Bern Cohen grew up in New York City's Chinatown until his family moved to Long Island where Bern attended Valley Stream South High School and there was struck by the sense he loved acting and was adept at its nuances. He attended Adelphi University on a full scholarship and was fortunate to be at a college near enough to NYC to attend auditions and even luckier to land NYC stage roles while still in college. After graduation, he was successful on regional and NYC stages until he left the stage and went into education in his mid-twenties to more fully participate as a parent of two children. During his years as a young stage actor, there were such highlights as his work with Mercedes Reuhl, Samuel L. Jackson, Paul Price, Sesame Street, ZOOM, Rupert Holmes, Marsha Rodd, Baruch Lumet, and others. Those experiences were put on hold while Bern established himself as an outstanding English teacher in NYC's Harlem and eventually an outstanding high school principal. While an educator, Bern served as a consultant to National Geographic, WNET, and wrote several college textbooks in the field of education which brought him national recognition as an educational consultant. In 2003, Bern returned to acting by studying two semesters of Advanced Acting-for-the-Camera with Penny Templeton and another with Ruth Nerkin at the School for Film and TV in NYC. After two years of this study, Bern sent out his resume and has been busy since. During his first two years back in acting, Bern had principal or featured roles in nearly twenty indie films of an unusually diverse nature, playing a mentally depraved judge, a Trump-like CEO, the ghost of Boss Tweed coming back to take over NYC, several different rabbis, a bizarre psychologist, and a nasty publisher, among others. He works with Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Jerry Ferrara in Alec Baldwin's forthcoming "Brooklyn Rules." He is also Lena Olin's agent, Humphrey Smith, in the Spring '07 release,"Devil You Know." Bern's first starring role in a film is "Woodhaven Pause," a Fall '07 release in which he plays an abusive father who must eventually be cared for by the son who hates him because of the abuse. On the New York stage, Bern has also worked diverse roles during the same two years. The NY Times and Variety both gave him "standout" reviews for his role off-Broadway in "Motke Thief." He also played Freud, the lead in "Secrets Revealed," had a lead, James, in the 2006 Fringe Festival musical "HA HA Club," and currently has a supporting lead in the musical-in-workshop, "Kabbalistic Love Story" while also shooting a featured role in "My Mother's Fairy Tales."
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