Our Local Guides

Welcome to the Guides of Beyond Times Square

We would like to introduce you to the guides that will be sharing their New York City knowledge with you as you set out on your adventure. Collectively there are hundreds of years of New York City expertise and stories coming from the guides of Beyond Times Square. All of our guides are professional, experts, and licensed by the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs. Many of them are actors, writers, former teachers, and professionals, but all will keep you entertained throughout your entire program. As proud as our guides are of the city they live in and talk about, we are proud to have them share their experiences with you!

Jared G.

Jared enthusiastically and passionately showcases New York City’s history, architectural, artistic, literary, ecological, social history, and sharing dramatic stories told with high-energy, intensity, dry humor, and intelligence. He enjoys the testimonials and photographs from repeat guests, both local and from the other end of the globe. He approaches guiding with dedication to customer service, friendliness, and a desire for clients to get the most from their tours. Jared’s tour-style is interactive and appropriate for children and the elderly, including people with special physical needs. To liven things up, he includes NYC references from pop-culture. Jared pursues NYC research to improve his tours and is working on two books about New York City. He is a proud New Yorker, showing off New York City for twenty four years, professionally licensed with a ‘Star’ score on the 150-question NYC Consumer Affairs Department exam since 2005. He has served as Vice President of the Guides Association of NYC, and revived its publication as Editor. Jared was educated at Columbia University’s College (BA) and its Graduate School of Business (MBA).

Matthew C.

Giving a good tour is not simply a matter of expounding a great deal of facts and figures or pointing out interesting buildings and celebrity’s homes. It is the art of telling the city’s stories in an engaging, compelling and moving way. Matthew is a master of this art; he tells true and fascinating stories of New York’s past and more recent history in a way that makes the brick and mortar whisper of those who walked these streets. He’ll tell stories and point out sites connected to some of the many popular movies and television shows shot here. For young people Matthew has a wealth of information about Superhero movies filmed in New York. He can also discuss NYC’s architecture, take you to where you can see some of the most brilliant street art, and tell you about New York’s importance in Rock & Roll! Matthew is a native New Yorker, with antecedents going back to the original Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam, and a graduate of the City College of New York, where he won the Ward Medal in History. His previous occupations have ranged from taxi driver to corporate headhunter, but since becoming a tour guide, Matthew feels that he has found his calling!

Albert J.

Albert is a Broadway/TV/Film actor and teacher in New York City, a great combination of skills to provide the best tour guide experience for your visit to New York, where he has lived for over 20 years. Albert has traveled the world, living in Europe and Asia and teaching communication before adding tour guide to his resume. It is that experience that allows him to share educational and fun information about New York City. It also allows Albert to connect with people of all ages and backgrounds, ensuring a most memorable trip. He looks forward to show you NYC soon!

Annie D.

Anne has spent many years in advertising sales and believes in the old adage, “know your client.” With this in mind, her tours are specialized to the likes and desires of her clientele. She believes that time spent with her should be an engaging, informative, and entertaining experience that you will never forget. Anne moved into Manhattan 18 years ago, when her last child left the nest, and began her love affair with this amazing city. She spent several years in Real Estate sales learning every nook and cranny of Manhattan. Then she started acting, another passion, and while working on a movie set she was speaking to another actor who mentioned she was a tour guide. It was then that Anne decided to get her license and take her passion for New York and love of people and combine them into a career in tour guiding. Annie is also a jazz/cabaret singer and performs in various venues about the city. Come join her as she shares her countless colorful stories of this fascinating city and use all the crayons in her box to paint the glorious landscape that is New York City!

Becky H.

In 1997, Becky trained with ITMI (International Tour Management Institute) and has been an active tour guide since her graduation. In 2000, she became a licensed certified NYC tour guide. In addition to directing student and adult tours in the spring, she spent more than eight summers doing six seventeen-day tours in our National Parks. Recently, she’s been spending most of her time working and living in Manhattan.

Before beginning her career as a tour guide, Becky worked simultaneously in several different careers. In New York City, she was an English teacher and mother. After relocating to Atlanta for two decades, she became an associate professor at Georgia State University, played professional drums with her own band at several venues around Atlanta, and became a local NBC television health and medical reporter. These three careers were ongoing during her children’s growth years. In the early 1990’s, with her children away at college, Becky returned to Manhattan and began her solo adventures, traveling in Southeast Asia for more than six months. She’s been globe-trotting ever since and has developed a passion for travel.

Evgeniya S.

Evgeniya is a native Russian who discovered a passion for tourism and love of history very early in her life. With a bachelor’s degree in English and a graduate degree in Hospitality and Tourism Infrastructure, Evgeniya had been working as a travel agent for several years before changing careers to the tour guiding industry in 2012. She had travelled to 12 countries and visited over 50 cities before moving to New York – the city she considers the best city on Earth. Evgeniya spends her free time discovering new places in the city, practicing photography, and producing short videos. She also enjoys playing piano and occasionally modeling for Manhattan clothing stores during Fashion Week. Her love of New York’s spirit, art, culture, and architecture translates into excellent tours that bring clients back for more. Her favorite way of conducting a tour is to let the day happen naturally, to make people fall in love with the city, make them feel its pulse and energy, and see different sides of its neighborhoods and landmarks. She always finds ways to let her guests be real New Yorkers for a day or two.

Katia H.

Katia is a native New Yorker, with a passion for the city and a highly developed sense of humor and performance ability, who delights in audience enjoyment. Training in theatre, speech, and voice production makes her a smooth and polished lecturer. She keeps current with art and architecture trends, attends exhibits regularly, sees a lot of theatre and, as good and serious foodies do, dines out frequently and hunts for the next great restaurant. Katia’s tours are sophisticated and contextual, examining all aspects of New York as to make the daily life and rhythms of the city comprehensible. She is well experienced with up market and corporate clients and has helped manage large scale events. Katia’s greatest pleasure is travel; it’s been the basis of her education and continues to be a defining pursuit. She visits Europe annually, periodically makes trips to India, and looks for new destinations to make her life richer.

Matthew B.

Longtime New Yorker Matthew has been guiding tours for 11 years and has served three terms on the board of the Guides Association of New York City (including the 2014-2015 presidency). Before discovering the wonderful world of tourism, Matt worked in many of the performing arts, earning an income in the theatre, movies, music, and even magic. He has also held jobs in such varied and famous establishments as Saks Fifth Avenue, the New York Public Library, and FAO Schwarz. While he tours by bus, boat, subway, and pretty much every other conveyance, his favorite way to tour is on foot, “For only by walking the famed and fabled sidewalks of New York do you become, for however brief a time, a New Yorker. And there is no substitute in all the world for that.”

Renee K.

Renee was born and raised in Uruguay, of German parents.   She fell in love with New York the very first time she visited, during a school year trip.   As soon as she could she came to live here.  Renee worked at UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund) for several years, during which time, whenever she could, she helped friends and colleagues who moved to New York to settle in the city and show them the sights.

Renee has been guiding tours of New York City for the last 20 years, making tourists fall in love with New York just like she did the first time.

Kelly F.

Raised in Kitchener-Waterloo Kelly has been in the tourism industry since high-school where she worked during her senior year learning the ropes in a travel agency. She went on and graduated from college with a diploma in Travel and Tourism and has been guiding groups since 1988. She has been a licensed guide for Niagara Falls since 2011. She actively volunteers with Oktoberfest and other regional events. When not at work or volunteering, you will find her travelling for her own enjoyment or entertaining friends and family. As your tour guide you can ensure that her expertise in hospitality, organization and communication along with a sense of spontaneity will have your travelers returning with many fond memories. For her, travel is one of the greatest educations the world can offer and in her own words “I treat every trip as a ‘job review’ knowing that travel is so precious and we may not get a second chance”.

Gabe S.

Gabe was studying abroad in Argentina in 2009 and he quickly realized that a street art tour was the best way to learn about a city. So when he moved back to NYC, he quickly adopted the idea and created the first graffiti and street art tour here in NYC, in the five boroughs, combining his experience in tourism (his family business) with his passion for street art. He lives in Queens, NY, working to promote the beautification of the city by setting up commissions, producing and curating graffiti events, and leading tours.

Karen E.

As a native of Philadelphia, Karen has seen how the old mixes with the new. She enjoys showing visitors this Historic city and telling the stories of how this city was founded, developed, and is now called the “World Heritage City”. Being a member of the Association of Tour Guides gives her access to great seminars taught by some of the city’s best historians. With 20 years in the Hospitality Industry and 6 years as a certified tour guide, she can give each visitor all the information they need to make their visit to Philadelphia a great experience!