Karla Hartley is currently the Producing Artistic Director for Stageworks Theatre in the Channel District. She received a BFA in Theater Studies from Boston University in 1992 and is the owner of three Theatre Tampa Bay awards for Best Director.

She was named Best Director 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2015 in the Creative Loafing Best of the Bay Awards as well as The Artist Most Likely to Have Been Born On the Planet Krypton.