We were lucky to catch up with Chelsea Connerley recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Chelsea thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I’ve wanted to be involved in the film and TV industry since I was a kid. I BEGGED my mom to let me be an actor. But we didn’t have the resources living in Nashville at the time. However, in hindsight, I wasn’t ready to be an actor as a child anyways. I would get nervous just calling Pizza Hut to order a pizza! There’s no way I could have confidently said lines in front of a camera. I think the confidence of actors I saw on TV was subconsciously my goal. I loved performing in front of my family and friends, though. I was goofy and strived to make people laugh, which is why I connected so well to Jim Carrey when I first saw him in Ace Ventura (yes, he’s still my hero).

I didn’t really start to gain my confidence in myself and the person I was in front of strangers until about 2018. I’m not sure what changed in me, maybe age or my job, but I suddenly stopped caring about what others thought. By the pandemic, I was shapeshifting into my most confident self and was ready to look into acting and improv classes. Now, I feel more ME than I ever did before.

I am so glad I waited to explore my dream because I am sure it would not have happened for me as my younger self. I fully believe everything happens for a reason and for me, I had to become the person I am today to even consider diving in head first to this industry. We all go through changes, experiences, and relationships in our lives and those are what mold us. So when the timing is right for something, you’ll know.

Chelsea, 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 like to say I’m a Spa Manager by day and Actor by night. However, my education is in Art History! I have a Bachelor’s in Art History and Anthropology and a Master’s in Museum Studies. My career path obviously changed directions and I’m totally fine that it did. I honestly don’t think I’d be able to follow my dreams in film and TV if I had continued down the museum path, although I still have a place in my heart for art.

I’ll skip the spa part and jump to how I got into acting. I actually started in Improv, which I am so glad I did because it really built up my confidence even more. I also did a little work in voiceovers before I began taking acting classes. Nashville has a lot of great resources for actors as far as classes, workshops, and an amazing community of people who share the same passion. I love comedy and hope to hone in on that some day but for now I do a little bit of everything.

I’m the most proud of myself for just jumping in and making it happen. I used to just talk about how much I’d love to be on TV or in movies or how I wish I could learn filmmaking, but now that I’ve cleared my own path for this, I realize how easy it is to go after what you really want. That cheesy saying is true: “If you can dream it, you can do it”. And this applies to everyone! You just have to ask yourself what it is that is holding you back from really carving out your destiny and making it a life that you couldn’t be happier living.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I believe that to host a thriving ecosystem of creatives, of any capacity, society must realize how necessary the creatives are. Many schools around the country have put the arts (art, music, theater, etc) on the back burner and this takes away an outlet for children to harness their creativity and to grow into well rounded adults. Children NEED to be creative to learn how to function in this world. Especially living through a pandemic, it is evident that us humans need to be free to express ourselves through music, comedy, social media videos, art, writing, or whatever else calls to you.

Thankfully we have the internet now that allows us to more easily connect to like-minded people but there are so many still in this world that don’t believe careers in the arts are viable or necessary. I’ve heard many stories from friends in the arts that say their parents were against them going down that path because it “wouldn’t make money” or “isn’t a real job”. This is completely unfair. However, I think our younger generations wont face those same extremes because we are all starting to realize how important the arts really are.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being creative?

The most rewarding part of being an actor, or anything in the creative spaces, is the journey of merely creating something! It’s such a cool experience seeing things that you care so deeply about come to life. I used to be an artist (painter) and it has a similar feeling to being an actor; you’re bringing your ideas and emotions to the canvas, or on screen, and watching them grow into the final product…something of which can bring out someone else’s emotions or ideas. It’s all a domino effect. We can all learn and inspire each other!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.chelseaconnerley.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/chelsealconnerley

Image Credits
Katty Danger Sara De L a Haya Jake Visuals DL Shots Raena Skyy