Meet Leslie Nesbit

Today we’d like to introduce you to Leslie Nesbit.

Hi Leslie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
I’ve wanted to make people laugh my entire life. But it really solidified when I saw The Mask with Jim Carrey. “Oh Boy, that’s the dream,” I thought in my 12-year-old brain. I have had the energy of a Masked-Jim Carrey ever since. “Making It” is a whole other story. When someone thinks of “making it”, they think of movies, tv shows, money, travel, glamour, fame, magazines, red carpets, and awards.

Getting to that is not easy and it’s taken me a bit to realize, I “made it” long ago, when I was able to put up plays, performances, and solo shows to make people laugh in Chicago. I “made it” in LA when I got to perform my own sketches in the Groundlings Advanced Lab, and even when I got to perform once a month with my a capella musical group Pitch Please. You make it when you get to do what you love, and that’s what I’m doing!

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I think the struggles that I have had have been what anyone has when pursuing an unforgiving career. Either you are working 4 jobs with time to make auditions, but you’re barely making rent.

Or you are working 1 job that takes an hour and a half to drive to and takes up most of your day, you can’t make a lot of auditions, but you can make rent! The dedication everyone has to pursue their dreams is unimaginable. But you do it because you love it!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I never thought I’d be a teacher! But I have been teaching science to kids since 2009. I’ve only just taken a break. How fun is it to explore science with kids! (And adults, if they let themselves have fun.) I have also been a tour guide, a writer, an event planner, a freelance audition reader, and the good ol’ gig job; driver for GrubHub.

I specialize in everything it seems. Part of the reason I wanted to be an actor is so I could have all kinds of different jobs. One day I might be a rancher, the next I might be an astronaut. It looks like my real life has taken the form of what I dreamed it would be! My next job idea? I’m training to be a software engineer. Very exciting times coming up.

What does success mean to you?
That’s a hard question! I want to say success is when you’re doing what you love. But the old capitalist indoctrination is telling me that success is when I can have a house and money to travel!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.leslienesbit.com
• Instagram: @leeloodawn
• Twitter: @leeloodawn
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEXBx8tff03jDHVjZ-v9p0Q
• TikTok: @leeloodawn

Image Credits
Mark Daugherty and The Actors Collective