We were lucky to catch up with Dorrett White recently and have shared our conversation below.

Dorrett, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

You have to be willing to be seen! Just after the pandemic and two years of not booking a single acting gig, I was working a desk job to support my family and I really struggled with depression, low self worth and crumbling confidence. My identity as a performer was so tied to what project I was working on. So no projects = not a “real” actor in my mind, and if I wasn’t a “real” actor, then who was I? A family member recommended I take part in a free career coaching program for women, it was aimed at buisness professionals and not really artists but I was paired with a fantastic coach. I guess that was the first risk I took! With my coaches help, I was able to let go of a deadend job that was draining me, step back into my purpose and take the biggest risk of all: LETTING MYSELF BE SEEN! I decided to audition for The Canadian Film Centre (The CFC)’s Acting Conservatory, where 8 actors would be chosen to participate in career building workshops, getting to know the city’s top casting directors. I nearly didn’t submit my audition because I was still struggling with the mental noise: “You’re not relevant yet”, “You haven’t done enough acting work”, “You’re not good enough”. I had no idea that on the other side of that risk would be a nearly 20 episode recurring role on ‘Brilliant Minds’ (NBC) waiting for me to believe in myself.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am Dorrett White, a stage and screen actress from Toronto! Performing started out for me as a way to make my friends and family laugh. As a kid, I wasn’t excelling at school and there wasn’t as much access to after school programs so I spent a lot of time creating skits and performing them. As a Black plus size actress, it hasn’t been very easy to navigate the acting world because I don’t look like what people expect. There were even times on set where people assumed I was a background performer who got lost! Those moments really made me question if I belonged. But it is very important to me to continue pursuing a career in acting because just like me, there are young girls and women who want to be seen but maybe don’t feel like they belong. I hope to be someone they can look up to, because there are roles for everyone and every “type”!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

To be honest I am still unlearning this! Creatives! You do not need to ask for permission to share your work. I don’t know where I learned this, but I have this idea of ‘hiearchy’, which to me means, “you have to be at a certain level to do that thing you wanna do”. And that is NOT true! The only way to find the creatives you want to work with or aspire to be like – is to put your work out there! To try and fail rather than wait around for someone to tell you, you can!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Choosing a creative path is not the easier path and it’s not for lazy people. There is a desire to create and share that comes from deep within the artist you know. To not share is so incredibly hard! And unfourtunately our societies are not built for artists. The only reason we’re “starving” is because the world enjoys consuming but doesn’t respect the creation process.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @itsmedoor

Image Credits

George Pimentel