CelebrityHauteSpot

Photo Credit: Birdie Thompson (@birds_eye_photo)

Makeup: Allison Noelle (@allisonnoellemakeup)

1. How did you get your start in the entertainment industry? 

I’m guessing my family would say I’ve always been a performer!

I began performing full-time in the summer of 2001 while in Chicago. After doing a lot of training, performing, and teaching in the improv and sketch communities there, I found an agent and started auditioning. I had my first costar on Shameless, as they film their exteriors in Chicago. I created a lot of content in Chicago, too. That’s a city full of talent and people who are always willing to try something new, which is a wonderful environment to create and try new things. I co-created and produced my first web series there, Rick & Len Fix Shit In Your House with my friend. I learned a lot about producing and production during that process, and we had some success submitting to festivals. I really wanted to be doing this work, on set, all day, every day!

 

2. How did you land your role on “Successful People”?

I landed the role of Kimberly Hawkes, the most annoying and amazing woman on the planet, from the co-creators, stars, and producers, Artie O’Daly & Theresa Ryan. I had met Artie in my acting class here in L.A. and had performed in one of his shorts. He reached out and asked if I would be willing to play this role- he thought I would be perfect for it and knew I could bring a lot of fun to it.

 

3. What is “Successful People” about? 

Successful People is about two singer-songwriters, Chet and Laura, who fear that success may have passed them by, and what lengths they are willing to go to make their dreams come true. It’s a comedic series full of music and all kinds of fun characters. In Season 1, my character is introduced late in the game. Just when the protagonists think that they have lost all hope, they run into Kimberly who went to high school with Chet and has married into incredible success… and wealth, infidelity, addiction, and more. She sets up a meeting with a music producer and they get their big break!

 

Season 2 picks up right after Season 1 ends, and my character comes back to act as the talent manager for Chet and Laura, trying to help them become viral sensations. As you can imagine, we get to see more obnoxious behavior from Kimberly with other people in the industry, as well as Chet and Laura.

 

4. What makes it different from other. projects that you’ve worked on? 

Primarily, Season 2 is different because it was more of a character written for me. I tend to write my own content for myself, or do characters here and there for shorts, instead of recurring. So this was really fun having someone know what I’d already done for this character, and then write more for her to do. The stakes are so high in this series so it’s a dream to work on. We get to be really wild and have fun, and there is a lot of improv on set, which I love.

 

5. What other acting projects have you previously worked on? 

Before I left Chicago, I was in The Katydid’s Teachers web series, which they ultimately turned into a series on TV Land. I have been a recurring costar on their first two seasons as Teri, a mean parent at the school. Here in LA, I created a web series DOG MOMS, which parodies Dance Moms of Lifetime TV. I play Waggy Lee Miller, who trains dogs how to dance competitively. It was a blast, using friends and their dogs and really poking fun at that reality show.

 

Here in L.A. I’ve just come off a great fall, where I was on This Is Us on NBC and Modern Family on ABC, where my scene was with Chris Martin of Coldplay! That was a really fun day on set. It was on location and the entire crew was super excited about having Chris Martin there. I’ve also been on Black-ish on ABC, as well.

 

6. What are the most rewarding and challenging parts of the industry? 

I love collaborating with people, so TV/Film is a wonderful industry to collaborate and create a finished product. I really enjoy being on set and seeing all the different components that make the whole machine work. When you are coming from producing your own content, it’s a joy to be an actor and not have to worry about everything else- like feeding the crew, making sure we have all the props, getting all of our shots in before we lose daylight, etc.

 

As for what’s challenging: you have very little control. As an actor, most of your time is spent being unemployed, looking for work. That doesn’t work for everyone, and I totally get that! For me, I really enjoy being eager to work and doing my best to control what I can when I audition, including working on my craft and feeling confident when I approach a script.

 

7. Do you have any other upcoming projects? 

Yes! I’m super excited because I’m in the upcoming season of LOVE on Netflix (releasing March 10). It was an amazing time shooting on that set and I got to work with some actors who I remember watching on TV as I was growing up.

 

8. What are your social media accounts? 

IG: @itslinke

Twitter: @itslinke

FB: www.facebook.com/itslinke/

Snap: itslinke

 

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