Ned began his journey in the performing arts by working as a heavy laborer in a Pennsylvania open hearth (a hellish place with spectacular visuals) in order to pay for his tuition at the famous Carnegie-Mellon University. During his entire senior year at this prestigious university, he held first place in the theater department honor roll.

He quickly ventured to working experiences in Tokyo, New York, Athens, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Berlin, the New Age Community at Findhorn, Scotland and Austria.

In New York, Ned became an original member of the Actors Studio Directors Unit by the personal invitation of Elia Kazan. He studied there daily for six years, attending acting and directing sessions. At the same time, he studied in Lee Strasberg's private classes at Carnegie Hall.

Previously, he had studied with Stella Adler at the American Theatre Wing and also with Harold Clurman who employed him as a stage manager, enabling Ned to observe Clurman's praised art of directing. Ned considers Mr. Clurman's The Fervent Years as one of Method Acting's bibles along with Strasberg at The Actors Studio and Elia Kazan's A Life.

Cheryl Crawford, co-founder of the Actors Studio, expressed that Ned deserved a medal for the administrative work he did at the Actors Studio during its Golden Age when many stars were present at sessions. It was during this Golden Age that the Actors Studio Theatre was created and where many of the best American actors appeared in various productions.

For 10 years, New York was home for Ned, where he originated his directing and producing activities there, and in regional cities and abroad.

In his first year of relocating from New York to Los Angeles, Ned acted in a dozen TV episodes, explored film direction and finally realized that his true calling was to teach, thereby fulfilling a wish he had at the age of six.