, 2016, by Uncork’d Entertainment in select theaters, on VOD, iTunes and Amazon and can now be found at a Redbox kiosk near you. The Hollow stars James Callis, Christiane Seidel, William Sadler, David Warshofsky, Jeff Fahey and William Forsythe. The Hollow was also shot entirely in Mississippi. Miles won a Best Actor Award at the 2016 Long Island International Film Expo for his performance in the film. Miles shot his third feature, Demons, a psychological thriller starring Andrew Divoff (The Wishmaster, Lost), Steven Brand (The Scorpion King) and John Schneider (The Dukes of Hazzard, Smallville) , in the Hattiesburg area in December 2016. Also an actor, Miles has appeared in numerous television shows and films, including American Horror Story (FX), Banshee (Cinemax), Sleepy Hollow (Fox), Treme (HBO), Breakout Kings (A & E), Complications (USA), Salem (WGN), Underground (WGN), Astronaut Wives Club (ABC), Game of Silence (NBC),Vacation (with Chris Hemsworth, Ed Helms, Christina Applegate and Leslie Mann), Don’t Kill It and Shark Lake (both with Dolph Lundgren), Cat Run 2, Bad Ass 3 (with Danny Trejo and Danny Glover), See Girl Run (with Adam Scott and Robin Tunney), Jake’s Road (with Eric Roberts), Mighty Fine (with Chazz Palminteri and Andie McDowell), The Livingston Gardener, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, director Dustin Schuetter’s Rejects and SyFy Channel Originals Swamp Volcano (with Brad Dourif and Rachel Hunter) and Storm War (with Stacey Keach). Most recently, Miles appeared in the History Channel’s remake of Alex Haley’s Roots and in the recurring role of “Captain Lee Scott” on the CW’s (and Julie Plec’s) Containment. He also appeared in the Antoine Fuqua-directed Magnificent Seven reboot with Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke and will appear in the forthcoming feature It’s Time, based on the true story of former University of Mississippi football star, Chucky Mullens, as Vanderbilt football trainer “John Norwig”.

Miles is the Executive Director of FestivalSouth Film Expo, an indie-focused film festival that takes place in Miles’ hometown of Hattiesburg, in late May/early June each year, an integral component to one of the largest multi-arts festivals (FestivalSouth) in the Southeast. Miles co-founded New York’s Southern Playwright’s Theatre Project in New York and starred in their off-off Broadway production of Horton Foote’s 1918 and produced and starred in an acclaimed production of Julius Caesar at Los Angeles’ Lillian Theatre. Miles is closely involved in the theatre community in his hometown, having directed recent productions of Into the Woods, Cabaret and The Wizard of Oz. As an actor, he has appeared in recent stage productions of Les Miserables (as “Valjean”), Jesus Christ Superstar (as “Judas” and “Jesus” on alternating nights) and in Cabaret (as “The Emcee”). He is a member of SAG, Equity, DGA and WGA. Miles is also an impassioned advocate of education. 

He holds a BFA in Drama from the North Carolina School of the Arts, an MA in History from the University of Southern Mississippi and a PhD in Ancient History from Tulane University. He has studied the history of antiquity all over the world, including at the American Academy in Rome, the American School of Classical Studies in Athens and the Goethe Institute in Munich, Germany. Miles serves as an Assistant Professor of Classics and Film Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he teaches courses in Film, Latin, Greek and the history of the Greco-Roman World. Miles’ book on Alexander the Great, In the Footsteps of Alexander: The King Who Conquered the Ancient World, is currently available at various retail outlets. Miles lives in Hattiesburg, MS, with his wife, Lindsay Anne Williams, and their five dogs.