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Bruce Carlton can prove his early fascination with singing, dancing, and acting by whipping out any number of photo albums.  His parents hung lights and homemade curtains in their spare garage for his birthday present one year, and that space became Bruce’s own theatre, where he would develop shows with playmates, whose indulgent parents then became the audience.

Bruce grew up in El Cajon (east of San Diego, California), but spent three of his four high school years overseas.  While on Okinawa for two years he learned to play the Ryukyuan samisen and became a recognizable radio and television personality to Okinawans.  In Heidelberg, Germany, for his senior year, he was an active member of a local German men’s choir. 

As a German major at San Diego State University, Bruce spent both his junior and senior years overseas at the University of Heidelberg, where he twice coordinated the American students’ segment of the international students’ yearly touring show, as well as performing in both the university’s choir and orchestra. 

Graduate school took Bruce to the University of California, Berkeley, and he has remained a resident of the greater San Francisco Bay Area ever since.  Mr. Carlton has both Master of Arts in German Literature and Master of Library Science degrees.  As soon as he had his first fulltime employment, Bruce began performing with the Lamplighters, San Francisco’s Gilbert and Sullivan company, as well as several community theatres.  Bruce’s commitment and passions as a community college instructor and manager eventually pulled him off the stage for some twenty years, but he still remained an avid audience member at home and during his travels.

Since retiring from Contra Costa College, Bruce has rejoined the acting world and counts his blessings at being able to devote so much time to theatre, film, advertising, and voiceover work.

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