We recently connected with Georgie Harriet-King and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Georgie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
In the past year I have been able to earn a full-time living from creative work, albeit humble! It’s been a long old journey, when I left school, I started working in a primary school as a teaching assistant at the age of 18. By 19 I was really unwell mentally and struggling to cope with feeling stifled in a 9-5 and running a creative coaching business. In 2021, I was signed off sick from work for two weeks and in that time off, I heard back from an audition and found out I had booked my first role in a feature film. It was at that moment I knew it was time to take the plunge, with a lot of hesitation and support from my partner at the time, I handed in my notice at the school and became self employed! The years that followed were a mix of highs and lows, I certainly struggled with running a business and juggling acting – not necessarily because the acting work was flowing but more that it was all I wanted to do and the business was necessary to survive. I certainly wasn’t the best business partner in the world and something I have really been working is motivating myself to keep working in areas that I don’t find as interesting, I think I could have been earning full time living from acting a lot sooner if I had pushed myself more to do the boring stuff! It took me a really long time to work out that being an actor is running a business in itself. You are your own manager, agent, PR and PA at the start and even if you aren’t on stage or set, you are always in demand.
I started out working mainly in independent horror films, that was where the work was and honestly, I have always had so much fun making horror films! The years passed and through building connections and meeting amazing people, I have been working consistently since 2021! Sadly in 2024 the business I ran with my then partner was no longer sustainable for us both and we decided to call it a day but what a blessing it was to have worked with so many awesome people over the years, lots of who I still work with now!
Now I am so blessed to work on a huge mix of projects, from award winning tv show ‘Sunday League” playing a female footballer (which is hilarious considering I have never kicked a ball in my life) to Christian theatre tours visiting Prisons, schools and churches. Nearing the end of the year, I have been able to book an acting job every single month of the year with no agent and no casting site applications. Looking back, I think a lot of money could have been saved by getting rid of casting sites earlier and spending that money on hanging out with more creatives! Making meaningful connections and creating my own work has honestly been the biggest boost in. my career. I will be honest, it’s never a huge amount of money and some months I’m scraping pennies together to put fuel in my car to get to jobs but for now, the work is still coming and the fire is still burning so I guess that means the journeys not over!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a full time actor and writer from the UK. I found a love for acting when I was In secondary school, it was this awesome realisation that I could be someone else instead of an awkward, spotty teenager! I now work full time in the acting industry working in a variety of jobs from plays, musical theatre, films and tv. Over the years I have written 5 feature films and I am currently working on a dark sitcom series called “Slugs” with one of my best friends, Alex J Carter, which usually consists of us voice noting each other weird things that happen to us day-to-day that we think “that has to go in the series”.
As a creative, I am a huge advocate of creating your own opportunities! I firmly believe that whilst the acting industry is tough, you can still work and thrive even if you don’t take the traditional route of drama school. I never trained (No shade on drama school though, if you can train, go for it!) I am self represented currently, I have two year old headshots (don’t worry, I look the same) and the only subscription I have is spotlight which I use purely to send over my pin for potential castings and never apply for jobs on there. I love to share with other new creatives how transformative building meaningful connections with other creatives can be… that’s how I got this interview… thanks Lauren Jane Barnett! ;)
Also, having worked in the independent horror scene for a while, it has certainly given me some really crazy and interesting experiences that has allowed me to see different areas of the industry! I hadn’t lived until I was running through the woods at night, barefoot and covered in fake blood…though a rom-com would be nice if anyone is casting!
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
In honesty, I think non creatives struggle to understand why anyone would ever be mad enough to choose this life! I am so blessed to be working but don’t get it twisted, there are so many sacrifices made to be able to do so. I don’t go out, I don’t really have many friends outside of work because work is my life. When people ask, “so what do you do when you’re not working?”, my response is usually, “working”. It’s not really a chore, you know the old saying, “if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.”- I feel like that is half true! I recently worked on a independent film titled ‘Rapunzel’s Revenge’, we were flown out to the location, we all stayed there and worked together and whilst it was such an interesting historical place to stay and I worked with some amazing people…it was also really hard work! We worked 14 hours some days in the cold and rain, away from home, in corsets and big heavy costumes performing fight scenes! I should say, I’m not complaining, we do it because we love it and every night I went to bed, I praised God that this is my life but it doesn’t make it any easier when you are exhausted and a little bit home sick!
When non creatives ask about my acting career, It is a never ending streaming of “well your industry is really hard”, “I had a friend who-“, “What’s your real job?” and “Don’t you want to have more stability?”
All viable things to think of I guess but I think we drastically undervalue the importance of creativity in the world. I do it myself… I catch myself saying “Oh well, acting isn’t rocket science, it’s not important”. And no, it’s not rocket science but it IS important. During the COVID lockdowns, people flocked to streaming services to feel connected to stories during a time of isolation. When I watch things on telly, I sometimes feel comfort in seeing celebrities I’ve seen before, you feel like you sort of know them, even though you don’t! That is part of the importance of art, it is there to comfort, inspire and educate – something everyone can find useful!
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I really had to unlearn that rejection is a bad thing. Rejection really is redirection. There have been jobs I have gone for that I have been desperate to book and it broke me when I didn’t but within days, weeks or sometimes months, it was made clear that I was never meant to work on that job at that time! Just because things don’t work out how you expect, it doesn’t mean they don’t work out!
The best example I can give of this is back in 2022, I had just got back from shooting a really hard hitting film in Ireland called ‘The Art of Abuse’. I was on holiday and had told myself, you need to rest and take a break… now the rules of acting are that the minute you book a holiday… you will get a self tape! So I shot this tape on the balcony of the lodge we were staying in, it was for the role of the lead character’s girlfriend that was absolutely horrible, it was a smallish role but I loved it! I sent the tape and the director replied “I love it, you got the job”. I was over the moon… until he sent the shooting dates and I already had a job booked in. I thought “great, I work tirelessly to actually book jobs and never do and now I have two but I can’t do both!”. Of course, I apologised and wished them all the best with the project, picked myself up and cracked on. Fast forward to 2024… I was on set of a small, independent short film. We took a break and I went outside to cool down when they were resetting the cameras as it was super hot and sweaty in the room we were shooting in. Another guy who was working on the shoot said ” you auditioned for my TV show but you couldn’t do it because you weren’t free on the dates”. It was the director of the show! I couldn’t believe it! I once again said “Oh man, I so wanted to work on your project, sorry it didn’t work out, how did it go?”… after a bit of chit chat, he mentioned that he was making a second episode and asked if I would want to be involved! I, of course, said YES! To cut a very long story short, he wrote me in as a lead role in the series, which has now gone on to win over 20 awards and has interest from some big production companies! Rejection is redirection!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12695143/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georgie_harrietkingxo/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@georgieking5403
