Today we’d like to introduce you to Karina Willis.
Hi Karina, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
As the youngest of three, I was born in Laguna Niguel, CA, lived in Naperville, IL until I was eight and then moved to Alpharetta, GA through high school. Although my family moved around a lot growing up, a constant through-line in my life was movies. Some of my earliest childhood memories involve going to Blockbuster on Friday nights as a family (a tradition started by the ultimate movie-lover in my family, my Dad) or spending Saturday nights at the movie theater. It would take years to discover I wanted to be an actress, but I quickly learned as a child that movies were my safe place.
As a painfully shy, introverted girl, I was very active in soccer, piano and eventually theatre. I quickly fell in love with the process of imagination and the freedom that came with performing, which then led me to Tallahassee, FL.
Flash forward to 2017, I was a graduate of the BFA Acting Program at Florida State University and then began my professional TV/Film acting career in Atlanta.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The road in this industry is anything but smooth and linear! I have only been at this professionally for six years and have had so many ups and downs along the way. Rejection is a huge part of being an actor and I have had to learn repeatedly that I can control only what I can control. Once the audition is over, it is completely out of my hands and I’m on to the next. Sometimes you get a callback, sometimes you get silence- either way, it’s so important to celebrate the small wins and keep showing up! I would be lying if I said that it is always easy to let go of auditions for projects that feel so right, but at the end of the day, I believe that what is for me is for me and every “no” that I get just gets me closer to that “yes”.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a SAG-AFTRA actress with a background in theatre that specializes in Film/TV. My recent credits include The Game (Paramount Plus), Boomerang (BET) and Christmas in Mississippi (Lifetime).
Contact Info:
- Email: karinamorganwillis@gmail.com
- Website: https://www.imdb.me/karinawillis
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karina.willis/
Image Credits
Emily Lambert Photography
