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

Kyglo, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I am beyond happy that I chose to risk my comfortable life to follow my dreams of being a professional artist. In no way was it easy, but where’s the feelings of satisfaction, accomplishment if it’s easy? Part of the hidden fun is realizing how much grit one has to go through in order to become the artist they are today. Don’t get me wrong. There are days where I don’t want to do the work. Not because I don’t like what I do, but because I’m challenged so intensely every single day, that it can become overwhelming at times. I’m consistently faced in class with my strengths, weaknesses and those of others, and when you spend 5-10 hours a day with the same people five days a week, it’s only a matter of time before the conflicts arise to meet their makers.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’ve been acting since I was in high school. My first acting class was theatre I and it did the job for this little mozarella stick. I decided to take it instead of Art class and boy oh boy, am I glad I did. It introduced me to a world of stories that I could act out with those around me. It’s also the only class where the teacher gave me detention multiple times for texting my mom. As I grew up, I decided to get a Computer Science degree because I knew I was going to have a lot of debt since my whole college was funded by federal student loans. I still took acting, movement, and voice classes in theatre, but it was minimal compared to the full track. After working as a web developer and traveling the world, I sat in my comfy bed in Kensington, London and realized I was still not satisfied with my life path. I knew web development was not my passion, it was just an instrument until I fully entered my passion. I knew the passion was acting, I just didn’t know how to get into it, especially after being out of college for such a long time and having the pandemic keep us indoors, I felt like I needed a jolt to get back into it. I decided to hire an Audition Coach for URTAs and worked for a couple of months before the official auditions. After getting a full ride scholarship to University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, I chose that university and I’ve been there for almost a year and a half. It’s been challenging, but the type of challenge that has made me who I am today.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Helping people reconnect to their emotional body. Due to so many outward and inward influences, the common coping mechanism is to become numb to what we feel, but theatre has a powerful affect by reconnecting people to their inner guidance system, their emotions. When I see someone in the audience cry, laugh, or even be filled with rage, I see a human accepting their humanity. I see a human accepting themselves fully in that moment, and there is nothing more beautiful to me than seeing someone light up with their full sense with no masks, no hiding, no stuffing fragments into corners to be hidden away. When my performance can encourage someone to feel what they feel in that moment, I’m inspired. It’s a two-way street.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I think building an audience on social media is not essential for living your passion of being an Artist. I feel like this whole idea of equating success to how many followers one has or how much money one makes is bull poop on a rinky dinky satellite. It’s giving into the beliefs that create so much suffering. Even the people who have millions of followers and dollars are still not happy. A long time ago back when I was in high school, I went viral on a social media app called Vine. I had millions of streams and, in my opinion, it wasn’t worth it. I had MTV reach out to me and asked if they could put it on their show and I turned it down because I didn’t want that video to become my whole “claim to fame.” I wanted to do what I love and have my love for what I do be the reason why others see me. If fame and money is your goal, then by all means go for it. But if your passion is rooted in your art, you’ll do it regardless of if you get paid for it or not. Regardless of if five people see it or five hundred. I encourage other actors to engage in their passion of acting around their community. Go to the local community theatre and audition for the plays. Become a regular. Support the arts. Support other local community theatres. Don’t do acting solely to get something materialistic out of it. Do it to connect with others. Do it change your community positively. Most importantly, do it for you.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: kyglowebb
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ky-webb-7a748611b/

Image Credits
Images come from Good Person of Setzuan by Bertolt Brecht and Valiente by Meliza Gutierrez.