Meet Katy Foley of KatNip Productions in Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Katy Foley.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Katy. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up on the south side of Chicago. My school was far away and I didn’t have a lot of friends in the neighborhood, so I spent my childhood watching movies. When I was old enough, my parents got me a camcorder and I began making my own movies. Namely, we remade Scream (with a cast of 12-year-olds), Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, and our original film Christmas Massacre (featuring a bunch of my sized Barbies falling down stairs). My friends would always say “Katy, you always wanna make movies and we want to just play office.”

In high school, I began performing in student plays and studying comedy at Second City, Chicago. Second City was everything to me. I lived for Saturday’s at 4:00 pm, going to class, then seeing shows afterwards. I hated high school and Second city got me through. It was there that I fell in love with comedy.

I tried to go to Los Angeles for college but wasn’t accepted to any of the schools I wanted, so I went to NYU instead (first world problems, I know). Living in New York taught me how to be an adult. And I’m so thankful to have been surrounded by such a talented class.

I moved to LA with the help of my cousin Kristi. I spent my first few years working on almost anything I could get my hands on and that I believed in. I’m thankful for that period of my life because I gained so much footage and experience for future jobs.

I got into a car accident in 2014 that really should have taken my life three times. It taught me the value in spending your time carefully with everything you do. From there on out, I became more selective with my project choices.

I also learned the value of accepting every job that comes to you as chance and circumstance. My two biggest bookings in Los Angeles were from my experience as a runner and a faulty water bottle. In 2014, I ran the LA Marathon and went in for a random audition that turned out to be the Run Like a Girl Commercial (Emmy winning campaign that was featured in Superbowl XLIX). In 2015, I went in for an audition for Criminal Minds Beyond Borders. In the audition, I was given a water bottle for my scene that wouldn’t open. I stayed in the scene for probably the most awkward minute of my life and got it open which gave me my first network TV credit. These experiences taught me it’s all up to chance so keep making what you love in the interim.

After the many years, I’ve spent working on other projects, it has become very clear to me. I just want to make people laugh. I now strive to create projects to achieve that every day.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I spent the first couple months in LA trying to find a job (still true to this day) and building up my reel materials before getting my first manager. My first few years in LA were spent working on indie horror, drama, commercials and print work. I really missed comedy though. I didn’t get a lot of opportunities to even audition for comedies.

A year later, I was cast in a web series called “Homeschooled” which was directed and produced by Matthew Morgenthaler. It’s about a kid who was kicked out of high school only to find all the worst high school archetypes are actually in his home. It’s still on YouTube. Working on this series affirmed (to myself) that comedy needs to be my focus.

This job opened up more opportunities in comedy but still not enough. Furthermore, a majority of the time when I did get a comedy auditions the writing wasn’t funny. I realized I needed to make my own work. I started producing more comedy and getting writers to help me generate the content. But again, it wasn’t coming out quite the way I wanted it to. I got to work on a rap video with a bunch of celebrities I idolized and after all the work was said and done it didn’t come out as I had hoped. It did help me get a meeting with a top manager and when he asked what did I have coming down the pipeline I was like *crickets*. My non-response helped me realize I need to generate more content and not rely on others to do it for me. I had to teach myself how to write. I was the only one telling myself I wasn’t a writer. The ideas were all there in my head, just needed to put them down on paper. Once I began writing everything changed.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with KatNip Productions – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
My company is a female run and produces comedy projects. Currently, we’re focusing on producing immersive comedy like Tony N’ Tina’s Wedding. We began with Paulie’s Polymer’s Office Christmas Party. It was an interactive show where audience members became the San Diego Branch of a plastic bag company. They were invited to the Los Angeles branch office Christmas party. Once inside the party, they got to mingle with all of the different workers and decide by the end of the night who was getting fired.

This June, we’re producing Best. Night. Ever. For the Hollywood Fringe Festival. It’s an immersive Bachelor and Bachelorette party. Audiences get to choose which party they want to join and their mission is to help the Bachelor or the Bachelorette have the best night ever on their last night of freedom. The whole show takes place in a limo driving around Hollywood.

A lot of immersive pieces have a tendency to be dark and dramatic. And that’s where I got my start. I began my journey working for Adam Bravin (She Wants Revenge) and Michael Patterson (sound mixer to Social Network) at their club Cloak and Dagger. I was replacing a friend my first night and I didn’t know what immersive theater was. I’ve now been performing at C&D for three years and it’s opened up other opportunities for me like working with Darren Lynn Bousman (Director of Saw II, III, IV) on Theatre Macabre.

My company has taken inspiration from these immersive experiences and married it with sketch comedy. I truly believe this is the future of theater. And I’m proud of us for continuing to put out fun shows. Shows that leave people feeling good. Who doesn’t want to live in a sitcom for an hour? That’s what we strive to give people.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
My plans for the future are to refocus my sights on my film projects. I have a couple of features and pilots sitting on the shelf that I want to get made. A lot of projects in this town are a hurry up and wait process. I’ve had scripts get optioned, get very close to being awarded but it’s hard to keep the development going when you don’t have the money. I’ve scaled back to projects I can self-fund. But I’m ready to do everything in my power to get my scripts made now.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.katyfoley.com
• Email: katharinefoley@gmail.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/ktdidwhatnow
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/katyfoley
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/ktdidwhatnow

Image Credit:
Jeff Laub Photography, Getty Images: photographer Rodrigo Vaz

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