Vancouver, BC · Available worldwide, remote

Actor.
Singer.
Teaching Artist.

I am Tess. I sing, I act, and I teach, and I have spent my life chasing the moment a room goes quiet because something true just happened onstage. Bring me your story, your voice, or your first lesson.

View My Work Book A Lesson

About

A performer who kept
saying yes to the next room.

It started in Missoula

I was born and raised in Missoula, Montana, and my love of performing started young, onstage at Missoula Children's Theatre. That building taught me that a story belongs to everyone in the room, not just the person holding the script.

Portland, then Vancouver

I lived in Portland, Oregon from 2013 to 2025, where I got my start performing with companies such as the Disability Art and Culture Project, Impetus Arts, and Genderbomb. I am now based in Vancouver, BC, available in person exclusively in Canada and remote worldwide.

Trained as a musician

I hold a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Montana. I am a songwriter as much as I am a singer, and that training sits underneath everything I make and everything I teach.

How I move through the work

I am trans and non-binary, and I live with visible and invisible disabilities. It shapes how I build a room, how I pace a rehearsal, and how much room I leave for other people to be themselves in it.

Tess Raunig, actor and singer based in Vancouver BC, studio portrait

Years Performing

Productions

Companies Worked With

Students Taught

Acting

The action first,
then the truth.

View Acting Work

Tess Raunig, actor Vancouver BC, in a dramatic studio portrait

Professional debut, 2019

Teenage Dick

Artists Repertory Theatre

Mike Lew's darkly comedic high school retelling of Shakespeare's Richard III was my professional acting debut, and it set the bar for the kind of work I want to keep making: sharp, funny, and unwilling to soften a disabled character into a lesson.

On camera reel still frame, Tess Raunig performance — On camera reelActing

Scene work still frame, Tess Raunig performance — Scene workActing

Selected performance still frame, Tess Raunig performance — Selected performanceActing

Companies

Artists Repertory Theatre
Original Practice Shakespeare Festival
Limbo Films
Another Country Productions
Adventuress Productions
Hand2Mouth Theatre
Crave Theatre Company
Fuse Theatre Ensemble
Oregon Children's Theatre
Bag & Baggage Productions
Catalyst Film Collective
Trans Voices Showcase PDX

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Singing

My voice changed,
and I followed it.

Tess Raunig, singer Vancouver BC, portrait in purple

2020, an ongoing transition

In 2020 I began testosterone as part of gender affirming care, and my instrument changed with me. I started as a lyric soprano and I am now a tenor who also sings mezzo soprano and alto repertoire. Learning my voice a second time was humbling, and it made me a far more confident singer and performer than I was before.

2016 to 2018

Tess & Linus

A Portland based folk pop duet with Linus Ember. Two voices, close harmony, and songs written in living rooms before they ever hit a stage.

January 2018

"Changes" with Transpose

I had the honor of performing my original song "Changes" with Transpose, Portland's first transgender and non-binary choir. It is still the piece I am proudest of.

March 2018

Sasha and The Children

Linus and I expanded our musical family and founded the theatrical folk pop band Sasha and The Children with Jacqueline Hyde and Jason Champion. Our debut EP "Can't Fall Asleep" arrived in November 2018.

2024

Human Content

I played synth and sang backing vocals on Linus's solo project "Human Content," which felt like coming full circle with the person I first started harmonizing with.

Live vocal performance still frame, Tess Raunig performance — Live vocal performanceSinging

Original song still frame, Tess Raunig performance — Original songSinging

Performance clipInstagram

Let's find out what
your voice can do.

Book A Lesson

Voice & Acting Lessons

Come as you are,
sing as you are.

Teaching is not a side project for me, it is part of the same practice as performing. My studio is a place where you get to be a beginner, get to be loud, and get to be wrong out loud without anyone flinching.

$70 CAD

per hour

Sliding scale rates are available by request through the contact form below. Just ask, it is a normal thing to ask.

Book A Lesson

Voice lessons

I teach all levels and all abilities, including many disabled singers, and I welcome singers ages 5 and up. We work at the pace your body and your voice actually want to move.

Acting lessons

I teach accessible, simple technique built around the action of a scene and the emotional truth underneath it. No mystique, no gatekeeping, just tools you can use in the room.

Voices in transition

Trans, non-binary, and gender diverse students are genuinely welcome here. I have lived my own vocal transition, I teach students navigating voice changes from hormone therapy, and I love working with post-menopausal students of all genders.

Where we meet

Online from my home studio, or in person at a rehearsal studio in Vancouver, BC. Remote students are welcome from anywhere in the world.

Press & Praise

What people say
after the lights come up.

Quote coming soon, a note about a performance that stayed with someone.

Tess, send over any reviews, interviews, or programme notes you would like featured here and they will drop straight into this layout as large editorial pull quotes with the outlet and the date.