Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Whitman.
Hi Jennifer, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Including way too much detail!!
I grew up in a pretty small town in North Carolina with 8 siblings! I like to tell people I started acting to get some attention 🙂 In reality, having a big family can sometime make you feel like you’re part of a whole, rather than having your own individual identity. I think performing gave me an outlet to explore myself and some time away from my siblings haha. I was interested in a lot of extra circulars as a kid and am very privileged to have parents that let me explore that. I took the occasional performance class but I also tried, cake decorating, sign language, reptile handling and a sewing class gymnastics, ect…. Somehow I always came back to performing.
I started taking classes at a triple threat studio (singing, dancing, acting) pretty seriously at age 13. My older sister took classes there and had an upcoming ballroom competition, her partner seldom showed up to rehearsal so I learned how to Cha Cha in the masculine role to stand in for him. I fell in love with ballroom and quickly got wrapped into the studio as a whole. Suddenly, I was in classes 20+ hours a week, singing, dancing, acting and tumbling. It quickly became my whole life, anytime I wasn’t training, I was helping out with the younger kiddos. Eventually I started teaching my own classes, my favorite being a hiphop/tumbling class for 4-7 year olds. I never quite took to the sining part of things so I thought I was meant for the world of film.
When college applications came around, I had already consistently been working in the independent film world as both an actress and assistant director. I tried really hard to convince myself that school was the right path for me because I do love to learn and I had 5 older siblings who all took the college route. I did all the AP classes, all the clubs on top of my performance training/teaching and film projects. I graduated high school a semester early, Dec 2019. My plan was to stay in North Carolina teaching and working on a few films until May and then attend university, where I would be on the cheer team and major in Film Studies.
The pandemic was my greatest gift! When the world shut down, I was privileged enough to be in a position where I could finally think clearly. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t go-go-go and I realized that if the world was ending, I wanted to perform. I had spent so much time, trying to convince myself that I wanted something I didn’t. I slowly took less jobs on the production side of things and started taking Zoom classes for Film Acting at a studio based in Florida. Eventually, I moved down there and got my first agent and started getting bigger auditions. I loved Florida and I loved the person I became there but I quickly realized, if I wanted to hustle this was not the place to do it. I told myself, I wouldn’t live there for more than a year, and I enjoyed the heck out of my 11 months there but by Feb of 2022, I set off for a 3 day drive to Los Angeles.
On Valentines this year (2025) I celebrated my 3 year anniversary in LA! And it does not feel like home yet but I am still endlessly grateful for the time I’ve spent here. I’ve learned so much about myself, I’ve learned to surrender to the process, I’ve had some amazing training, done some silly jobs and rediscovered my love for theatre. I think the vastness of the city makes it hard to have community, and theatre brings me so much community. I am a member at Theatre West and performed in my first equity show with them last year. Where get this, I was understudying the lead and had to sing 6 songs!!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Once, I got over the big obstacle of chasing my own path, (which was no small feat), I idolize my siblings and my friends and it felt scary to go down a road without a clear destination. Once you give into the uncertainty, life becomes a lot easier. Like I said before, the community in Florida really gave me the space to be exactly who I needed to be. The Actor’s Group Orlando held and supported me, they gave me the confidence to move out to LA and most importantly showed me how everyone has a different journey. I struggled for a bit when I moved to Los Angeles because I didn’t feel that same welcomeness. It took me sometime to find my footing but because of that I became much more human. I had to meet people where they were and ask for A LOT more help.
When my year in LA hit, I was about ready to give up. Which scared the heck out of me, I still loved performing but I was in a living situation that made me unhappy, the bakery I was working at had shut down, I still didn’t have a community and auditions hadn’t picked up from the strikes the summer before, which by the way, what a nice welcome to LA! But the universe, seemed to be on my side and everything turned on dime. Within a month I moved into a new place and booked a film.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’ve always said I’m an actress because that’s the area of my performing, I felt most confident in. But today, I am more comfortable saying I’m a performer, not limiting myself to acting because I do love to dance and tumble and I’m starting to rediscover my voice. I am most proud of Understudying The Ugly Ducking in The Duckling last year. I never thought I would be able to sing in front of other people, let alone get paid to do it! To be a lead in a musical is a dream I didn’t know I had. It has pushed me to continue working on my voice, which in turn got me back into dancing and life has been much more full reintroducing Musical Theatre into my life.
I think something that sets me apart from others is I’ll never stop being a student. I truly just love to learn. I love theatre, I love film, I love production, I loved working at the bakery, I loved working with kids. It easy to get caught up in yourself when you are the product you’re selling but exploring not only informs your art but keeps you grounded. Learning is opportunity to connect.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The most important lesson I have learned is that I can put my relationships before my career. I often felt like the people in my life came second to my career. I felt like I took a huge leap of faith taking this path and therefore took it has a huge responsibility to be successful. My career was so attached to my identity that if I didn’t prioritize it, I constantly felt like I was letting myself down. When in reality, as soon as I started booking out time in my calendar for the people I loved, my cup was so much more full and I was able to show up as a better version of myself at auditions and I started booking a lot more consistently.
Pricing:
- I would love if you couldn’t mention Theatre West Fundraising Campaign
- https://givebutter.com/lightourstage
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennifer__whitman/
Image Credits
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