We recently connected with Izzy Miller and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Izzy, thanks for joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

As a young person, it might sound strange for me to say that I wish I had started my career earlier. However, I think that if I started earlier I would be a lot further along today. Many successful teen actresses and actors started working in the entertainment industry when they were babies. They gained opportunities and collected contacts before they could talk. I have spent the last three years discovering what I like to do and finding the path that I want to take. Now that I know how I want to spend my life, I have to build my career from square one. Because I am in that weird transition period between child and young adult, it seems hard to find how and where I fit in the industry. I’m too old for some things, but too young for others. It can be a little discouraging because I am not always able to work as often as I would like. However, even though I want to be able to act more often professionally, I am really happy because I recently got accepted into a conservatory arts high school. This is an opportunity to do what I love every day, even if it’s not as a professional. Acting has never been something I’ve done as part of my everyday life for more than one or two months at a time. I’ll be getting the experience and I will be pushed to be better. I’m excited.

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

I work most often as an actor, but I also dance and sing. I started working in performing arts two years ago in a community theatre production of Frozen Jr. where I played Young Elsa. After that experience, I participated in more productions at that theatre while also taking acting lessons.
I started background acting to learn about acting on camera. It was better than a class, and I learned a lot. I had a lot of fun on the different sets but I stopped background work because I wanted to take on more speaking roles. Since then I have had a lot of great experiences working on a lot of projects including short films and a web series. For example, last year I worked as the lead on an audio series podcast where I got a nice review from Black Audio Dramas Exist. Also last year, I worked on my first professional theatre production (until that production, my stage experience was all community theatre). I was called back which led to three more productions at the same theatre. Getting called back felt great! Most recently, I attended the Atlanta Film Festival for a screening of the short film Maya in which I played the titular character.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My pivot in life was actually how I got into acting in the first place. Prior to acting I was very academically focused. I started reading at two and started doing basic math not too long after. My extracurricular interests included robotics, chess, and academic enrichment summer camps. I have been in book clubs since I was in kindergarten or first grade. After the COVID-19 virus became more widespread, my school shut down. I ended up homeschooling for two years. During those two years I learned a lot, but I craved socialization. It was then that my mom found out about an introduction to theatre program. It was a lot of fun and I realized how much I enjoy acting and dancing. I gained a lot of confidence and eventually (with a bit of persuading) decided to audition for Frozen Jr. I got a role and throughout that experience my love for the art flourished. Since then I have performed in both community and professional theatre, as well as films and television. I recently received my first professional theatre review and was honored with the Best Youth Performance award at last year’s Baltimore Next Media Web Fest. Without that camp, and frankly, if not for COVID-19, I might not have found my passion. 

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I think that the most rewarding part of being an artist is connecting with people—both my cast and the audience. I really felt it this winter and spring. I worked on three different stage productions in a black box theatre. Performing without a mic in that environment really pushed me to connect with the audience. Emotional scenes in A Christmas Carol and The Crucible feel kind of like an out of body experience because you’re playing a different person, but you’re all kind of bouncing off each other and relying on each other’s energy.
We’re all trying our best and doing our best for ourselves, but there’s also a found community within it when we’re on stage. It’s great.
I feel like I learned so much about myself, both by playing the characters and from the people that I worked with. I could feel how our performances impacted the audience.
Being able to reach someone’s heart makes me so happy. Knowing that someone was able to enjoy themselves or learn something new through my art is incredible.
The fact that people received the message from a story that I performed in makes me realize that this is what I was meant to do. I was meant to be a vessel for art and truth; I was meant to be a storyteller.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.izzybmiller.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/izzybmiller

Image Credits

Aisha Butler Photography
Command Studios
DC Theater Arts
Jason Wang
Nadera Herbert-Bey
Sally Boyett Photography