Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Lynn Reiter.
Hi Kelly Lynn, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a small-town girl who fell in love with big dreams. From the time I was a toddler, I was obsessed with Lucille Ball, John Ritter, and the thrill of performing. With a young theatre background, singing professionally at the age of five, I charged briefly through modeling for my passion, acting. At age 14, I landed my first large movie role. I started college in biomedical engineering at UNC Chapel Hill at age 15 in order to follow my dreams to Los Angeles at 18. Since then, it’s been nothing but drive and dedication amidst a myriad of disappointments. My odd list of random talents and pure “gas pedal to the floor” mentality have kept me busy with close to 100 movies and TV shows on my resume. Acting is and has always been the goal and the reason.
Acting remains my career backbone, although I also write and produce. I love being in and creating worlds we can all explore through film and story. This industry lets me escape the confines of reality both imaginatively and realistically. I have been the hero, the demon, the one you root for, and the one you hate… all the while filming in faraway places including the royal palace of Serbia and WW2-modeled trenches in Thailand. I was electrocuted by an animatronic sloth, ripped in half by a great white shark on the beaches of Maui, blindfolded in the back of a tank in the Mojave desert, and forgotten in a warehouse after the rest of the cast and crew went home – I had full body prosthetics on, blackout contacts in, and had no idea where I was or what time it was. That last one was after wrap and was by far the most frightening!
People I admired on screen are now lifelong friends. I treasure my set memories. They save me during hard times. I stay busy with MMA training, singing, stunts, songwriting, instruments, standup comedy and improv. I relocated to South Bay and couldn’t be happier. Car shows, country music, smiles, and cowboy boots – what more could this Carolina girl want? Well, honestly, to act forever. I always joke with my friends that if I’m ever at the end, in a hospital bed or otherwise, I hope someone rolls a camera in since that’s the way I want to go out. The treasure that I value most about this job is that I will always be imprinted in history. No matter how far in the future we are, someone can find me digitized in film. I hope to show my children and grandchildren one day what I love to do. I have played the good girl, the bad girl, and even the alien girl, but no matter what, when I am on set, I am smiling, and when I’m not on set, I am figuring out the next time I can be. I can usually be found in fuzzy socks, a Will Ferrell shirt, and most definitively highly caffeinated.
Some of my favorite movies I have acted in are Deadlock (Bruce Willis, Patrick Muldoon), Without Consequence (TBA), Six Days in Evergreen (Dawn Olivieri, Johnny Whitworth), Maneater (Trace Adkins, Shane West), Hunting Games (Danny Trejo, Chris ‘C.T.’ Tamburello), 3 Days in Malay (Louis Mandylor, Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone), and Slotherhouse – oh, Slotherhouse – that took social media by storm this past year, and getting a national theatrical release, with an adorable killer sloth on the loose in a sorority house. You GOTTA love this industry. In what other world?!
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?
Nothing worth having comes without some struggle, and that was definitely the case. I first came to Los Angeles for a role – a very specific one. Sadly, after signing a lease, a very unsavory producer made it clear that my role was contingent on being with him…and I was angry, heartbroken, and scared. I refused and took my chances, knowing no one and having no connections. Nothing about that was fair or decent, and it set the tone for the next few years. I learned more in those years than any classroom could have ever taught me – both good and bad. There is a lot of grit in the glitter of Hollywood. Relationships of all types were also challenged. The lifestyle is not easy.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I do what I love to do! I get to step out of reality and into the magic. The actors I studied and emulated were very much high-energy comedic types and that is my first love. But, I am very skilled with emotional control and also fight skills which means I work a lot with drama, action, horror, and thriller-type films. I am set apart by my versatility as far as my skill set is concerned. The positive trait people reflect most on me is my openness to others. I spend my time with many varied kinds of people and have always just honed in on how they treat people as my one factor for who I wish to know better. It is easy to hide on a set as they always come with egos. From my hiding spots, I can see what kind of people are around me and embrace those who are truly decent. This is the way I have met some of the most fascinating and decent people in the world. I recall one particular set – I watched as a swarm of attractive young women aggressively flirted with the young director vying for his attention. I wandered off to the side, as I always do, and began speaking to the only other female not swooning. That woman became one of my closest friends. It took me days of watching this same scenario to realize the director was her fiance. We strive to survive in a very ugly industry. I am proud of myself for holding myself together and retaining core beliefs under very challenging and often infuriating circumstances.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Honestly, rather than give a quote or some attribute that indicates I have proven myself and want to share wisdom I would just like to share a very genuine thank you – for reading this. It is their time and interest that I seek as a performer. The competition is forever staggering, and it truly means the world to me when people seek out my work in any capacity.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellyreiter/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kelly.reiter.77/
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-reiter-a07abb30
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/kellyreiter
- SoundCloud: https://www.reverbnation.com/kellyreiter
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5703727/
