Kaitlyn Oliva

I started acting when I, on a whim, auditioned for theater at a performing arts high school. In my first year, we wrote and performed a play about our lives told through spoken word pieces. Then, in my last year, we devised a show with a theater group from Nepal about the importance of preserving our cultural heritage. These experiences shaped me into the artist I am today. Since then, some acting genres I’ve explored are period pieces, comedy, and drama. I have also gone to London, where I studied Shakespeare and acting in depth. I am looking to continually craft and tell stories through both camera and stage acting. I am particularly excited about moments in my work where I get to incorporate my culture in the details. For example, in the play Brilliant Traces, when my character told a story about her father I gave him the accent of a Latino father. It accidentally brought out a side of my own upbringing where I constantly heard accents around me from my tios (uncles), my Colombian father, and my El Salvadorian grandfather. I find great joy in work that holds space for that sort of authenticity.