Meet Kelly Walker

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Walker.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Kelly. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up in Brisbane, Australia and at a young age, my dream was to be a stripper. My Mom had shown me the films’ Gypsy and Flashdance and I was like… That’s what I want to be when I grow up! Imagine my Mom trying to tell six-year-old Kelly that these women were actresses pretending to be strippers.

I decided that seemed like a pretty good plan B. At around twelve years old, I started making films with my best friend and we took ourselves very seriously. For the next four years, we made one (hilariously terrible) feature film a year. We wrote, directed, acted and edited these films together. We were our own little production company, we even had business cards! When our friendship ended, so did my belief in myself as a filmmaker. I was so creatively shaped by our partnership that I didn’t consider doing it independently. When I was seventeen, I moved to Los Angeles and pursued acting alongside video editing. Over the next ten years, filmmaking kept finding its way back into my life and with it so many incredible collaborations with people I love and respect. Acting led back to writing; writing led to directing, and editing tied it all together. I’m so lucky that I get to do a little bit of everything and the best days are when they coexist together.

Has it been a smooth road?
Los Angeles is a struggle city, people! It’s an industry of more close calls than actual wins. For me, I would rather follow this track for the rest of my life than work a job that doesn’t creatively inspire me. And sometimes that means balancing the day job with the hustle, sacrificing time with loved ones and putting your heart and vulnerability on your sleeve day after day, year after year. The pandemic has taught me that my career is not promised. 2020 wiped us of human lives and even the most basic expectations of our career trajectories. It’s scary, daunting, and incredibly humanizing. I’m going to do my best moving ahead to really be present in the journey, give less weight to the outcome and remember how lucky I am that I even get to struggle at what I love. That’s privilege right there, and it’s not lost on me.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I’m a writer/director/actor/editor, and I could never just choose one, never! I’m currently writing a couple of biopics about women who didn’t have a platform to tell their stories. I love writing about real people because you get to be a detective, psychiatrist, archeologist, and astrologer. I love mapping birth charts for the real people and getting inspiration and clues from there. Last year I wrote and directed my first feature, My Fiona. I am so proud of our film, and I’ll be forever grateful for the talented people I got the chance to work with and learn from. We were supposed to have our World Premiere at BFI Flare in London this March, but you know, pandemic and travel bans have a way of changing the plan. We’re hoping to kick off our festival circuit in 2021!

I’m currently a recurring character on the CW’S show, Swamp Thing. I had so much fun shooting the episodes and endless love for everyone I worked with in North Carolina.

I’ve been so lucky to walk away with a friend for life on most of the projects I’ve worked on in the last couple of years. It really is the simple things in life that we end up valuing the most.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
You know, I think because of the pandemic, we’re going to see a ton of change… and not necessarily the good kind… especially when it comes to independent filmmakers. It’s hard enough already to make films on shoestring budgets, let alone add covid safety costs on top of it… However, we’re a scrappy bunch; we’re determined, ambitious, creative and are used to thinking outside the box. I have no doubt we’ll find a way to work within our constraints and it will lead to some really fresh ideas and innovative storytelling.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kellywalker.tv
• Email: artfactoryfilms@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/girldownunda
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kellyewalker
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/kellyewalker
• Other: www.myfionafilm.com

Image Credit:
Dustin Walker, Joanna Degeneres (for pink blazer)

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