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

Alright, Sarah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

My journey to making my living fully from my creative career has been years in the making. After I graduated from conservatory, I think I (naively) believed I would be one of those people who made it BIG very quickly. But, in the back of my head I heard a teacher of mine at USC say that “overnight stars” were, in actuality, usually 10 years in the making. I remember really not wanting to believe that. However, my career would end up being full of peaks and valleys for the next 10 years. Although I had an incredible 10 episode arc on “24” (due to the a scheduling mistake and the incredible efforts of Cherry Jones and one of our producers, Brad Turner); I wouldn’t appear on screens for years. It was almost like going through a metamorphosis of my identity, both as an artist and as a person. I worked several gig-worker-type jobs; I cleaned houses, drove for Uber and Lyft, personal assisted through Task Rabbit. Finally, in 2017 I was cast as Viola in Twelfth Night at PCPA, and from that point on, I would work in theater consistently (either going straight into another stage play or knowing what my next job was) for the next 5 years. Through theater, I found my voice over agent, Dean Panaro, who would shake up my career-path in a way I would never expect. I never trained in voice over, nor had any goals to work as a voice over actor, until I started working in it. All of a sudden, I was making the kind of money (in a very short amount of time), like I had expected myself to be making when I graduated from USC. I have had several straight offers, and working as a voice over actor, has given me the life I had dreamed of. I now have a booth in my home and coach other actors in a part of the industry most of us (if not all of us), have never been trained in or learned how to do. Later this year, I am producing two features films, one of which I am also starring in. My career has turned into the career beyond my wildest dreams.

I think one thing I would have changed to helped my process, or perhaps, helped speed up the process of acclimating and accepting the discomfort of this industry (which is a symptom all of us who work in it experience regardless of our beginnings and/or end goals), is allowing the path of my career to be exciting and curious to me. I definitely had and still have big goals, but it was the seemingly “off-the-path” choices which actually lead me to my path. For example, being very dedicated to theater, helped me get my voice over agent, even dating the “wrong” person, lead me to working and being friends with a big indie film producer, which has been instrumental in being able to produce projects I couldn’t be more excited to make. It’s like saying yes to the Universe and what it’s presenting to me, instead of pigeon-holing myself to the way I thought my career was “supposed” to look like. Theater welcomed me with open arms and I gladly went where it was warm, after feeling like Hollywood was closing its doors to me. It’s almost as if all of the “nos” I was getting were more like redirects; more like, “no not this way, go over there”. Once I got into voice over, I booked a lead in a film, and began producing several series and films. And, now, my creative life is how I fully support myself.

Sarah , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I began my career more like a wish, as so many of us do. I knew I wanted to be an actor by the time I was four years old and have spent nearly my entire lifetime chipping away to actualizing my dreams. I grew up in Boston, the daughter of two physician parents, who knew nothing about this industry or even how to support me through it. By another (bad, but also good) luck of the draw, I ended up graduating from Walnut School of the Arts in Natick, MA and was off to Los Angeles to go to USC, which surprised me, as I always dreamt I would have gone to either Juilliard or NYU (for reference, my parents didn’t let me apply to Julliard but I did get into NYU, and decided to go to USC instead). I found the culture in more professional settings difficult. Here I was, a White, Black, and Jewish young woman in LA, being asked to portray only certain elements of myself; always met with a surprise when I told people what my ethnicity was, as if I was the first of my “kind.” I was driven by the intense desire to see myself represented up on the screen. But, there were a lot of “nos”, a lot of redirects, a lot of not being seen or heard, a lot of feeling like I didn’t belong.

Flash forward, I have forged my own communities, my own path. My production company Métisse Story, pays tribute to the interracial upbringing I was raised in (along with dual spiritual and lingo household). The core of my inspiration comes from the idea of bringing stories of the untold, the unseen, and the unusual, to the world and creating a space of inclusivity on the screens and beyond, that have traditionally wanted us to fit into boxes or categories. I am dedicated to making space for integration, for the belonging of all; as, I believe, we all belong to each other and ourselves.

I started coaching actors in voice over, because I believe we don’t have to sacrifice life for art; because one informs the other. I can go on vacation, have a family, and have health insurance because of my career in voice over. I believe we all deserve to have we want. My production company, born out of the money I make in voice over, looks for projects that are innovative, interesting and tell the stories of people usually untold. The projects I choose to act in either on stage or screens, are intentional to continuing to follow my natural hearts wishes and the stories that light me up and encourage the deep and unifying conversations that are also in alignment with my purpose.

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

Something I had to unlearn was the belief that something (and sometimes, anything) other than my voice and my authentic Self, is what would get the job. For the longest time, I feel like I had been taught to “put on a character” or a voice, in order to give casting what I believed they wanted. In reality, what they have always wanted was me. The process of truly knowing myself has been a lifetime journehy (my mixed race experience lead me to more chameleonism than to authenticity). However, once I got into voice over, the only thing that ended up booking me consistent work was my voice, without any frills or “putting on.” This was something my agent, Dean, drilled into every impulse, which I use in every audition. Luckily, I had previously spent years getting to know myself and unlearning code switching (in both directions), finding what my real voice was, which has totally changed every aspect of acting for me. I no longer make myself sound like what I “think” someone else wants. I present myself, how I look, how I sound and the more true I am to me, the more the doors have opened in my favor. In fact, it was my voice, it’s natural pitch and cadence, which scored me one of the most exciting roles in my entire career: a new Disney Princess out of the Frozen-verse, Queen Disa! It’s who I have always been, the real and authentic me that has helped me walk through doors or “gates” and produce multi-million dollar films. It’s like the Wizard of Oz says, the answer was inside me all along.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I had been trying to get over to the film and tv department at my theater agency for years; in fact, ever since I first signed with them back in 2018. There were always reasons, they couldn’t meet with me or sign me (ie. their roster was full, I was doing too much theater etc). Finally in 2022, I met with an agent there, who was excited to sign me; saying that they had been waiting for me to stop being out of town and performing in so much theater, so I could really focus on my on-camera career. I was elated, went out and got my headshots ,as I was told to do, and was instructed to be patient (it was the summer and auditions are always a bit slower then). I got my headshots and sent them over to my “new” agents for their selects and within 30 minutes, I received an email from the head of the tv/film department stating that although they had a long conversation about me, they wouldn’t be able to offer me representation. I was shocked, to say the least. I wrote back to him and cc’d the other two agents (including the one who was excited to work with me) explaining my confusion, as I had already been offered representation and had been led to believe I was a client. All he wrote back was that he was sorry to be the “bearer of bad news” and wished me luck. I was heartbroken. It brought up all the old feelings of not being good enough, not being seen, the lack of belonging, the feeling of there not being a place for me even within my own agency. What I didn’t know was how I was being saved. Only two years later, that agency would shut down for failing to pay their clients residuals (I believe over $1 million in residuals have yet to be paid) and the original agent who was excited about me, ended up at a better agency and I am now signed with him over there. But, going through all of the old feelings of inadequacy shows me that not only did I survive, I have thrived. My voice over agent is the best agent I’ve ever had; he’s always seen me, celebrated me, validated my talents and continues to help me get to the next level. I didn’t let the reaction of one agency, or one yes-turned-into-no, make me stop believing in myself or my talents. I have continued on, believing in myself, finding myself and allowing redirection from the Universe to show me where to go.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sarahhollis.com
• Instagram: @mssarahhollis
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/ sarahhollis-metisse
• Other: Bluesky: @sarahhollis.bsky.social

  Frozen Forces of Nature Podcast:
  Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3S8heZSudTbZ9ndVBovte1?si=Jtg7ihWbQaK1NWC1Fw_50A
  Apple Music
  ABC Audio: https://abcaudio.com/podcasts/disneyfrozen/

Image Credits

Ben Cope
Mercy Hasselblad
Javier Ruiz
Tony Zamarripa