When did you first get started? How did you know you wanted to pursue acting as a career? Why the engineering degree? Do you ever plan to use your degree if acting doesn’t pan out for you?

These are all valid questions that I get at least once a week when explaining how I got to where I am today. The easiest answer is that hard work really does pay off and, if you set your mind to it, dedication to your craft can take you to the next level. And patience; a healthy dose of grace.

Since I can remember, it was a dream of mine to get an engineering degree. Performing wasn’t something I felt was a viable career. The starving artist mentality is strong in the South. My dream was to focus on nanorobotics technology and start my own tech company. Big, right?

But, after my first year at Georgia Tech, I realized that having the smarts for a degree doesn’t mean you should do it. Without passion to drive you from project to project, your outlook on those desires and dreams shifts. I was getting the grade, but wasn’t feeling any spark lighting a fire.

The middle two years of my college path were marked by a focus on business while also pursuing my degree in electrical engineering. During this time in my life, I worked at Turner Broadcasting System as a product manager and then Codesigned as a business analyst. I figured with all this charm I would pursue working my way up the ladder in business and help bridge the gap between engineers and marketing. But, then life took another turn I wasn’t expecting.

The summer before my senior year at Georgia Tech, through a series of strange events by way of my straight hubby, I met my acting coach. It was through his efforts that I realized where my true passion was. I was introduced to the other aspects of theater and performing that wasn’t commonly known in the Deep South.

Shortly after that, he helped me grow the skills I had and I booked two professional shows during my senior year of college. In between finals and writing my thesis on RFID technology, you would find me singing and dancing in a children’s musical. Life was brilliant.

Before I graduated college, I accepted an apprenticeship at Georgia Ensemble Theatre, traveled to New York for the Shorty Awards as one of the first Barnes & Noble Student finalists, and directed and choreographed my own variety show at DramaTech Theatre; where I had been performing and training in tandem to my degree under the guidance of Melissa Foulger.

Life was turning out very different for this wannabe engineer now fully embracing acting as a career.

After graduating from Georgia Tech, I began my apprenticeship at Georgia Ensemble Theatre performing, taking classes, training, cleaning up after shows, building shows, traveling on tour, and making new friends every step of the way. I went from one time-consuming path to another. I felt right at home.

Once my apprenticeship was over, I found myself for the very first time without any set path before me. No school with a set schedule. No theater having me work on shows around the clock. Just me and my own drive now taking the helm of my career.

And the hunger to learn more couldn’t be stopped. After doing 30 shows in the span of two years in Atlanta, I found myself in New York in the summer of 2017 training at Atlantic Acting School.  Practical Aesthetics was calling my name.

After the summer intensive, I decided to join their evening conservatory program and continue my training with them for the next year. This program shaped me more than I ever imagined it would. Atlantic continued to surprise me with how honest they were making me with my own skills, fears, and dreams, and over the next year, I continued to grow into my own as a creative.

After graduating from the evening program at Atlantic Acting School in 2018, I started writing and producing my own work which has led to multiple productions over a large portion of the globe. The school also asked me to join the staff to teach the technique and develop a website design and branding class for creatives. It was a dream come true.

As with many people, the pandemic rocked my world and I found myself transitioning back to Atlanta. A place I have always called home and still welcomed me with open arms.

Where am I now creatively? That is the question I wish people would ask more.

Since embracing my playwriting side, I have now written and produced multiple plays, two of which have toured internationally. And as I continue to look towards the future, I am excited to work as an actor, playwright, and producer based in Atlanta, GA. While New York will always remain a creative home, the South has called me back to help elevate and cultivate a new wave of Southern Queer narratives.

That is what I’m doing now.