Ties Jansen is an Amsterdam-based actor, singer, director, dramaturg, and award-winning writer. Having spent half his life in Europe and the other half in the United States, he could not be more proud of his multifaceted upbringing.
His auspicious career started at age two when he loudly recited the Pythagorean Theorem to anyone who would listen, and soon it progressed to reciting entire commercials for his parents. Nothing could hold him back from taking the stage next. After moving to Mamaroneck, NY with his family in 2010, Ties’s passion for acting truly flourished when his thick Dutch accent led him to being (type)cast as Augustus Gloop in a middle school production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Once his big debut was over, Ties just knew he belonged on the stage.
About Ties
Ties’s passion for theater progressed throughout high school, most notably thanks to being a part of the Mamaroneck Shakespeare Players and his high school’s Swing Choir. In May 2021, Ties graduated Summa Cum Laude and with Honors from Pace University’s School of Performing Arts (now Sands College of Performing Arts), from which he received his BFA in Acting and a Minor in Film and Screen Studies. During his time at Pace, Ties was in multiple short films, performed at Dixon Place’s HOT! Festival, and performed in two Shakespeare productions. One of these was the PPA Mainstage production of Welcome to the Wood: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the other was Measure for Measure at the (Off-Broadway) NuBox Theater.
Ties returned to his native Amsterdam in August 2021 to resume his career after the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020-2021. He started out there with two internships in off-stage positions: one as Directing Assistant for REP Entertainment (in their productions of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap and Huisvrouwen bestaan niet), and one as Production Dramaturgy Intern at International Theater Amsterdam (ITA) for the world premiere of Judas, directed by Robert Icke. After gaining prominent experience in the fields of directing and dramaturgy, Ties resumed acting in the 2022/2023 season with roles in the musicals Cabaret (Queen’s English Theatre Company), Chicago (HEA Productions), and …Spelling Bee (Cauldron Performing Arts), all of which were performed in Amsterdam in English. Ties also played the role of Rich and served as Assistant Director in the Netherlands debut production of the Broadway hit musical Be More Chill (HEA Productions). In the 2023/2024 season, Ties reprised his acclaimed turn as Billy Flynn in Chicago (HEAP), was seen as Bruno in Smiley (QETC), and sang and danced alongside Fenna Ramos and Jill Tjin-Asjoe in the Dutch tour of Zin in Zappelin Live (BazarMedia Productions). This upcoming season, Ties will make his solo directorial debut with Little Shop of Horrors (Musicalvereniging DOS) and perform alongside Barrie Stevens, Louis van Beek, and the talented cast of La Cage Aux Folles (QETC) at CC Amstel.
Ties is a proud member of the board of Ensemble Nieuwe Theaterwerkers (ENT), and he has been serving as its Treasurer since September 2024. He has also co-produced the past two iterations of its annual members’ symposium at HKU Utrecht and ArtEZ Arnhem. This two-day symposium served as a networking and educational event for over 100 up-and-coming theater artists from all over The Netherlands and Belgium. Ties’s other production credits include the first-ever Springtij Festival in Alkmaar, which was organized by the collective Karavaan to showcase projects from young theater professionals, and the 2023 Over het IJ Festival, for which he was sub-coordinator.
Ties strives to promote European stories, cultivate meaningful work in queer spaces, and collaborate with a diverse array of progressive artists. In his free time, Ties is a marathon runner, an enthusiastic student of foreign languages, a film bro, a meal prepper, and a hyper-fanatic hip-hop head.