Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Self.
Hi Katie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, so I’ve always been surrounded by film and television. The Oscars was my favorite day of the year! My first “acting” job was when I was in high school – my school put on a gala, and one of the silent auction items was the opportunity to be a background actor on the George Lopez Show. My mom won it for me, so I got to spend the day on set with George Lopez and Eva Longoria! After this career defining turn as “wedding guest #8,” I was officially bit by the bug. I went to college for acting and have been wedding guests, pedestrians, and woman-with-car ever since.
But seriously, I’m so grateful for the random opportunity I got in high school because it taught me so much about the television industry before it became my career as an adult. I was a background actor for many years, but more recently graduated to costars on tv shows like The Flight Attendant, Good Trouble, and The L Word: Generation Q. I’ve also had a pretty fun career in commercials, both on camera and voice over. Aside from being in front of the camera, I love doing musical theatre and will find any chance to sing. You can usually find me around LA singing in cabarets or doing readings for new musicals written by my amazing friends. As a lifelong Disney fan, I got to live my absolute dream and sing at Tokyo Disney Sea. I am currently still living my absolute Disney dream and performing in multiple shows around Disneyland.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Oh man, I begged my parents to let me be a child actor, but they (rightfully) refused. Growing up in LA, I knew I wanted to be in this industry from a very young age, and there is a part of me that wishes I could have gotten a leg up when I was young. I can’t help but feel like I’m a couple steps behind where I want to be (although, don’t we all feel that way?) I find that I struggle so much with not knowing what path to take to reach my many dreams. I love doing film, tv, voice over, and musical theatre, so I find myself not focusing solely on any one thing. I’m constantly bouncing around – one day, my focus is on tv. The next day, all I want to do is musical theatre. The next day, I just want to work on voice over. Having so many different things that I love and want to do makes it hard for me to truly excel at any one of those things.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My favorite show I got to be part of was the Unauthorized Musical Parody of 10 Things I Hate About you at Rockwell Table and Stage. What a mouthful…
I played Cameron (originally played by Joseph Gordon Levitt in the movie), who was now a lesbian pining after Bianca. The music was all the best songs from 1999, the year the movie came out, which meant I got to belt out Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls after Bianca kissed me for the first time. It was such an excellent show with the most excellent cast. I loved being part of this show in particular because we were allowed so much freedom with improv and audience interaction. I have been doing improv for 15 years, so I definitely feel like these kinds of interactive shows really play to my strengths. And we just got to have so much fun!
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Sometimes acting feels like nothing but luck. It’s so easy to feel like luck isn’t on my side, especially considering how many auditions yield absolutely nothing. But I also like to remember how insanely lucky I am to have parents who have always supported this path, a partner who is also in the industry and can help me with auditions at a moment’s notice, a quiet space to record auditions, and how lucky I am to have booked what I have!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.katieself.com
- Instagram: @katieselfdestruct
Image Credits
Bryan Carpenter (credit for photo of me singing in a suit jacket with my eyes closed and black background)
