Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelsey Cooke.

Hi Kelsey, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
Thank you so much for having me! I grew up in the entertainment industry. My Dad studied film and television in college in Oklahoma and was a director when I was growing up, my mom was an actor for a long time, so I naturally fell into the industry. When I was six years old, we moved to Burbank, CA, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, because my parents founded a production company. I booked an agent at seven and started working as an actor, and it was my dream to own my own production company one day. I discovered theatre in middle school, began doing local productions in high school, and studied theatre in college. I met my husband Chris Guerra in college in the production of “Annie,” and we eventually were married and moved to New York. We waited for hours in line to audition for broadway shows, booked some tours and off-Broadway, and I ended up doing Film and TV out there (Royal Pains, Pan Am), which brought me back to LA. We did the “on a hope and a dream” thing.

My husband Chris became a Main Company member of The Groundlings Theatre (historical for improv and sketch comedy in Hollywood) in 2019, and we both were frustrated that despite all our hard work and years of grind, we still hadn’t hit a real “break.” We were tired of waiting for our “moment” and relying on agents and managers to get our foot in the door. There were too many actors in LA, and the industry was changing. And then the pandemic hit.

I always knew that I wanted my own production company. Chris and I both talked about “one day” writing and producing our material for TV & film. It turned out the pandemic was the perfect catalyst. I had booked three different pilots that never sold, but we decided to stay in LA to start a family, and now have two kids: Kennady (8) and Clyde (5). We partnered with our good friend from college and talented director of photography, Matt Koppin, and sat down to storyboard and write an outline for a fully-improvised feature film in the fall of 2020. Even though things stayed locked down, we were focused and began shooting on January 3rd, 2021. We started small, shooting one-person interviews with no crew under intense restrictions– just the three of us following all the safety guidelines. I produced the film and took on every crew role except directing (Chris and Matt co-directed), including being an actor in my film.

We only had 18 shooting days total, but it took six months in full to shoot, in LA and in Tennessee, which is where the story takes place. After shooting here in Nashville, we fell in love with the area, which started our excitement about opening up a branch of our production company in Franklin.

Chris and I co-founded “thisishardtoread Productions,” and RE-OPENING is our first feature film. We have already won 18 awards for the film, including Best Feature, Best Comedy, Best Ensemble, and Best Director, and Best Producer. We are now working on our next projects (yes, multiple) while touring with the film to Film Festivals worldwide. We recently returned from Cannes Film Festival in France, where our film was featured online.

We are excited about connecting and partnering with other filmmakers in the Nashville area who also want to grow a community of like-minded filmmakers with the goal of creating a huge movement of mainstream filmmaking in this area. We have a lot in front of us!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As a child actor, I don’t think I understood the industry completely. My Mom took me to every audition and dozens of classes. She drove me around LA with our Thomas Guide, which is why I had so many opportunities. I do remember one meeting I will never forget. I don’t remember if it was an agent or manager, but I remember sitting in front of a big desk when I was about 11 years old and hearing someone tell me that I wasn’t pretty enough to make it. That I didn’t have the “star factor.” I don’t remember anything before or after that moment, but I’ll never forget it. I feel very privileged to have had the opportunities my parents worked so hard to give me growing up: the training, the lessons, the agents, and the auditions but being an actor most of my life and the rejection that comes with that after so many years impact me.

One challenge is the constant need to prove yourself. This is reasonable because, how can people truly know your full capabilities and talents if they don’t see them? We all think: “If they would just give me a shot, I could show them,” and actors can let that eat them alive. When I was in theatre, I felt people didn’t take me seriously. My parents were proud, but they knew the industry, and I’m sure even they had their doubts. I have felt that I’ve been trying to prove myself, but it’s also driven me this far. This industry takes time and patience. No one gets discovered overnight. One of my biggest fears was that I would never get my chance, so I knew I had to give myself that chance and not wait on anyone.

On a different note, many women ask me: “When is a good time or the “right” time to have a family?” The short answer is: never. But the great thing is, the industry isn’t going anywhere. It’s changing a lot, but if it’s important to you, you have to make it work, and my parents are great examples. Are there sacrifices that come with that? Absolutely. I gave up years of my career and then had to rebuild those years. I worried about my body never being the same, which was harder with the second child. Was it worth it? Absolutely. I’m so grateful, and I’d never take anything back. Creating my own production company and this feature film is my personal “re-launch.” We can’t forget that in the middle of our insane hustle, we also have a very short life to live. Stopping and taking inventory of what’s important is key in this industry, or it will swallow you whole. I spoke to a director once about that. He said he wanted a bad family, but he and his wife got so wrapped up in their careers that they waited too long, and it was their biggest regret.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Up until now, I have been an actor, and I have accomplished some great things: Life Partners (Sundance Film Festival) with Julie White and Gillian Jacobs, Royal Pains (USA), Black November (Viviva Fox, Anne Heche, etc.), even Off-Broadway and National Touring theatre work. Then I began to produce my own projects: first producing/directing a short film called “Home,” which led to writing and producing my first feature film with my husband and our writing/directing partner on the film, Matthew John Koppin. Now I am the Co-Founder of my own production company (thisishardtoread Productions), and I feel like I’m at a new beginning in my career and life.

What sets me apart is getting the job done. That might not sound special, but it’s why I’m good at what I do. I can handle a lot on my plate and handle it gracefully. I can get thrown into any situation and take it on like a pro, even when I have no idea what I’m doing. I am a “say yes and figure it out” type of person. You have to be! My absolute worst nightmare is to lose out on an opportunity because I didn’t act fast enough.

Suppose you want to know if I have a “survival job,” I do. I believe in a solid side-hustleand I found mine when I started a family and realized I needed to start paying closer attention to my health. Being who I am synced up with creating a small wellness business, and almost eight years in, I have a global team. It also helps to have something you can get passionate about outside “the business,” and helping other people with their mental and physical health and wellness ignited me! And since the industry can be up and down, I have helped many people find a side hustle that works for them, so they can have more flexibility, work from anywhere in the world, and keep creating! My side-hustle enabled us to invest in our film, even though my husband had just lost his job in 2020. We didn’t lose our home, and my business grew. Residual income is real, and we are all trying to find it. People in the industry understand it, and I’m so glad I have something that pairs well with pursuing my big-picture career goals.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
An enormous shift is happening in the industry, and we will see the impact in the coming 5-10 years. There are so many ways to create, so many avenues, and more people realize that you don’t HAVE to be in Los Angeles to be a filmmaker, an actor, a creator, etc. Social Media has played a huge role in this change. I recently came back from attending the Cannes Film Festival, which was sponsored this year by TikTok, which was very interesting. My husband is the “Facebook Marketplace Guy” on TikTok (@chriswguerra), and we fell into the viral social media world overnight. Studios are trying to figure out how to harness the power of influencers but also get quality work, which can be challenging since most “influencers” are not professional actors or writers. How do we do it effectively to bridge the gap between social media and the entertainment industry?

Luckily for us, we are professionals who are also influencers, and we can provide quality work for clients and studios. The biggest challenge I (along with many) of my generation have faced if you have “grown up” in the industry is that things have been very “old-fashioned” in a lot of ways for many years. Auditioning, approaching casting directors, networking, and getting your “foot in the door” were all challenging if you didn’t already have a name for yourself, and how do you make a name for yourself other than finding a way to get your foot in the door? So much of the industry was closed-off, closed doors. You couldn’t “get in” unless you knew someone. Our generation is changing the media landscape, and we should be excited about that. We are finding new avenues to make our way, so we don’t have to rely on any system we have to jump through. We can get our foot in the door by creating. With the change, there can be some fear and obstacles we will have to overcome; there has been and will continue to be a learning curve, we will make mistakes and have failures, but I am most excited to see how it allows us to break through barriers as we never have before.

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