Conversations with Wendy (Jean) Wilkins

Today we’d like to introduce you to Wendy (Jean) Wilkins.

Hi Wendy (Jean), please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Raised in Upstate New York, Wendy (Jean) Wilkins has been a screenwriter, filmmaker and comedian in Hollywood for thirty+ years, racking up the accolades in whatever she’s pursued.

In screenwriting, she’s been a Warner Brothers Writers’ Workshop participant, named one of ISA’s Top-25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2019 and won or placed in over fifty writing competitions such as Emerging Screenwriters, ISA Fast Track, Final Draft’s Big Break Competition, Cinequest, Screenplay Fest, Creative Screenwriters Awards, Space & Time Film Festival, Creative World Awards, and Scriptapalooza.

As a film and content maker, Wendy has directed three award-winning short films (Jack & Diane), produced, wrote and starred in a radio drama (ONE MORE DAY) and put out a 7-part webseries (HOW TO TRAIN A BOYFRIEND) — all currently on YouTube.

Happily divorced and childless, Wendy Wilkins brings her super candid, super truthful, super sex positive comedy to stages across the United States, California and Los Angeles. A regular on the “Producing the Kevin Langue Show” web series and most recently in a viral video with Zach Justice, Wendy can also be heard regularly on the Pure Comedy channel at Sirius XM.

The past two years, Wendy has also played the Alaska B4UDie Festival, the Ladies Room Comedy Festival, the Palm Springs Comedy Festival, the Burbank Comedy Festival and this October, will be at the Milwaukee Comedy Festival.

And if you’re a fan of wrestling, then you’ll recognize her from playing David Arquette’s sister in the 2000 pro-wrestling feature film — READY TO RUMBLE.

Currently under the development wing of the International Screenwriters Association, you can contact her through them or directly on Instagram @wendyjean.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
As a city girl at heart, stuck in the country of Upstate NY, I soaked up the three NYC channels on our TV and decided at ten I would move to NYC as soon as I could. Then a month out of SUNY New Paltz college, my friend needed a roommate in LA (and all my college friends moving back in with their parents after graduation, I didn’t have any roommate choices), it was my only option. I knew no one, not a singe contact in the business and landing in a city recovering from the Rodney King riots in 1992, I felt like I was drowning most days but I didn’t let the lack of friends, opportunity or money stop me. Because, for me, the worst day in LA is still better than the best day back home.

I’ve been extremely poor and I’ve been flush with cash, but I’ve mostly have just gotten by. Without guidance or mentorship and not really knowing how to navigate film/tv production as well as stand-up, I let opportunities slip through my fingers and ignored my instincts to take a chance of someone offering a job. I’ve been full of doubt and self-loathing, not believing in myself or having anyone else believe in me and didn’t know what to do next in life. I took a ten year break from stand-up when I started started to hate it after fifteen years, concentrating on writing and acting instead. I came back after my divorce, realizing that I had come to LA to be extraordinary, only to have ended up being ordinary those years I was away from comedy.

Having a body that grows things other than babies has been a hurdled too. With three lady-part surgeries and countless tests over the years, I know I can’t waste any more time trying to convince people of my worth. I just live to make myself better each time I get on stage, funnier than the last time I performed.

I even almost moved out of LA after 25 years, thinking I had done all that I could to become something greater than myself only to get a call I had won a writing fellowship with the ISA Fast Track Fellowship. As a former remedial learning kid, who was advised my whole life I could never make it as a writer – the fellowship saved my life in Los Angeles and brought me hope of a brighter future.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I used to wait for permission to do things, wait for those who control opportunity to give me a chance to play their game. Until I realized their game is rigged and they don’t want me, so I decided to create my own game to play.

I write the scripts I want to write, in whatever genre the stories dictate, not specializing in one area only (like I had been told I had to do earlier in my career).

I produce short films on whatever equipment I have, not wait on getting funds or having someone else take a chance on me.

Whenever I get asked to act, I say yes. Acting is fourth on my list to do in Los Angeles and though I have an agent, I don’t get many auditions. Can’t wait around for someone else to see your potential, so you jump into productions your friends are doing and make your own buzz.

For stand-up, I came back at 48 with a whole new me on stage. And I came back with the mantra: I don’t want any women of any age, especially my own age, to ever feel ashamed about being a sexual being. The response has been amazing, women of all ages come up to me afterwards and thank me for telling the truths of womanhood. Grateful I’m saying all the things they think about or write in their journals. It’s the most satisfying feeling to hear that I’ve never been alone in feeling ignored, undervalued, not hot enough, insecure or demoralized.

Since I’m older, I don’t have as much time to get myself out there, so every minute on stage is way more precious than it was the first time around. I also, don’t worry about the same things I used to. If people don’t like my point of view, that’s fine, don’t listen. If there’s two people in the room or two hundred, I bring my best – always. My voice has value, not matter where I open it.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Hiking the insane amount of trails in the LA Area, especially Runyon Canyon. Swap Meets & Flea Markets. Watching young comics grow and blossom on the comedy scene. Hanging with my pals either outside in their garden, on another’s decked out porch, talking shop at the Improv bar or late night board games session. I love traveling for stand-up, anywhere across the country (and world eventually). Being told by women how happy and funny I am going on stage, telling the truth about womanhood and not holding back the reality of being a woman in American Society. Television and great TV shows. Making my own meals, salty snack and drinking Diet Mountain Dew. It all feeds my soul and lets me know I’m doing the right things in the world for not only myself, but society as a whole.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @wendyjean
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wendyjeanwilkins
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-jean-wilkins-49992428/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@WendyJeanWilkins
• Other: https://tiktok.com/@wendyjeanwilkins