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

Hi Rachel, thanks for joining us today. Looking back on your career, have you ever worked with a great leader or boss? We’d love to hear about the experience and what you think made them such a great leader.

When I was working multiple day jobs to make ends meet, I babysat for an incredible and supportive family with a young child. They asked me in my interview about my aspirations, and I noted that I was a performer and writer in the comedy space. They ended up contacting a friend of theirs who worked with The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and got me an interview to intern with them. Even while I was nannying for them, they always referred to me as a “performer and writer,” and would ask about my next projects (they even came to a couple of my plays!) It reframed the way I thought about myself, and instead of telling people that I was a nanny, I felt assured telling them that I was a performer and writer. That sort of positive energy has helped tremendously with my confidence in auditions and meetings, and I credit a lot of my success in the creative field to that change in thinking.

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?

My name is Rachel Eddy, and I am an actor, singer, writer, and comedian based in Brooklyn, NY. Along with my brother, Bobby, I am the the co-creator of the award-winning short JEW(ISH), produced under our production company, Eddy for Eddything. JEW(ISH) is currently being developed into a feature film. Some favorite performance credits include OUR DEAR DEAD DRUG LORD (Zoom), THE MUSIC MAN (Zaneeta), YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN (Lucy), and THE 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE (Logainne). I am a UCB-trained improviser and sketch comedian with over 60k followers on TikTok for my original characters, but I am perhaps best known for giving her lice to her entire pre-college program, many of whom have gone on to star on stage and screen. I graduated from University of Miami with her BFA in musical theatre. For more shenanigans, check me out @kingofeddything and www.rachelbeddy.com.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

One of my biggest goals driving me forward in my creative journey is to bring up my talented colleagues with me. I find it so fulfilling to collaborate with friends who have been along with me on the journey, and whose work I admire. I commend creatives in the industry who work with people they met in class, or on a project (BROAD CITY, PEN15, just to name a couple)–I also think it makes for incredible entertainment. I aspire to be in a position of power one day where I can hire those creatives who I started with and properly compensate them for their hard work.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I studied Musical Theatre in college and hit the pavement hard post-graduation, auditioning in NYC and trying to get myself seen in any room that would have me. I ended up drained, physically and emotionally, and realized I needed to be more strategic about my way into the industry. I am fortunate to have a brother, who also studied Musical Theatre with me in college (a fun story for another time), and we both took an interest in screenwriting and playwriting in our time in the conservatory program at University of Miami. We decided to collaborate on a short film that we could write together as a vehicle for ourselves, both as writers and actors. We took classes on financing and production, and complied a scrappy team of devoted creatives to realize our vision. The short, JEW(ISH), premiered at film festivals across the country, and helped us get our foot in the door with production companies and agencies interested in our creative voice. Writing roles for ourselves was the sneaky shortcut into playing the kinds of characters we wanted to play.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rachelbeddy.com
• Instagram: @kingofeddything
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kingofeddything
• Other: TikTok @kingofeddything

Image Credits
Jessica Osber Photography