Born and raised in small-town Garden City, KS I always dreamed of making a name for myself. I am the youngest of four, so naturally I was most likely to become an artist. I was exposed to film early in my development. Both of my parents worked three jobs each, so me and my siblings didn’t see them that often.
Every Sunday, though, we would all sit down and watch a new movie. From the time I was a toddler, to the time I left the house for college, Sundays were for movies and football.
I moved to Punta Gorda, Florida when I was 11 years old and lived there until I was 18, when I left for college.
My introduction to the arts was slightly different from others. I didn’t do theater until I was a Junior in high school. I was a lifetime athlete, wrestling and football, and I was destined to go to college for one of the two. Things took a turn my junior year when I got 4 concussions diagnosed in the span of 5 months between my football and wrestling seasons. I couldn’t play sports anymore. No more burpees. No more pads. No more all-weekend tournaments.
I was devastated.
But, with the encouragement of my parents, siblings, and close friends, I tried out for the spring musical and landed the role of Prince Charming in “Into the Woods”, and the passion I had once felt for sports reshaped into a love for the arts. I proceeded to get lead roles in every play and musical during my senior year and applied to musical theatre departments all over the country, finally choosing the University of Colorado-Boulder as a place where I would take the next step in my journey as an artist and human being.
Alongside my sister, I was the only person on both sides of my family to go to college, and I was going for the arts, first-generation college student.
I transitioned to the Acting side of things quickly when I realized where my passions were. I auditioned for the Acting BFA and got in, and my journey through the arts was just beginning.
When COVID hit, I was a second-semester freshman. So, the majority of my experiences were over ZOOM and masked up on stages, that is what sparked my interest in film. I took an acting for the camera class and got to access the cage of the film department and be in and around short films. I loved it. My Senior Project was a 4-minute horror short based on an 18th century horror play called “Intruder” by Maurice Maeterlinck.
This was around the time I started booking more professional stage contracts that provided difficult roles that forced my growth as an actor and a human being. From performing 10 characters in an original play about a woman’s journey watching her husband fight (and fighting herself) through the effects of COVID-19 to playing a 20th-Century Know-It-All scholar who is “Above Love” in Chekhov’s masterpiece The Cherry Orchard. This variety of characters helped me with breaking into the professional barrier.
After 2 years of working on stage and BTS (carpentry, crew, etc.) I moved to Chicago, IL to start the next chapter. That is where I found a passion for teaching the arts. I became an acting coach at Model Act Studios and now have 10 classes I teach while working around the city as an actor, as event crew, and as a freelance filmmaker.