Today we’d like to introduce you to Katharina Magdalena.
Katharina, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born and raised in a ski resort near the city of Salzburg in Austria as the youngest of four children. I remember the moment the dream of becoming an actress was born. I was six years old and sitting on the old rustic wood living room floor watching TV. My mother was cooking in the kitchen next to me. A documentary came on TV about The Lee Strasberg Theater & Film Institute in New York and it gave an intimate look into a day in a life of an acting student studying there. I was captivated and announced right there and then: “Mama, I’m going to be an actress in Hollywood!” I ordered the brochure of the school and when I received the letter in the mail it was like magic. The envelope had several Marilyn Monroe stamps on it and I was enchanted. My parents were supportive of my dreams from the beginning and I immediately started to get involved in whatever artistic endeavors my small town offered.
There was nowhere to study acting in the area so I started with dance as a means for creative expression. I was barely fifteen when I got accepted to the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in Salzburg City, where I trained full-time professionally for three years before moving to London at seventeen. In London, I continued to dance at the London Contemporary School of Dance and started to get my feet wet with acting by taking acting classes at the City Lit near Covent Garden. I also took classes at The Method Studio near Holborn station which I do believe is now closed. I had an amazing teacher there who was also teaching at some of the major acting schools in London and she encouraged me to study at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles after a scene I did in class playing Nina in Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull’. So I moved to Los Angeles when I was nineteen to study at Stella Adler and my heart was forever captured. I was in my element. I was living my dream my calling.
Since graduating I have continuously been working on my craft by taking on-going classes at Playhouse West NOHO, private coaching and performing in plays like The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, The Lover by Harold Pinter, King Lear by William Shakespeare and most recently the original play Devil’s Salt by John Stark at the Odyssey Theater. I have acted in feature films, short films, web series, music videos and for the past eight years have dedicated my life to produce a feature film called THE COLOR OF FLESH written by Joel Gross in which I will be portraying Queen Marie Antoinette. I am so proud of the team that has joined me on this journey. The film will be directed by Oscar nominated Austrian director Virgil Widrich and produced amongst other amazing professionals by Barrie M. Osborne (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy). Principal photography is scheduled to begin in February 2020.
Has it been a smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road. I would compare it more to a tunnel that appeared to have no end, but I never stopped believing that there would be light at the end of the tunnel and that I would get there. I had blind faith. With THE COLOR OF FLESH I knew I had found what I was meant to do. I never gave up, I kept going day after day. And every morning for eight years now I woke up excited to work on it. To make it happen. I always had the attitude of ‘well if this needs to get done in order to get to the next stage I will have to find a way to make that happen’. And so it was step by step. My love for this project has no bounds.
What else should our readers know?
I am an actress and producer.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I think Los Angeles is the best place to be as an actor or producer. It has a tremendous amount of opportunity and I have always loved being surrounded by creatives and dreamers. By passion and drive. By the bonding that happens when working together on a project. I do feel it is a city that has it all, but you need to be proactive in order to tap into that immense pool of opportunity. You need to make it happen yourself. And Los Angeles provides the means to do that.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katimagdalena/
Image Credit:
Jim Freivogel, Bazille, Lisa Hetzmannseder and Dana Patrick
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