Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Keith Illidge. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Keith, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I was 10 years old. My fifth grade class put up a staged show for the school and our families. I was playing a lawyer to the weatherman. I can’t recall what the whole story was, but it was a fun kid show. I do remember how much energy and love the audience was giving us and I felt, in that moment, so powerful and magnetic. I received a lot of laughs. It made me feel so joyful that I could impact the audience in a way that I never felt I could by just being me. I was very shy then, even now to some degree.

Doing that play and feeding off the audience’s participation, I knew right then that I wanted to do this professionally because I love and enjoy doing it and I knew I could do it. I always believed that you should find a career that you would love to do everyday and want to keep getting better at. I found mine.

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

I feel like I’m many things. I’m a dreamer. A fighter. A hard worker. I’m very passionate. I’m driven. All the traits I believe that helps me pursue a career like this. It’s not an easy business, but I’ve never been the one to go for the easy route in life.

I was born in Delaware. Raised by my Mother and Father. I have two siblings. One brother and one sister. I’m the baby of the family so I was spoiled hahaha. My family will tell you that I loved watching movies as a kid. All kinds of films too. Animation being one of my favorites at the time and still is.

My family can recall times where I’m sitting real close to the tv, eyes glued in, nothing else matters in that moment but the film I’d be watching. I would watch a film more than one time always. I would watch a film from beginning to end including the credits in one sitting a lot. I appreciated every person that makes a film possible that, watching the credits at the end of a movie every time, was ritual for me. I was fascinated by characters as well.

Plenty of times I would make believe different characters and just play. I would be all around the house playing different characters by myself. I swear I did play with other kids when I was younger too (haha), but that feeling of being able to ‘be’ in the present moment and not be judged or fearful someone might think I was crazy was so beautiful, and I cherish that I was able to have that kind of freedom and play as a child. It did go away for some time but I’m so glad I found it again.

Finding that bug to want to play different characters who weren’t totally me as Keith, but a part of who I am, held onto to me through high school, where I participated in drama club all four years. All the way to college when I would perform professionally in Philadelphia theatres. All the way to grad school getting my Master’s in acting, and now having a career in it being based in Chicago.

I’m so proud of where I am as an artist right now. Even more proud of what is to come. I’ve been blessed to play characters I feel represent who I am as a person. Strong willed. Hard worker. Generous. Passionate. Goofy. Charismatic. Fighter to the end. Just to name a few.

This is a craft and I value that. I’m always looking to improve myself and get better with every project I do. I’ve played in ensemble based shows, two-handers, one man show (which really stretched me in ways I didn’t know I could go), big shows, small shows, short films, feature films, voice overs, commercials, and the list continues.

What I most want to bring to my work for others is to inspire. Truly. Whether they get the ambition to do what they love to do through the work I bring forth, or want to inspire change amongst the world. I believe art can heal. I’m just a vessel ready to serve and let the work continue to inspire and change others around me that we may live in a world we deem livable.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Everything I did to get here took hard work and discipline. It’s still hard. I made decisions based on my passion and had to do a lot of it on my own. Prior to grad school, I didn’t have any formal training. I was going off of natural talent. I worked in the business as well being mentored by some folks I deem my family forever.

I remember working overnight at an Amazon warehouse to raise the funds for me to do an intensive for 8 weeks in NY. I was also applying to do another intensive in philly for 14 weeks. All of which I did and it really gave me the bug to want to train more classically. So, that year, I auditioned for grad schools. That was in 2014. I auditioned for 8 schools. Got callback for half of them and accepted to 2. This was my first year ever auditioning so I just felt really good about that.

I think the dedication to work 6pm to 6am four days out of the week for six months to raise the money to do these intensives, which didn’t provide housing either. I had to make my way up to Philadelphia and New York 3-4 days a week for four months straight. And, still maintain a job. I was working hard y’all. If that ain’t resilient, I don’t know what is.

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

I think the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is that I’m an agent for change. I’m very empathetic to a lot of things. To be able to step into a different character’s skin and tell their story, makes it not only fun, but very rewarding to share this person’s story.

That in doing so, I hope I can make an impact and change a certain view or bias that people may have to this particular character I’m playing. That way an audience member one day may come across a person like that in real life, and think twice before they’re quick to judge or, hopefully have empathy too for that person. I think that’s the start of a fire being lit for change. Helping people better themselves or analyzing their own ignorances.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @klou_theartist

Image Credits
Joe Mazza, Elias Rios, Michael Brosilow