Today we’d like to introduce you to Kayla Rosenberg.
Hi Kayla, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up Jewish and bisexual in Tennessee, going to an all-girls Christian school. I spent twelve years there, never feeling like I belonged, and with very few people trying to change that. That unique combination was not appreciated in the South and according to the school, which has since changed their stance on LGBTQIA+ issues, lesbians and gay people had something wrong with them and didn’t exist there. The one place I felt I could be free was in the theater. Ever since I could talk, I always wanted to write and perform comedy. I used to gather my family around the fireplace and perform sketches and parody Barbie commercials for them, refusing to let anyone leave until I took a bow. After high school, I got into Columbia College Chicago and made a break for it. I wanted to perform at Second City in Chicago because all of my heroes made their way through the program and put most of my energy into performing improv. I started making sketches with the funniest group of people I’d ever met (who eventually went on to create the Shithole, a premiere alt comedy venue in the city) and they encouraged me to try stand up. At 20, I snuck into a bar with the help of Sonia Denis, an immense talent who is now writing on several incredible TV shows, and did my first set. I immediately fell in love with it and felt like I could conquer the world with that microphone. For my last semester of college, I got into a writing program that transplanted me to Los Angeles, where I continued to perform and got my first PA gig on a Tim and Eric Steve Brule pilot special. It was my first experience with real production work and I was definitely overeager.
Eventually, I was hired as a writer’s assistant on an animated sketch comedy series at ShadowMachine Animation. This was my first time working in the medium and felt instantly at home. It was as if everything I had ever been passionate about and trained for came together as one in the art of animation. During the show, they needed scratch audio for storyboarding and my boss, the showrunner, said “you’ve been doing silly voices around the office. Why don’t you jump in the booth?” I was happy to do it, knowing that they would eventually be replaced by “real actors.” I recorded three episodes, doing twenty+ character voices. The studio heads heard the scratch while reviewing the boards and asked how many people they got to do the voices. The showrunner corrected them and said, “not people- person. It’s Kayla.” Instead of replacing my voice, they asked me to do the rest of the series. It was the most fun I’d ever had. After that, I was picked up by an agency and have been writing, pitching, and doing voice-over work ever since.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It was not exactly a smooth road. I was not the ideal student. In fact, I went out of my way to make the lives of my teachers more difficult. I would often steal the mascot costume and wear it around, I would dress up as a nun and show up to school. I had a full-on showdown with one teacher who refused to let me wear a hat in class. I showed up one day in my usual terrible newspaper boy hat, which she loathed. She asked me to take it off, which I expected, and when I took it off, I had a kippah underneath, which she did not expect. This obviously threw her for a loop, being that it was a Christian school, but made my classmates laugh, which is all I ever wanted to do. I got detention, obviously. I spent a LOT of time in detention, but I didn’t mind paying the price for my antics. When I got to Los Angeles, I thought I’d have an easy time breaking in, but it became clear after working with a bigger name comedian that it wouldn’t be. He paid me for some writing and I thought I was on top of the world until he basically told me that I had to date him or never work with him again. That was when I had to start doing lower-level production work.
I’m not exactly a graceful person. On one set, I accidentally fell through a glass table and because there were GoPros set up throughout the studio, it was caught on camera, pulled from the server, and immediately passed around to everyone on the crew. At the time, it was the most embarrassing thing that I’d ever experienced. Now it’s one of my favorite videos of all time. After doing stand-up out in LA for a while, I was assaulted by a comic that was very well-liked in the community. Because this was before the #metoo movement, I had no support and everyone took the side of the person who harmed me. It’s made doing the thing I loved the most, stand up comedy, incredibly painful, as I was afraid I’d see him out in the world. I felt like the light had been stolen from my soul. At one point in time, I tried to end my life but luckily was unsuccessful. This was several years ago. I’m putting myself back out there slowly. The healing process is strange. It’s full of peaks and valleys, with memories often coming back to punch you in the gut, but I am finding renewed strength every day. I’d like to believe there will be a day where I no longer think about it. I don’t know how realistic that is, but I’m hopeful.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The works I’m most proud of are my writing and voice over work. I’m known for having a wide range in tone for both actually. My writing tends to be a combination of incredibly dark and incredibly silly. Before I had representation, I was able to get meetings with studios just based on my scripts being good, which is still insane to me. They took a chance on me because I made them laugh without even being in the room, which I’ll always find magical. I’m also so proud of my voice work. Voice over was never a field I even imagined myself working in and it all happened by chance. I’m so inspired by the voice actors from my childhood, Pam Adlon, Laraine Newman, Rob Paulsen, Mona Marshall and hope to one day join their ranks of “voices you should know.”
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
When I was first starting out, I wish I knew how much material you need to have in your back pocket. Even if your script is terrible, you should still be writing it. It doesn’t matter if no one will ever see it; WRITE IT! Having a lot of scripts in your arsenal and continuing to write is the key to honing your voice. Also, no one can write like you do. Even if the idea has been done or it’s a well-known trope, you bring your personal life experience to the piece. Even if you don’t feel like writing, do it anyway. Writer’s block only gets worse if you refuse to practice writing, so get back to it even if it’s complete garbage on the page. And don’t worry about who would buy it, especially when you’re starting out. When it comes to voice over, again, practice practice practice. Play with your vocal placement to create new characters, build their backstories and play with them in your day to day life. Also, doing voice acting is fun, so have some FUN!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kaylarosenberg.com
- Instagram: @kaylabrosenberg
