We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kelly Quinn a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

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

I guess you could actually say I started very young. My mom got me involved in modeling and acting when I was about 4 years old. I had an agent and everything and remember making many drives up from San Diego to LA for various auditions. I remember that I enjoyed memorizing things for the auditions but eventually my parents decided that they couldn’t maintain the schedule and demands of commitment. We really just didn’t have the budget. So it was dropped.

I remember I still tried to rally by being in local community youth theater productions and I loved when we had performances! There will always be a part of me that wonders “what if?” I could have started my acting career at that age? I know my life would have been very different but I sometimes have nostalgia thinking about it.

In college, I also took a couple elective theater classes and was encouraged by a good friend to audition for the drama plays but I was too chicken to try. Again, I had loans and things that I needed to pay off after graduation and I didn’t feel that I had the freedom to really pursue acting even though my secret interest and desire was there. I knew that I would not have a lot of support from my family with it so I, again, didn’t really pursue it. I also wonder about this time, again What IF? Why didn’t I fight harder? I don’t know honestly. I think it took awhile for me to acknowledge to myself how much I really wanted to act. As if I thought that I was being irrational and silly and it was just some sort of hobby interest that would fade. I think I would have really loved to have tried to do some kind of Theater program and start the training that could have been so helpful for learning basics. Would this have affected my career? I assume so but I’m not sure how. I still wish I would have done it to be more true to myself. I think the big learning point is that it took me so long to put my real desires forward instead of belittling them.

Looking back now though, I am so thankful to have the life experiences I have had as I feel that they have so greatly helped me with my acting. I have so many things to pull from and that I have gone through to at least have some frame of reference for my characters’ experiences. Without it, it would be a lot more of my imagination (which is not bad at all!) but not quite as informed as I feel it has been by real life. I am glad that I finally said out loud what I really wanted and am continuing to pursue it.

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

For those who haven’t met me, I had a decade long career in law enforcement both at the local and federal level before I began pursuing an acting career. I always argue that part of me was trying to act because I did some undercover operations and work while I was in law enforcement. I was getting ready to retire and my wonderful husband asked me, “what’s one thing you have you always wanted to try?” and I finally admitted “acting.” He very nonchalantly said, “so why don’t you?” Haha, he is always the optimist and dreamer and he really encouraged me to go for it.

I started out in LA training with Howard Fine at Howard Fine Acting Studio right as the pandemic was taking hold and there was this massive shift in the industry to zoom and online. I was able to do a few short films and one feature before life circumstances moved us to Chicago in 2022. I have been slowly plugging into and learning the market here as it is very different from LA. I just recently completed the Inaugural Conservatory Program at Vagabond Acting Studio in Chicago and was the lead in a short film called Holy Shit! that was screened at Northwestern University.

I also have served as a law enforcement consultant on film and was a background actor and worked as a consultant for the film Wake Up which has been featured on Delta flights and is getting ready for DVD release now. It won Most Impactful Film and the Sedona Film Festival in 2022. For my role as a consultant, I essentially read over the script and than am available on set for the scenes involving law enforcement tactics and methods. Some examples include helping the DP set up the shots for showing a SWAT team approach to a building, training the background actors portraying officers how to hold a gun and move together to clear a building, etc.

I think what sets me apart as an actor, although this is hard to say as I can feel the “imposter syndrome” start to kick in, is that I tend to be very intense and have a strong opinion about the character I am portraying. I feel protective over them and that their viewpoint is important. At least, that is how I feel; hopefully my work reflects that belief.

I am most proud of my persistence in staying true to myself in pursuing my acting goals and how far I’ve come! I still make myself watch some of my first self tapes so that I can see how all my hard work in classes and study has affected my craft! It can be painful but it is such a reminder that discipline and work will lead to improvement. It also gives me something to look forward to in seeing my improvement over the next five years!

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

I think that very early on in my acting journey, I somehow felt that I really needed to fit into a mold of how others saw me or wanted to see me to be successful and effective. I especially felt this in the beginning in LA. I think part of that was also just not being honest with myself about who I really was.

Getting to Chicago and learning more through the conservatory, I was consistently encouraged by our instructors that I was the most impactful and strong when I was myself in the character. Any other actor reading this probably is thinking “duh!” but honestly it can be a very hard industry on your self esteem. The more I realized that bringing and finding myself in the role was how I would make a strong character, the more I started to see growth. This also meant that I had to be brutally honest with myself about what I was actually feeling, what I really wanted and needed, and why I was making the choices that I was. The self exploration and knowledge is so important but often slightly painful with this process. However, I don’t think you can really tell a story without being vulnerable in all the ways that are uncomfortable. That camera has to see the truth and it will reveal it absolutely.

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

I think what I find most rewarding is getting to explore sides of myself that have been a little more hidden in the shadows. Or simply challenging myself to get into a completely different headspace than what I usually operate in. I also love the journey you are going on with the whole team of other actors, director, crew etc. Getting to sit in a scene with another actor and really explore it is amazing and can be so difficult! Really exploring the vulnerability of what is happening between the two or more characters is fascinating to me. Finally, I also find it very cathartic as I get to maybe indulge or express things in a way that I don’t get to in my everyday life. It can be very affirming in many ways to get that release of emotion.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @kellyquinn315

Image Credits

Matt Stasi @stasiphoto
Ian McClaren @ianmclarenphoto
Pryde Pierce @prydepiercefilms