Rising Stars: Meet Emily Maverick

Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Maverick.

Hi Emily, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was a really shy kid! A mini prankster. Performance scared me unless I was on a train with friends and could make up a fake identity and tell strangers I was from another country. As a kid, I got in trouble for talking to strangers (but somehow no one ever found out I was driving my parents’ car around the block in elementary school).

I was a really sensitive kid and loved to channel my imagination into music. I was a serious piano player. My teacher always asked me to perform at recitals. I’d get so, so nervous. Bach fugues slipping through my fingertips. Performance brought up a lot of perfectionism and shame. I always dreamt of breaking out of that. I started composing my own music when I was really little. One day, I asked my teacher if I could just perform my own songs at the recitals. He said sure. I found this liberating. I think that’s when I discovered that I just loved to perform from a place of openness. I could make mistakes and sometimes these mistakes led me to better discoveries that I could improv my way into. Allow things to change and not feel too constrained. I pretended my songs were like film scores and wrote really nostalgic-heavy songs with titles like “Longing.” I think my little girl creative expression earned me my college nickname of Emo.

Performing somehow got more and more scary as I grew up and became self-aware. I started avoiding it a lot (and even asked college teachers if I could skip the “intro day” because I didn’t want to speak about myself in front of a group). I became really self-conscious and full of social anxiety. Eventually, I started working at this ad agency and started practicing being normal and it wasn’t working too well. I was in a really closed-off space and wanted to cover myself up to fit in.

I eventually went down to LA to visit one of my best friends (I was living in Portland, OR at the time), and she took me to my first improv show! I never knew about improv, and when I saw it, I had this intense deja vu “I’m home now” feeling. My need to jump into it was so, so clear. Like I had always been searching for this world. So, when I got back to Portland, I decided I was going to start taking improv.

My first improv class was so scary. But at the same time, I had never felt happier. I started building a community, my social anxiety started melting away, and I started to actually do what I loved. I broke through so much fear. The more I performed, the more excited I became about performing and breaking through more comfort zones. I started doing sketch, and then moved into standup, and then began creating characters and studying acting, too, falling in love with the acting, filmmaking, and creative process.

I always knew I wanted to live in LA! About three years ago, I made the leap to come down here. It’s changed my life, and I feel like I’m living my dream. The journey has opened me up to endless artistic outlets, from acting to clown to putting together solo shows to building new communities. I love taking bold risks on stage and living life fully as an artist alongside so many beautiful, inspiring creators.

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?
I didn’t grow up as a theater kid or as someone who “took the stage.” The kind of trouble I got into as a kid probably made me a young underground performance artist, but I didn’t identify as a “performer” for years. I identified as a really sensitive, shy person and protected myself a lot.

Once I got into comedy and performing, I sometimes worried I had “gotten into it too late” and struggled to “take up space.”

I’ve fostered a lot more confidence and a ton of self-acceptance for who I am and what my path is.

Now, I love to lean into my sensitivity; it allows me to genuinely connect with the audience and really share, rather than trying to cover up who I am or what I’m feeling. I’m constantly reminded that the things I want to cover up are often the things that want to be freed the most. I’ve found ways to work with my shyness and shame; rebelling against what I fear saying and just letting it out is usually where I find the most treasure. Usually, what I’m most afraid to express is probably exactly what I’m supposed to express, and then gets alchemized into something I love to play with–and hopefully helps others feel more free, too. 

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m an actor, comedian, voiceover artist, and clown. I specialize in speaking gibberish. I started making up my own language when I was studying abroad and didn’t want anyone to think I was American. I use it all the time now and I think it’s my favorite thing to do. I create work that is deeply personal and also deeply absurd. I love to create characters that seem to exist in a sort of dream logic, ethereal world.

Last year, I had the desire to create an hour-long solo show. It felt like shadow work! So intense and yet so transformative. I decided to go to my first Fringe festival and performed at the Denver Fringe Festival last summer in 2023. It was a truly transcendent experience, and I met so many beautiful people. My show was all about life after death, and I really felt reborn and just so, so free. I was really proud to win the Audience Choice Award for Creative Storytelling at that festival.

I’m also so honored to be a part of the Los Angeles astrology-meets-clown performance art ensemble called Planets, Planets, Planets, along with the Fluxus performance art troupe Nonsemble and the powerful clown ensemble FLWLS! With these ensembles, we’ve performed at festivals at The Elysian Theater, have performed at the Hollywood Fringe, have entertained at art parties, and have made appearances at UCB. The community we’ve built is so beautiful and expansive!

I am in love with a variety show my friend Geri Courtney-Austein and I have created, the Twin Flames Show. It is not a cult. Or is it? But truly, we’ve created such a space of pure love and artistic experimentation, and each show just makes my heart so very happy. You can find us on IG @twinflameshow and I can’t wait to see where we take our ever-expanding vision!

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
For me, I always have to listen to my body and gut instincts. If something feels inauthentic or restricting, or if I feel I am bending myself too much to fit into a certain scene, I can feel it in my body. I want to feel expansive. Staying true to myself and taking big, creative risks feels like a big part of my process. I always try to create and perform from a space of kindness, generosity, openness, and judgment-free healing.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://emilymaverick.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emily_maverick/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emily.maverick.1/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/emily_maverick
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/emilyshankman
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/emily-maverick/emily-shankman-commercial-demo
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/twinflameshow/

Image Credits
Amy Brown Carver Luke Delloroso Jasper Lewis Daniel J. Sliwa