My mission is to create work that inspires empathy, connection, and communicates the theme, “You are enough,” all through pee-your-pants laughter.
TLDR: Don’t read it then! You win. I know we live in a low attention economy. And that’s not your fault. It’s the system! It’s capitalism! Be free, wild flower. Or you know what, fight the power and print this page OUT. Go full analog. Move off the grid. Walden that shit. Highlight every sweet bit of text and savor every sweet juicy word. Untether yourself from society’s expectations. I’m proud of you.
The long version: I started out my acting career playing an ethereal child named “Esther” in my small-town Massachusetts hippie high school’s play adaptation of Witness by Karen Hesse, a play about racism. From there I knew two things: 1) I was passionate about social justice and performance and 2) I was destined to play the “weirdly profound” girl and I loved it. (Think Luna Lovegood, Pushing Daisies’ Charlotte, and Phoebe from Friends). I discovered a surprising delivery and a dry wit, and the delightfulness of surprising an audience. PYOT as I like to say – Put Yourself Out There! I never thought I stood out, but in that moment, it felt like being me and feeling my feelings was what brought the character to life and what others’ connected with. I quickly came to learn that I never felt so alive as when I shared my experience through theater.
I quickly applied to and attended Brown University’s TheatreBridge program, a summer program that gave me the encouragement and belief that I could act professionally. Senior year, I continued my “weirdly profound” girl streak and played Betty Paris in The Crucible and split time between my love of theater and my love of activism, as the president of my school’s anti-genocide chapter.
I went to Skidmore College and had the privilege of straddling two worlds–acting and social work. I discovered a passion for Shakespeare, training with the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, as well as Suzuki/Viewpoints and devising work. In an attempt to avoid taking a test for my social work class, I opted instead to do a project where I collected undocumented stories of bias and racism that occurred on campus and published it in a zine. This ended up being way more work than studying for a test, but I didn’t care, because we then adapted into a piece of political theater. It was a privilege to enlighten the community to these important and painful stories so that we might do better.
I studied abroad at The Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin and the Summer Conservatory at The Atlantic Acting School in New York. I grew immensely in my ability to play the “quirky weird girl” (Rose in Dancing at Lughnasa anyone?). Just kidding, by now I’d expanded my repertoire a bit and played a variety of characters, ranging from the Matt Damon in Matt & Ben to Shakespeare’s Rosalind in As You Like it. I continued to build on my authenticity as an actor, creating my own work, and physically fighting off my acting teacher who bit me to make a point (I get it, there’s a difference between acting like you’re stealing a quarter from my palm and actively fighting to get the quarter out of my palm).
I got my B.S. degrees in Theater and Social Work, and excitedly packed my bags and moved to Portland, Oregon, where I began an acting apprenticeship with The Portland Playhouse. I gained some invaluable skills, including directing youth in the Shakespeare Program, acting in a professional theater house, writing and performing my own solo show, and started going to therapy! TMI? This relates, I swear!
I went on to act in various professional theaters in Portland, including Oregon Children’s Theater, The Milagro, and Triangle! Productions. I loved it so much and was also struggling with anxiety. My therapist helped A LOT and I decided, heck, I have a social work degree, why not grab a masters degree while I’m at it, and I can be a therapist in the morning, and an actor in the evening? So I did just that! While I was focusing on school, I fell in LOVE with improv and stand up comedy. IN. LOVE. I tell ya.
I studied improv with Deep End Theater and Kickstand Comedy and started my own monthly comedy show, Totally Normal, a variety show where we destigmatized shameful topics and I got to show case my improv, sketch, and stand up skills. Not to brag, but we sold out! Not to mention I signed with my talent agent, Ryan Artists, and I was fortunate to be cast as a co-star in Trinkets (Netflix) and Shrill (Hulu). I fell in love with TV shows featuring strong female voices like PEN15 and Broad City. I developed my own mental health therapy practice and felt great about my art/activism balance. Basically, I was living my best life.
As a full-blown Portlander at this point, a friend invited me to a Full Moon Circle (because of course) and I did some reflecting. I realized a secret dream of mine was to become a (gasp!) filmmaker. I said, let’s do something scary. I took a screenwriting course with Charity Miller and wrote and re-wrote and then got a bunch of incredible writer’s together for a writer’s room and we wrote a whole season, adapting my comedy show to a web series.
In 2022, I opened my own telehealth therapy private practice (check that out here) and decided it was time to move to L.A. to pursue bigger, badder, and badassery-er acting opportunities. I use my experience as a mental health therapist to fuel my passion for telling stories with humility, empathy, and compassion. I love telling stories about feminism, human rights, and smashing capitalism and am excited to explore these themes as I produce Totally Normal the web series.
