Rising Stars: Meet Kristen DiMercurio of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristen DiMercurio.

Hi Kristen, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My acting career started as many do: when I was a kid doing plays with our local community theater. It really clicked with me, and I ended up going to Emerson College to get my BFA in Musical Theater. After that, I worked all kinds of jobs to help support my theater aspirations, but when I booked my first voiceover role in the indie fiction podcast Ars Paradoxica, I was hooked. As a kid doing theater in a small town, you get to play all kinds of roles; an old man, a teapot, a wicked witch. That was the whole point of acting to me: getting to step into roles that are so different from your own life. However, when I entered the theater industry as an adult, I was frustrated by the typecasting. You’re very limited by your age, your look, and many other factors you have no control over. In voice over, that isn’t an issue. It doesn’t matter what you look like or how old you are. If you can create the voice, then you can be the character! I’ve had so much fun playing all kinds of roles over the years.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I don’t know if anyone has had an acting career that goes “smoothly.” In fact, I’d name specific struggles, but there’s so many I wouldn’t even know where to start. The hallmark of this industry is the ups and downs, the uncertainty and the risk taking. But I’m a very resourceful person, and I love the challenge of figuring out a problem from a new angle. I’m well suited for this world (even if sometimes I’d love for my career to be a little more straightforward). I’ve learned to expect that an acting career will always have setbacks, letdowns, and obstacles. My job is to keep going despite that and find the joy in what’s working.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a voice actor primarily, though I’ve also worked in theater and on screen. Recently I’ve gained a lot of recognition on tiktok after revealing that I’ve voiced many bluetooth devices over my career. People started calling me The Bluetooth Lady, and interacting with this new audience has been a ton of fun. Supporting myself as a full time voice actor has meant working in all kinds of genres and mediums, from audiobooks to commercials to video games. One of the coolest parts of being discovered on tiktok is how many people recognize me from my other types of work. Often I get comments like “Wait, I’ve heard you on that podcast!” or “I knew you sounded familiar, you narrated my favorite audiobook!” I’m very proud of that. It’s been a lot of work to get to where I am, and now I get to share that with folks.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
My advice is to follow the flow of your career and resist the urge to steer it in any particular direftion. It’s very easy to say “I want my career to be like this” and refuse any work that doesn’t align with that goal. But if you think like that, you’ll cut off so many surprising opportunities. You don’t know what you don’t know. So you can release your death grip on the wheel a bit and enjoy the ride. It will take you places you never could have guessed.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kristendimercurio.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/kdimerc
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@kdimerc