Check Out Katie C’etta’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie C’etta.

Hi Katie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in a small town outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Penn State with a degree in Sociology and a handful of minors, I had noncommittal plans to pursue a law degree, but I genuinely didn’t know what I wanted to do. While at Penn State, I did study film for a whole year and spent a summer traveling around Ireland studying art and literature, but ultimately decided against a career in the arts in favor of something more stable. I couldn’t bring myself to sign up for the daunting law school loans, so I got a job answering telephones at a medical equipment company. The woman next to me was in a relationship with a guy who was an actor. I was so intrigued. I asked them a lot of questions and they pointed me in the direction of Pittsburgh’s local talent agency. I went to the open call at Docherty Talent and read for the agency’s owner Deb Docherty. She signed me that week as both a model and an actress. That was the beginning of everything. After working my first few jobs, I was totally committed. I signed up for acting classes at the local acting studio. I studied under professors from the theater department at Carnegie Mellon and under all of the working actors in the area.

After booking roles in a handful of short films and a few independent feature films, namely THE WAY THAT I AM dir. Kaleigh Fitzgerald, I broke into the world of producing as well. My organizational skills, resourcefulness and drive just to make the thing HAPPEN came into good use. I love producing just as much as acting. Producing has given me a whole world of insight into everything that it takes to make a film and that feeds back into how I work when I’m only acting in a production. I can understand so much more around why certain choices are made. After a few years in Pittsburgh, I moved to Los Angeles in search of more opportunities. When I first moved here, I had a hard time finding the sense of community reminiscent of the one I had in Pittsburgh and I was struggling financially. I wouldn’t have made it through that first year without the support of my Aunt and Uncle. It was really difficult. I got a call from a friend who was working in art department at the time asking me if I wanted to do costumes on this short film, DISFLUENCY by Anna Baumgarten. I had limited costuming experience from a previous feature film and I didn’t really know what I was doing but had a loose idea. I asked for the script and after reading it, I took a risk and said yes to the job. I thought the script was amazing and wanted to meet and network with indie filmmakers in LA. I worked really hard on that film and walked away with friends and connections to people I really respect and admire.

Anna ended up hiring me to act in her next short film, LINE DRY (https://filmshortage.com/shorts/line-dry/). DISFLUENCY is now being made into a feature film and Anna brought me on to co-produce it with her. You will be able to see it on the festival market in 2021. I ended up producing my own short and hired a lot of the people I met on that first Disfluency set who introduced me to even more amazing people that I work with all the time. All three of these projects are some of the work that I am most proud of. After the quarantine started in March of 2020, a lot of things came to an abrupt halt. To stay creative, me and my quarantine mates, Julian Terry and Alexander Anderson, who are both really incredible filmmakers, made a quarantine short using only what we had available to us in the apartment. It’s called DON’T PEEK and we released it on YouTube (https://youtu.be/S51jIrunYuY) and we are almost at 200k views at the time I’m writing this. I got a call from a friend of mine from Penn State who studied with me in Ireland. She told me she started this art and film festival in Leesburg, Virginia and wanted my help. It was quarantine and I was all about this idea.

We started a drive-in film festival in the middle of a pandemic. The Loudoun Arts Film Festival. Insane. We threw a beautiful and safe first-year event at the gorgeous 50 West Vineyards in September 2020. I am so proud of this endeavor. We set out to create a platform for artists, filmmakers, and musicians to showcase their art in a time where all of those things seemed impossible and ended up receiving a commendation from the state of Virginia for our contribution to the arts. We are in the beginning stages of opening up submission for 2021. (https://filmfreeway.com/LoudounFilmFest) Right now, 2021 is looking really busy with the release of DON’T PEEK by Julian Terry and both features THE WAY THAT I AM by Kaleigh Fitzgerald and DISFLUENCY by Anna Baumgarten hitting the festival circuit. I’m signed on to produce another independent feature that is currently in development and am currently writing my own independent feature as well.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think the biggest obstacle was pushing through those first few years after the big move to Los Angeles. Those were some really hard years. I don’t think that I even gave myself space to grieve my old life and just expected the city to open up to me immediately. I took any opportunity I could and fell victim to a couple of scams. In the end though, all of those things help build me up into who I am now.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am mainly known for my work as an actress and producer. I also run a film festival. I see myself working in independent film in these capacities in some form or another for the rest of my life. I highlighted so much of my work in my story. 🙂

What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The most important lesson I learned is that being open to opportunity and valuing your relationships are key. Earlier on, opportunities came to me in forms that didn’t exactly reflect my end goals but they did provide me with an opportunity to create authentic relationships with other creatives. It is priceless.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.katiecetta.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/katiecetta
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/katie.cetta

Image Credits:
Julian Terry, Juan A Espino