Check Out Carrington Walsh’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Carrington Walsh.

Carrington, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Although I’m a born and raised Angeleno, I have lived around the globe––from Paris to Toronto. In each city, I collect and deposit pieces of myself.

I celebrated my 19th birthday in Toronto as an intern for the now-defunct Canadian Women’s Hockey League. This opportunity felt like a homecoming––a chance to connect with my Canadian heritage. As a Black girl from SoCal, ice hockey and I seemed like an unlikely pair. But as someone who has never fully fit feminine stereotypes, I felt so comfortable on the ice amongst girls who matched my height and stature, eagerly checking each other into the boards.

In Cambridge, I became an institutional creature, one that revered Harvard’s nearly 400-year history. I reveled in tradition and gravitated toward opportunities to foster community. From impromptu meetings with the Dean of the College to serving on nearly every planning committee possible, I learned how to intimately navigate this immense institution––a skill I’ll always keep in my back pocket.

Throughout my semester abroad in Stockholm, Sweden, I embarked on an identity-discovering journey. Without the weight of American expectations, I allowed myself to explore my interests outside the bounds of my Economics degree. And it brought me straight to the library. In the heartland of Nordic Noir, I fell in love with twisted murders and slow-burning mysteries, each underpinned by social commentary.

Compelled by creating a positive impact in the world, I landed in Washington, DC a few months after organizing for the Ossoff-Warnock campaign in Georgia. Entrenched inside American politics, I realized that I’m not a DC animal. Too far away from actual voters, I felt disillusioned rather than energized as my colleagues discussed strategy for Red to Blue races that would secure those 218 Congressional seats for us Democrats.

Amongst my community of opera singers, painters, photographers, actors, and fellow writers, I found my creative soul in Paris. By following in the tradition of many Black American artists, I nourished my creativity with every vernissage and every international film screened. Outside the pressures of American capitalism, I grew at my own pace.

Now back in Los Angeles, I reflect from a vantage point of my collective experiences.

LA is a home that isn’t a home that is a home some days. As much as the City of Angels has shaped me into a donut-loving, West Coast rapping, fitness fiend, I also question my place within it. Walking the streets of Venice Beach, I fear the neighborhood that raised me no longer exists––at least not in its entirety. Reading the 2024 election results in which Californians decided to keep slavery codified in the Constitution, I’m reminded why the Black population of LA has shrunk in recent years.

Unafraid to uproot myself and embrace adventure, I am caught between cities and existences. I’ve experienced new cultural customs a million times over, coast to coast and across the pond. As a storyteller, I seek to tell the stories of the people I’ve met along the way, by breathing life into the quirks of their city on the page. I’m not afraid of a story that takes place in different cities––or even countries. Because I know my story does.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Of course it hasn’t been a smooth road! I’ve moved more times than I can count, I’ve rebuilt my life so many times over, and I’ve had to be extremely creative to finance my life in the face of all that. Upon returning to Los Angeles, I’ve leaned on social services and family friends to be able to simply exist.

(And for any creatives on that low income grind in LA – I highly recommend enrolling in the Metro LIFE program. 20 free rides a month! Goes a long way when you can’t afford a car.)

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Influenced by my experiences as the golden child at my high school, the Deputy Chief of Staff for the largest arm of the Democratic Party, and a Harvard graduate, most of the villains in my screenplays and manuscripts are institutions. I thrive within institutional structures, but I’ve reckoned with complex emotions upon realizing that the same establishments that have championed me have harmed others. Whether through crime thrillers or grounded sci-fi/fantasy mysteries, I love unpacking the ethics of upholding institutions while also asking questions of multifaceted identities, much like the ones I’ve unpacked myself.

As a genre writer-director, I’m incredibly proud of my directorial debut LET THE MYTH BE, which was a labor of love and a total excuse to collaborate with my talented friends. But beyond that, I’m proud of being self taught. I didn’t study writing or film in college, but that doesn’t mean that I couldn’t find the tools to turn my ideas into reality.

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
The road makes no sense. It’s like climbing a mountain in the dark and you have no clue where the summit is, you just know that you’re moving upward. But I firmly believe that I keep dedicating myself to my craft, that summit is attainable. Trust the process.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.carringtonwalsh.com/