Anna Lee Riley was born and raised in southeast Texas. She attended public schools in Beaumont Independent School District, and graduated from Central Sr. H. S. in the mighty Jaguar class of 1995. After high school Anna attended Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas where she earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Theater, graduating in December of 2000.

 

Anna began her teaching career in 2001, and has since been certified to teach three content subjects; Theatre Arts/EC-12, Speech/7-12, and Dance/8-12. She is truly thankful for everything she has been fortunate to learn from her students over the years. They teach her just as much about compassion, patience, and empathy as she teaches them about theatre, speech, and dance. With 20+ years as an educator, Anna has found immense joy in her career.

 

Aside from teaching, Anna is a loving mother, a performance poet, and an actress. She writes poetry, stage plays, screenplays, short stories, children books, and novels. Fulfilling her theatrical and creative passions as an actress, poet, director and author is truly a Blessing. As a teacher, seeing that same passion for theater, performing, and writing arise in her students is the ultimate gift!

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There isn't much Anna can say she is loves more than using her imagination; God, her children, and family. There's nothing that can compare to the calm and serenity she feels when her imagination is allowed to run wild. Creating characters and worlds while telling fascinating stories is the work Anna was born to happily do!

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Anna pens poetry under her full name 'Anna Lee Riley', while she uses her middle initial 'Anna L. Riley' for her Christian short story, and she writes under her author name of 'A. L. Riley' when writing fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, and children books.