Today we’d like to introduce you to Kayleigh Marie Cook.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
From the moment I learned to walk, my mother knew I loved music. I was dancing and bopping along to any kind of beat I could hear. So that’s when she decided to put me in a baby dance class, then I was hooked. I was always the kid who loved being the center of attention. I loved making people laugh and smile.
When I was around four, I started cheerleading competitively. And boy was that a whole new level of excitement for me. That was my happy place. I was athletic but also beautiful in the way dance is. It’s just as physically demanding but has techniques like no other sport or discipline. Cheerleading was my first true love.
As I continued into school age, I was in chorus. That’s when I discovered a whole new way of expressing myself. Now I just needed something that could fully envelop what I wanted to do with all of these past outlets. I wanted just one, I was running myself too thin between cheer, ballroom dance, singing, and school. I then came across some auditions for a musical. I thought to myself what a way to put all my favorite things into one!
The rest is really history. I fell in love with acting. I had never felt more myself when I wasn’t even playing myself. I know that sounds odd but there’s this release that you get when you can step into someone else’s shoes for a bit.
I then decided around my junior year of high school that I needed acting to be my major for college. Luckily I had all the support from my parents and were so proud to help me reach my goals. Over the next year, I had auditioned for over 20 schools/programs.
I ended up choosing AMDA in New York City. I had always dreamed about living in NYC (still do honestly). I was going to school for what I had dreamed of and began that journey. When the two years were almost up, March 2020 happened. I was required to return home to Georgia. That was quite the bummer. I missed my friends, performing, and Zoom school wasn’t the best but at least it was something.
After over a year later, AMDA opened up their campus once again and allowed us to finish our degree, but in Los Angeles. I wanted to finish school so badly so I moved to Los Angeles. I finished my degree in October 2022 and I couldn’t be more proud of myself. Along my journey at school, I learned so much more than just things about acting. I fell in love with stage combat and martial fighting. I fell in love with singing and dancing (again). I fell in love with the people you meet along the way who truly are the best kind of people out there. Most importantly I knew I fell deeper in love with myself and this profession.
Since graduation, I have booked multiple commercials, a short film, a feature film, and a play!
I am so excited to be working on such fantastic projects and keep grinding for more future projects!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It honestly was a decently smooth road until Covid-19 hit. That’s when everyone’s world stood on its head. Time felt frozen and it didn’t feel real. I was terrified that I couldn’t see what tomorrow was going to look like. I have always been a hard worker and I love being surrounded by like-minded people, but once I was sent home to live with my parents again that hit hard. I felt trapped and isolated. I didn’t have any friends living in Georgia, I didn’t have a job, I just had Zoom school. I tried making the best of it, but like many others, my mental health really declined for those couple of months. My whole life, I had battled some sort of anxiety and depression and once I had moved to NYC, my outlook on life really improved. But being back where so many hard memories came back, plus not being able to do what I love to 0the fullest really took its toll.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am an actress! I specialize in comedy, drama, and stage combat! I am obsessed with stage fighting. I have been trained in: unarmed, rapier, rapier and dagger, broadsword, single sword, knife, and fight choreography.
I am most proud of booking the role of Emma in “You Can’t Disappear in Studio City” a new play coming to stages this summer! It incorporates so much of what I love as an actor, dirty humor, heartbreak, murder (stage combat of course) and the most dramatic moments ever!
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I truly want to be in a major motion picture in the next five years. In the next ten, I hope I can be standing on a Broadway stage! I can’t wait to see where the trends and changes of this industry are moving. I want to see more women and women of color is positions of power, directing, producing, writing and more!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kayleighmariecook/
Image Credits
Frank Tirimacco: AMDA Jack TenBarge: AMDA Garrett Butler: Mike Glatzer Devi Peot: Mike Glatzer AMDA Ranier Acosta: Frank Tirimacco Headshot Matt Marcheski
