Actor Spotlight

Dallas actor Walter Lee divulges love for painting and Beyonce

In the musical Songs for a New World, nearly 20 of cult composer Jason Robert Brown's songs come together in a concert-style format to explore life's emotions. This means that the songs vary wildly in tone, tempo and style, putting extra pressure on the singers who are called upon to perform them. In Uptown Players' upcoming production of Songs, versatile actor Walter Lee is one of those talented performers.

The word "versatile" is especially apt when talking about Lee, who has inhabited roles as wide-ranging as a dapper doo-wop singer (WaterTower Theatre's Smokey Joe's Cafe), a chain-gang convict (Parade, also at WaterTower) and a sultry, sexy Kit Kat Girl (Dallas Theater Center's Cabaret). His one-man cabaret performance recently played at the Out of the Loop Fringe Festival, and now Lee will be tackling some of Songs' emotionally complex and musically satisfying tunes.

He recently took the time to fill out our survey of serious, fun and sometimes ridiculous questions.

Name: Walter Lee

Role in Songs for a New World: Man 1

Previous work in the DFW area: Smokey Joe's Cafe at WaterTower Theatre, Angel in Casa Mañana's RENT, and Frenchie in Dallas Theater Center's Cabaret

Hometown: Abilene, Texas

Where you currently reside: Dallas

First theater role: Enjolras in Cooper High School's production of Les Miserables

First stage show you ever saw: Abilene Christian University's production of Jekyll and Hyde

Moment you decided to pursue a career in theater: After I saw ACU's production, I fell in love and never looked back!

Most challenging role you've played: Coalhouse Walker Jr. in Ragtime. I'm not the most masculine person.

Special skills: Some gymnastics, makeup artistry, and painting

Something you're REALLY bad at: Cooking! Hands down!

Current pop culture obsession: Beyonce Knowles Carter!!!

Last book you read: The libretto for Fortress of Solitude

Favorite movie(s): The First Wives Club

Favorite musician(s): Beyonce, Ciara, Chaka Kahn, Michael Jackson and Ledesi

Favorite song: "Kiss the Air" by Danny Calvert

Dream role: Lola in Kinky Boots

Favorite play(s): Sylvia

Favorite musical(s): Dreamgirls and Parade

Favorite actors/actresses: Ben Vereen

Favorite food: Spaghetti

Must-see TV show(s): Awkward and Once Upon a Time

Something most people don't know about you: I was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Place in the world you'd most like to visit: Thailand

Pre-show warm-up: Joking with cast members. Being alone makes me think, which then makes me more nervous.

Favorite part about your current role: That's a tough one. I'm going to go with the fact that I get to play with my part vocally.

Most challenging part about your current role: The music is the most complicated music I've ever encountered, and my vocal part is very challenging.

Most embarrassing onstage mishap: My part in a Broadway Christmas Carol! I had to put on a fat suit to play Mrs. Fezziwig, and one night I put the fat suit on backward. It was hilarious!

Career you'd have if you weren't a performer: Painter

Favorite post-show spot: Home

Favorite thing about Dallas-Forth Worth: The unpredictable weather!

Most memorable theater moment: During The Wiz I was playing the Scarecrow, and one of my lines in the show was "You got any spare change?" After the show was over, a little boy in the audience came up to me and gave me a quarter. It was awesome!

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Uptown Players' production of Songs for a New World plays at Kalita Humphreys Theater from June 21-July 7.

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Mural News

Netflix House will debut in Dallas with murals from acclaimed artist

Netflix House

Jeremy Biggers at Netflix House

A long-awaited immersive venue is opening in Dallas, and it will debut with local art on its walls: Netflix House, a year-round exhibit revolving around Netflix shows and movies, will open at Galleria Dallas on December 11, with two murals from award-winning Dallas multi-medium artist Jeremy Biggers.

Netflix House is an immersive dive complete with merchandise store, film house, arcade, and restaurant-bar. When it opens, Dallas will be the second location in the U.S., following Philadelphia, where it debuted in November 2025, also with murals from a local artist.

A graduate of Booker T. Washington High School for Performing and Visual Arts, Biggers is a renowned artist whose murals can be found spashed on walls across Dallas. Many, such as the Selena portrait on the wall outside Top Ten Records at 306 S. Bishop Ave., have become local landmarks.

He's a logical choice, having worked with a number of corporations including Nike, Adidas, the Dallas Mavericks, and IBM, for whom he created the "THINK" mural in their Dallas corporate office. His works have also been exhibited nationally, including a 2024 solo exhibition "be safe out there bro" at Band of Vices, a gallery in Los Angeles.

"Being chosen to be the artist to paint this mural, it would have been a disservice to myself, as well as the art scene in the city, not to try to infuse myself into it," he says.

$\u200bJeremy Biggers at Netflix House$ Jeremy Biggers at Netflix HouseNetflix House

Biggers did two murals featuring his interpretation of Netflix figures including the Squid Game Young-hee doll, characters from KPop Demon Hunters and megahit series Stranger Things, plus Pandy and DJ Catnip, the best friends in the interactive series Gabby’s Dollhouse.

Both murals are intensely colored works that incorporate Biggers' signature motif: a grid of polka dots spread across the image.

One is on the exterior of Netflix House, at the parking entrance, a colorful collage of characters, measuring 38 feet x 50 feet — the tallest mural Biggers has tackled. He painted it with aerosol; it took him two months to complete.
The other is on the interior, on the mall side entrance of Netflix House, measuring 57 feet x 12 feet — a study in moody blacks and blues, with accents of neon-red that give it a 3D effect.

“I'm trying to tell the story of Netflix, and the story of where Netflix has been historically, where Netflix is headed in the future, and then also infusing my own narrative and my own language visually into that story,” he says.

“They could have opened this anywhere, so for Dallas to be one of the very first locations — that’s a testament to us as a market, as consumers of arts and consumers in general," he says.

Jeremy Biggers at Netflix HouseNetflix House

galleries openings