Today we’d like to introduce you to Jaime Andrews.
Jaime, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
From the lead in the kindergarten play to playing Macbeth in 5th grade, being on stage has always been a passion. I asked for an agent for Christmas when I was eight (my mom was not amenable to this.) After grade school, I started taking classes and working in local community theater on Long Island. I moved into NYC after school and began pursuing my art in earnest. I studied Meisner with Robert X. Modica and improv with Armando Diaz and got into an improv group and a couple of theater companies. Like many actors, I started doing commercial print (including a Stoli campaign that saw my likeness on billboards and the sides of Manhattan buildings… That was fun.) From there I moved into television commercials, finally garnering me a SAG card. My improv background booked me my first TV show, Crash Test, in which improvisers crashed real parties and got points for pulling off various feats. I thought it was my big break, but it was canceled after 2 episodes, ha.
I realized if I was going to make headway, I had to move to Los Angeles, where I was lucky enough to have a pretty great career. I did over 3 dozen commercials, the Amazon show Good Girls Revolt and a couple of kid’s shows, in addition to 5 years as a comedic commentator on “TruTV’s World’s Dumbest…”, for which I am most recognized. I also had a wonderful theater home in LA, at Sacred Fools, where I performed almost every week as well as learning to produce shows, serving on the Artistic Committee, and for three years as the Managing Director. One Fools show I was in, “Absolutely Filthy,” went on to win both the Hollywood and NYC Fringe Festivals, and we took the LA Weekly for Best Ensemble (as well as a personal nod for Best Actress.)
The Fools also got me writing. Because of them, I wrote the play “Cookie & the Monster,” which won the Ensemble Theatre category at the 2015 Hollywood Fringe. It is the thing I am most proud of in my life.
Despite the wonderful community that I was a part of and the fortunate career I had, I felt restless and dissatisfied with Los Angeles. My fiance’s family were living in Atlanta, and it seemed a great way to shake things up while still being involved in the entertainment industry. I love Atlanta’s energy and it’s vibrant theater and improv scene. It had also always been a dream of mine to renovate a mid-century house: a dream I was able to realize here… Even if it turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. Now that that is over with, I am really happy here.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Oh dear, no, the road has not been smooth. Most of what has held me back was in my head. I have struggled with mental illness for my whole life, and verbal abuse that I grew up with rendered me insecure and feeling unworthy of success. I often wonder if the depression that makes me doubt myself is also the sensitivity that makes me good at what I do. It’s a trade-off, I guess. I also lost my biggest supporter, my sister, Jennifer, in 2000 to leukemia. She helped me keep my head on straight, and it’s been tough taking this journey without her.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
I’m so excited to be putting up Magnum Opus Theatre: Abi’s Choice at Village Theatre on Saturday nights at 7:30 pm this February, though we’ll extend if it’s a big ol’ hit. I played Abi several times over a decade in Los Angeles and it is my favorite thing to do. Magnum Opus is real, terrible screenplays performed exactly as written, with all the errors and general badness, and it’s hysterical. Our cast is so great… I want everyone to see the magic!
I’ll also be in the upcoming film Greenland with Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin, and have a role later in the season of Tyler Perry’s “The Oval.” It was so amazing to work with such an icon, I was starstruck by him.
Finally, I wrote a movie called The Spark, which speaks to the current political climate. The crazy idealist in me hopes that it will save the world. No pressure.
What were you like growing up?
I was a happy, exuberant little kid that excelled at everything and grew into a sad goth teen that didn’t want to do anything. It cracks me up that, when I was 15, I wrote a poem called Bloody Bride about a chick killing herself on her wedding day, and later wound up being an actual bloody bride on the cover of a My Chemical Romance DVD. Life’s weird. But I’m lucky I came back from that time. I got into a bad scene and was a truly horrible person…cheating, lying, stealing, you name it. My fella laughs because now I’m kind of morally unimpeachable. Both the love of my mother and the love of acting were my salvation. I was going down the wrong road and my desire to perform and make something of myself saved my life. And horses. I always loved horses. There are so many horse farms around Atlanta, it’s wonderful!
Pricing:
- $10 – Magnum Opus Theatre: Abi’s Choice @ Village Theatre Saturdays in February @ 7:30pm
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jaimeandrews.com
- Phone: Stewart Talent ATL – 404.952.2214
- Email: iam@jaimeandrews.com
- Instagram: @jmendrews
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jaimeandrewsonyourtv
- Twitter: @jmendrews
Image Credit:
Ty Donaldson, Jason Vail, Marian Gonzalez
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