Mr. Helsinger  has directed the UCF Theatre productions of Zombietown, Ah, Wilderness!, You Can’t Take It With You, The Importance of Being Earnest, Lend Me a Tenor, Noises Off, and The Servant of Two Masters. He teaches “Theatre Careers” and “Acting Verse” for UCF and works with UCF’s MFA in Acting 3rd year students in their professional internships at Orlando Shakes.

He also serves as the Artistic Director of the Orlando Shakespeare Theater in partnership with UCF, where he has directed The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Hamlet, Titus Andronicus, Cymbeline, Tartuffe, Richard III, Crime and Punishment, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge, All’s Well that Ends Well, Every Christmas Story Ever Told, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and others. 

Other regional directing credits include: Actor’s Theatre of Louisville (The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged, A Tuna Christmas), Florida Studio Theatre (The Mystery of Irma Vep, Good Evening), Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival (The Foreigner, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Tempest, The Imaginary Invalid, Sleuth), Cape May Stage (Stones in His Pockets, The Big Bang, The Fourposter), Florida Repertory Theatre and Actor’s Playhouse (The 39 Steps), Flatrock Playhouse (The Hound of the Baskervilles), Colorado Shakespeare Festival (Much Ado about Nothing) and Prague Shakespeare Company (Dracula: The Journal of Jonathan Harker).

As an actor, he has performed Off-Broadway in The Death and Life of Sherlock Holmes, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Contrast; and regionally in the title roles of Cyrano de Bergerac, Hamlet, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, Dracula, and Henry V.  Television credits include From the Earth to the Moon; Sheena, Queen of the Jungle; Noah Knows Best; and Mortal Kombat. 

As a playwright, his adaptations include Robinson Crusoe; A Christmas Carol; Dracula: The Journal of Jonathan Harker; Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus; and The Trial of Joan the Maid.  

He is a member of Actor's Equity Association, Screen Actor’s Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists, National Theatre Conference, The National New Play Network, and is the Past President of the Shakespeare Theatre Association. He is a recipient of the Sydney Berger Award for outstanding talent and dedication to the works of William Shakespeare and the "50 Most Powerful People in Orlando" award from Orlando Magazine. He holds a BA from Miami University (Ohio) and an MFA from the Alabama Shakespeare Festival/University of Alabama Professional Actor Training Program.