We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Theoni Bekiari a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Theoni, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Working in the entertainment industry is, as many know, a gig to gig job! So sometimes you have to do something that is not exactly what you envisioned, to be able to continue to do what you love. In those cases still, I like to find something interesting in the project. At the end of the day, I am still doing what I love! But when one of those projects comes.. that speaks to your heart, to why you started doing what you are doing.. those, are the best moments. It is like you are feeding your spirit and you get a chance to shine, even if no one else sees it. The funny thing is, you never know when a project will be a success. Many times, a project that you thought nothing of is beloved, or if you are lucky, the one you love will be loved too! It is all in the right moment One of those moments came along recently for me. I was part of a short film, called “Office Hunt”, that was filmed in mid 2022. It is a story of two women in an office environment that is nothing but safe for them. This story was really personal to me and my co-star, since it was born from shared experiences that we had. So it was filmed, edited, and seemingly shelved for a while. Which was fine too, since it was made from a personal need for us to express something we saw.
Now, at the end of 2023 though, the project seems reborn. It was submitted to competitions, it won awards, Like Best Actress, Best Concept, and most importantly, Best Women’s Short Film. That was something that the whole team felt proud of!
See, by telling this story, and having people look at it, and feel something we felt making it, creates a feeling of unity for us and the world. Like, what we talk about is heard. Experiences are shared, and maybe, things will even get better for what we talk about!
Now the whole team is getting ready for our premiere in the 2023 Culver City Film Festival! We are excited and our soul is fed by a meaningful project we put out into the world!

Theoni, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Of course! I am a Greek Actress located in the beautiful Los Angeles! I finished my masters in Dramatology in Greece and then I decided to come to the heart of Hollywood and learn more in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts! Since I was a little kid in Athens, I learned all about ancient theater, myths and tales. And I loved the expression of the world in art! That was probably when I decided what I wanted to do with my life! I want to connect and express different experiences through my art with the world!
I was lucky to be able to make my passion into my profession. And I won’t lie, that took and still takes a lot of consistent work. I still try to study the human experience every day. And make my own art when I have time, expressing what I see and want. There are a lot of ups and downs as you can imagine, but my work leaves me fulfilled. You can find me online with my name, Theoni Bekiari, I have a page too. And there you can see all the things I have been a part of so far, all the things I have expressed in this world.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

You know, I am almost tired of being resilient. But aren’t we all forced to be? I think in life there is not really another option but to take what is in front of you and go with it! From coming to study in January 2020, yes, that year.. to so many other things. My life has taught me that you have to be moldable, easy to adjust and ever changing.
When I started studying in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, I was only two months into my studies, and then the world closed down. So then I had to find a way to deal with my emotions, the changes and the state of the world. A way to be happy and not see it as a bad thing that my Acting education went online. And these years later, I can look back and see how this benefited me. Being able to accept this change, led me down a whole new path that still brought me to the same goal. Being in online acting classes gave me knowledge of editing, self taping, acting in front of a green screen, and so much more. Self taping is auditioning from home, and it is now the usual practice for auditioning for most tv roles!
I came out of it feeling really comfortable doing that almost every day, and with more technical knowledge that allowed me to have a head start in the quality of my auditions!
There are more things of course, trials in personal and family life. Being away from family for so long and son on.
The important thing for me is that I try every time, although it is always hard, to go with a situation. Because now I have this little voice in my mind telling me that even if things seem hard, ot unexplainable right now, in years time I will be able to see what I managed to get from all this!

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Every profession is different. I am sure I don’t understand a million things about professions that are not my own. If I had to name one thing I wish more people understood about mine, it would be the emotional commitment. When I portray a character, a lot of you goes into it. Now that is not to say that you lose yourself in the role, or that you should let it hurt you. But going through whatever emotions the character is going through is racing. It is tiring. I would say it feels like your emotional world just went to the gym!
Except all the techniques, and practical things, a role still will feel empty with no emotional and moment to moment, present work.
So I would love it if more people were aware of the emotions of it all. How some friends will want to see you a day after filming, but maybe you are just tired of socializing, because you need some time to just relax. Without that meaning that you don’t want to see them.
And again, something else, when you have to cancel plans because of a sudden audition or work. It is like being on the clock all the time. And it does bring your social life down, sadly. But the good friends will stick with you I guess. Maybe with my words though people can see that in their friends and have a better understanding. It is hard sometimes to understand something that is foreign to our own experience. But we get there if we want, don’t we?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://theonibekiari.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theoni.bekiari/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theoni.bekiari/
• Other: imdb: https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm11918540?s=f2c61438-39ee-7cde-36f6-9b0cc40b8072&site_preference=normal

Image Credits
Matt Tente Headshots