Posted by Kayla Kelly has two distinct advantages as an actress. First, she found her passion early and over a lifetime has developed her remarkable range and ability as an actress. She can not only do straight, dramatic roles, but she excels at comedy, too Secondly, living in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, not far from Wisconsin/Illinois state-lines, she is quickly establishing herself as an actress of renown throughout the Great Lakes states.
As a child, she was a performer before she even learned how to read. As a little girl, she entertained her family by performing skits with cardboard boxes, puppets and costume scraps. She would stand on tables and sing at the top of her lungs, and record make-believe radio broadcasts. As she grew up, Kayla joined a theater group and school choir; she had set her sights on becoming an actor.
Absent from acting for a while to raise her family, she returned to acting at the age of 32 when a friend encouraged her to become part of a play. In early 2016, shortly after appearing in that theater production, she was cast in her first film role.
Although her resume may not reflect a large number of film roles yet, remember Kayla also does commercials, and an occasional play, although film keeps her quite busy, and she still has a family which she gives of her time. But watch her. She is presently engaged in a number of productions. And the new year has just begun.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that I was playing a boy.
Well, they put lots of “dirt” on my face. Haha. That helped!
So, one is a feature to be filmed in Wisconsin. The other, is a series to be filmed in Michigan.
Yes. I’m very close to Wisconsin. A while back, I wanted to get something funny into my demo reel. There are never enough comedies being made… So I decided to write my own piece.
People thought it was awkward and funny, and I considered writing an entire season. But, I didn’t know many cinematographers at the time. I asked my friend, who I know through the UP based web series, “Northbound,” that I’m in if he’d film it for me, and he did.
I got busy with other things, and though I’ve been asked tons of times if I’ll do anything with the web-series pilot I made (aka the piece I wrote for my demo), I let it go by the wayside. Until recently. Now I’m gearing up to create a TV pilot based on the same character. “Veronica Pratt, All American Awkward Mom.”
I believe we did. I want this pilot to be successful in catching the eyes of distributors, so we can go forth with a unique series.
We are still looking for crew, and have made some casting progress. I want to start finalizing the cast and crew in January so that we can move forward with production. I would love to hear from crew who would like to be involved in a unique comedy series.
No, the film is set in Wisconsin. We have a location, and a director from the Milwaukee area. The casting process on the feature film will also begin very soon, with that project to be filmed in the summer. I’m hoping for some exciting things to develop on the feature as well. It is a thriller.
Sure. Not the most challenging, however. But the production itself was very exciting.
Yes.
The film is “An Intrusion,” written by Nicholas Holland. I met Nick on St Patrick’s Day 2017, at a filmmaker event in Detroit. He was a speaker at the event and I loved how honest and passionate he was about filmmaking. I was introduced to him at the after party, and sometime later, he contacted me to audition for the role of Julia Hilt.
I’m a huge fan of Keir Gilchrist, of Netflix ‘Atypical’, and he and Scout Taylor-Compton (of the TV show Nashville) are also in the film.
This sounds intriguing. This would give us, and I may have lost count, was it four (or five) productions in which your presently engaged? You are very busy. Which one of these are due to release first?
I am involved in a lot of projects right now, yes.
Well, I’m working on two of my own projects, filming a western in Arizona in May and there are a number of other projects before then. The first film to release in 2020 is Harley Wallen’s Agramons Gate, coming out in February. Also releasing in 2020 is ‘A Christmas Hero’, starring Michael Welch (of Twilight and Joan of Arcadia) and I believe ‘An Intrusion’ will also be out. Northbound’s final season will also release on SeekaTv, and I just wrote and starred in a short film, Mommy Heist, which will be hopefully be released in January as well.
Yes, I’d like to say that if you’ve ever had a passion, or a dream, go for it. Know that things won’t come easy, they won’t come cheap, but if you really want to make something happen, you have to give it 100%. I was told that it is a bad idea to become a film actor in my thirties, that I’m too old to start a new career or I should prepare for rejection. But you know, when you hear those things, it makes you push harder to prove then wrong. 3 years later, and I’ve been involved in about two dozen indie film/ TV pilot/ webseries/ commercial projects. And I live in the middle of nowhere. My next big goal is to land a guest star role on a network television series. Going to work hard to make that happen.