Today we’d like to introduce you to Christina Wren.
Christina, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started in children’s theater when I was eight years old but despite my ongoing love of performing, I never believed I had access to pursuing acting as a career. At that time, there was no local industry in Pittsburgh, where I’m from, and the concept of Hollywood or Broadway felt so foreign, far away and untouchable to me as a kid from a simple family in an industrial town.
When I was 17, I had a teacher that all but forced me to apply to the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts. Bless him, he told me every day I needed to go to the office to get an application and submit to audition and I was too nervous and convinced I had no chance. He finally went to the office and got the application for me, put it on my desk and insisted I write for the opportunity. When I got an audition, I was floored. I also almost skipped out on it, I was so nervous, so sure I’d be outed as a fraud who was good enough in my little high school but totally awful compared to kids from fancier schools with competitive programs. My mom knew me well and the night before the audition essentially said, “If you don’t think you can handle it, don’t do it.” Oooh, that got me. So I went down into the basement, learned a monologue from Joan of Arc and my mom worked on it with me until late in the night. I ended up getting into the program and that is where I first experienced a taste of what being a professional actor could be. I had wonderful teachers who challenged me in ways I had never been challenged, who opened up my eyes to the depth of what theater and performance can be and do and gave me examples of what a “working actor” was outside of just the uber famous Hollywood stars. It breaks my heart that the Governor’s School no longer exists. Honestly, without it, I don’t think I’d be doing what I am today.
After that experience, I realized I at least wanted to continue to study the craft of acting and started contemplating minoring in theater. My idea for a major kept changing and then I started considering a double major and finally, my mom came into my room one night and said it was my life and my decision – and I was sure here was going to be the part where she said it was cute that I had been doing the theater thing and all but now it’s time to get serious, you’re a smart girl, make a practical choice. Instead she said that she and my dad thought I had a gift and shouldn’t “bury my talents” and they’d support me pursuing a degree in acting. I leaped at the opportunity and have been unbelievably grateful for their love and support throughout this journey.
I started as a musical theater major at NYU and took advantage of as many opportunities there as I could. I studied experimental theater, film, and television, did a bunch of deconstructed Shakespeare plays, played Gertrude McFuzz in Seussical the Musical, studied playwriting, movement, dance, music, got a minor in Pan African Studies and spent my final semester in South Africa. It was an amazing season of life that profoundly opened me up as a person and artist.
Graduation was a pretty big smack in the face. After a season of constant dedication to and immersion within my craft, I was in a total desert. I was working at Starbucks because I needed health insurance, I was cobbling together opportunities to perform as a spoken word poet at slams, I sang back up for a few artists, wrote music and did a few concerts of my own. I did a play – anything to try and stay active as an artist but in terms of getting into the business, getting an agent, getting auditions, I had nothing. Almost immediately I was treated as old and a dud because so many people start in this business as kids.
I started doing work as a background actor to get a better understanding of how big film sets were run. I got a grant to produce a multi-media, community-based show back in Pittsburgh and shortly after met my now partner and husband, Demetrius. When he was looking for a producer who was familiar with South Africa and could conduct interviews within a community context, I fit the bill and had the most amazing opportunity to learn producing and filmmaking on the job, on an amazing adventure, and gained a wonderful life partner in the process.
We then started our production company, Two Kids with a Camera. We made a no-budget indie feature, “Saudade?” that led to booking a hummus commercial that led to booking Man of Steel – that’s a crazy story of its own. But it finally showed this little Pittsburgh girl that maybe she could do this for real. Maybe she could write a script or produce a movie or book a “real” role. It’s still a daily grind, I’m still quite the Little Engine that Could, but I’m so grateful for the experiences I’ve had and the life I get to live as an artist.
Has it been a smooth road?
Is any artist’s journey a smooth road? Blessings to them, if so! Mine has been hella bumpy. Seasons of joy and celebration, feeling rooted in a sense of purpose and belonging, followed by seasons of emptiness, financial instability, embarrassment, debilitating disappointment. Seasons of adventure, experiencing so many places and people. Seasons of rejection, wondering if I have any chance at making this thing work long term.
I have a dear friend who is an actor – now working on a big show – who “quit” about a year ago. When she was getting back to auditioning someone challenged her, thinking she had left the business behind and she retorted, “I’m an actor, we quit all the time!” And I thought that was hilarious and poignant because it can be so true. Most of my friends and colleagues frequently wonder if we need to make other life choices, if we need to find something more practical, do we want certain things in life that this path doesn’t offer? And most of the time, we end up back in the craft we hold so dear. And most of the time, an amazing opportunity is around the corner, just out of sight, if we can hold on a little longer.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Two Kids with a Camera is a boutique production company that specializes in telling stories about people and communities that are often ignored or misrepresented by the media. We have produced branded content for commercial clients such as Travel Channel, HGTV, PBS, and Discovery Digital and we’ve made three narrative feature films, several series for web and are currently incredibly proud of our new comedy series, Hicksters! (www.HickstersComedy.com)
Hicksters follows a quirky wannabe journalist who drags her metro wood smith husband from their urban life in New York City to start anew on a farm and hopefully become internet famous in the process…And they happen to be a Hijabi and Metro Black Man in Trump Country. No bigs.
I’m proud that we dive into territory that a lot of other companies are afraid to or unwilling to, content-wise. I’m proud that we work to support the communities that we film in and give opportunities to budding artists to help jump-start their careers. I’m really grateful that we’ve been able to sustain for almost ten years now as a small business.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
There are multiple sides of what I do. As a small production company, if someone was just trying to build commercial clients and make a living, I would recommend a smaller market than LA where your services are really needed and you can stand out as a brand. As a budding actor, I also think it is easier to stand out and book work in a smaller market than in LA. But as a production company aiming to make content ultimately within or distributed by the Hollywood studio system, this is where we need be. It’s a super saturated market but it is also the source, the well, the hub that sends media, stories, and culture throughout our country and world and if you want to be a part of that process, I do think LA is the place to be!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.HickstersComedy.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/christinawren
- Facebook: facebook.com/christina.s.wren
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChristinaSWren
- Other: www.ChristinaWren.com
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