We were lucky to catch up with Tarah Pollock recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Tarah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

A freckle-faced strawberry of a Texas child, I began dancing at three years old. As many young girls in Texas do, I started with tap, jazz, and ballet. I recall a number with patent leather tap shoes with red bows and a Shirley Temple-style red and white polka dot dress for a routine to On The Good Ship Lollipop. I knew in that minute with a smile plastered across my face, bouncing curls, and seeing my parents watching in the audience that I loved being on stage. I continued as a dancer with my local studio but craved more each year. From a very young age, my Dad taught me to sing Elvis songs to perform on the couch. I also loved to imitate my mother teaching aerobics teacher on home video. I couldn’t get enough of the limelight, jumping in front of the camera when they tried to pan to my baby sister.

When I was only six years old my Dad, my hero, died by suicide. Although she was faced with deep grief my intuitive, supportive, and creative mother felt like acting may be a good place to put my big, complicated feelings that were uncomfortable to share socially. She enrolled me in classes at Dallas Theater Center where I learned to write about my experience, act in classical theatre, and play theater games which required me to let go, be silly, and forget my worries if only for a moment.

Theatre became the place I wanted to be. I continued to dance competitively and at half-time at the football games but I knew in my heart that that part of my career would be short-lived as it was so hard on my body. At 15 years old, I fell in love with a performing arts boarding school in Ojai, CA, Happy Valley, when visiting my aunt. I was told, “If you get a scholarship you can go.” I did, thankfully! And I went!

The school was small with only 100 students total and most of my peers wanted to be involved in the arts in some way. It was a teenage artist’s utopia. I taught dance and lived in the theater working on various projects from classical works like Antigone to wild avant-garde work like Charles Mee’s Summer Evening in DeMoines spearheaded by the great Scott Campbell. He showed us what it was to fall in love with theatre.

I went on to the BFA Acting program at UC Santa Barbara. Then, uncertain of what might be next but knowing I wanted to live in LA, auditioned for MFA programs. When I got into USC’s MFA Acting program my world changed. I walked into that program as a dancer who could act and out of it as an actor who could dance. They were concerned with who we were as human beings and sculpting us into the best versions of ourselves we could be. The faculty was led by Andy Robinson and Natsuko Ohama who were determined to help us tap into our authentic truth and bring it alive on stage. Through Linklater’s voice work, Gratowsky’s movement, and everything from Shakespeare to Pinter we were given a beautifully well-rounded training.

The challenge truthfully was getting out of school and entering the entertainment industry. Our showcases felt like being a minnow in an ocean full of sharks, in the meetings afterward I struggled to feel empowered, and I found myself lost in the business of it all. Andy had always said that I would do well in a theatre company and when I found EST/LA I knew I was home. I now consider myself a new play development actor. I love the process of workshopping plays with local playwrights, allowing them to hear them for the first time and bring their characters to life. I love that my opinion and experience matter as we spend months, sometimes years, refining new work. Recently, I accomplished a major goal of being printed in the original cast of a full-length play! That happened when fellow company member Tony Pasqualini’s play Lost in Time was published. We have to remember and hold on to those little victories. One of the things I love and always remind myself about this career is that it is important to have goals and that often the timeline happens unpredictably. Embrace the journey, find your community, and remember to have fun! It is called a play for a reason.

Tarah , 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?

I’m wearing more than one hat these days! I act, direct, and produce, and recently became an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist. I am represented by Amber Ford at Ford Talent LA and I couldn’t ask for a more wholehearted, genuine, and enthusiastic manager. I am a company member of EST/LA and a founding member of Elmira Rahim’s company Elàn Ensemble. I love to act both on stage and on camera but my heart will always be in the theater. I love the process of fleshing out a character, stepping into their shoes, and seeing through new eyes.

Interestingly enough, I have found that directing is the place where it feels like all the pieces of myself come together. I love intentionally creating and holding space for others, inspiring a playful and safe atmosphere, time management, collaborative discussions, and commitment to an ever-evolving script and process. I am grateful to Jennie Webb of LAFPI who gave me my first opportunity to direct professionally and turned that light on for me.

Before the pandemic, I began to yearn for a way to give back to others regularly and a desire to take the financial pressure off of my art. A healer friend of mine, James Bene, said “What if you could use one passion to fuel the other,” and I was convinced. When the pandemic hit, I lost my job managing the Kirk Douglas Theater, acting vanished, and no one knew how long we would be in limbo. Maybe this devastating time had created the space I had needed; Time to devote to building a second career. I have long been a big believer in the healing power of therapy and when the pandemic hit I thought about all the children who were going to have to learn how to trust the world again, a feeling I knew all too well from losing my Dad. So I applied for the master’s program in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy. In March of 2024, after receiving well-rounded training at a nonprofit that provides counseling to anyone in Los Angeles who can’t afford it, Southern California Counseling Center, I graduated. The work gave me meaning, purpose, and a way to balance my creativity.

I am now an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist and an Associate Professional Clinical Counselor. I am thrilled to share that I just joined Cedar’s Sinai Share and Care Team as a Trauma-Informed School-Based Counselor. I will be helping provide council-style group therapy and art therapy geared towards social-emotional learning to kids in need of connection and coping.

You can find details about me as an actor/director/producer at www.tarahpollock.com.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

The journey is not linear. It is an unpredictable rollercoaster. At times fun and at others heart-breaking. Becoming friends with failure is the only way to survive. Radio silence is common, you put yourself out there in an audition or a self-tape and never hear back about the project. The only way through is to surround yourself with people who believe in, affirm, and uplift you and do the same for them! Show up to their shows, be in the community, and don’t try to struggle alone.

Another myth that I wish was dispelled for me earlier was: that you can only do one thing. People said to me growing up “If you can do anything else do it,” but I didn’t understand. I felt like they were trying to pop a hole in the bubble of my dream. If someone had said it’s okay to have two things you love doing, I may have built my path differently. Actors are sold a narrative that if you’re not 100% committed you will fail. In meetings with representatives I was asked, “Do you have a job that will conflict with acting?” I learned quickly to always say no but the practicality of this in LA was absolutely impossible. It also led to time overthinking auditions, waiting around for opportunities, and emotionally arm-wrestling my heart in my free time. This was no way to live. Then I met an actor working on a play I was in called Watching O.J. Roy Vongtama a talented, Thai actor who was also an Oncologist! Yes, a cancer doctor who also acted. Why had nobody ever said it was okay to do two things?! Here he was doing them both brilliantly. I owe my inspiration to Roy who encouraged me to follow my heart.

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

I owe my understanding of resilience to my mother, Laura Lewis, and many other warrior women in my family. They have transcended hardship with the loss of many loved ones in our family with grace. At six years old, I watched daily as my mother, broken-hearted, attempted to recover from the sudden loss of her husband. He was the love of her life for nine years and yet somehow she was determined to take care of her young daughters. I am moved to tears often when I think of her strength through it all. She showed me it was possible to survive one of the worst things imaginable and find joy and light on the other side. She always fanned the flames of what we were good at and taught us to believe in ourselves. And when the acting world got rough I remember her saying to me on the phone while I walked the streets of Santa Barbara “Tarah, you have to have an alligator skin and a soft center.” I hold this advice close to my heart. Resilience has long been my favorite word.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tarahpollock.com
• Instagram: @tarah_pollock
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PollockTarah/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarah-pollock-948a0846/
• Twitter: N/A
• Yelp: N/A
• Soundcloud: N/A
• Other: To connect with Tarah as a therapist email [email protected]