Honestly, if you would have told me that I would be pursuing acting back in college, there is no way I would have believed anyone.  Ever since I was a child, I was taught to go to college in order to get good, respectable, paying job.  So any dream of doing anything else but becoming a physician, was never meant to see the light of day. 

 

When I was a kid, growing up in Indiana, I loved "pretending" and "acting out" stories with my sister and cousins.  But at the time, this was all "play" for me.  As the eldest in my family, I was the designated child to pursue a career in medicine. I played the role of a good daughter, until I broke it to my parents upon my college graduation from San Diego State University that going to medical school was not in the cards for me.  So I found my way into higher education because I enjoyed connecting with people and making a difference by inspiring young minds.  While I have had a successful career as a higher education, student affairs professional, I always felt like there was something missing. 

 

Truth be told, an ex-boyfriend and what was a “dream job” at the time, brought me from San Diego to the Big Island, and five years later, to Oahu.  When it didn’t work out with my ex-boyfriend, instead of moving back to the mainland, I remember a mentor convinced me to stick it out in Hawaii.  She told me as she was consoling me over my heartbreak, “Perhaps he was simply an impetus to get you to Hawaii, to do something that you were meant to do, but you would have never discovered had you stayed here in California.”

 

In the fall of 2011 I stood behind the barricades of the Hawaii Five-O Sunset on the Beach Season 3 premiere.  I remember my childhood secret dream was to be in movies or to star in a television series.  As I watched the actors move from their cars down the red carpet, I told myself, “I don’t know how and I don’t know when, but one day I will be on the other side of this barricade, walking the red carpet as an actor.” 

 

One of my best friends connected me to a local stylist who needed “real” people to model professional attire for the local news.  When I shared how much I loved working on tv to my best friend, she encouraged me to get an agent and enroll in acting classes.  While hesitant at first, I started to dabble in modeling and acting classes which I found nerve wrecking, but exciting.  I soon discovered why I was brought to Hawaii:  to act.  I continued to pursue this new passion with a spark in my eye and hope in my heart by enrolling in acting class and later, seeking out representation.  I was delighted by the scary, but exhilarating challenges that came with the process of learning my craft.  I found that I loved challenging myself to bring different characters to life and I wanted more.  With each “no” after an audition, I wanted to get better so I could start hearing the “yes” at casting calls.  

 

In Fall 2015, my dream came true.  I walked the red carpet for CBS Hawaii 5-O’s Season 6 Episode 1, “Mai ho’oni I ka wai lana mâlie” as my network television premiere. My most recent acting credits also include a lead role, Lana, in an NYU student film, Poliahu: Detour; a supporting role, as Dr. Mindy Pono, on the web series, Paradise Justice; and a featured role on Halseys’ video, New Americana, Badlands with Capitol Records on MTV.  I am proud to have been part of the SAG-Signatory film, Angel by Thursday and have been seen in local print commercials for Aulani and American Savings Bank.  You can also see me in the first ever stop-motion commercial filmed in Hawaii for Aloha Gas. 

 

When not juggling my job as an Educator and my passion for acting, I enjoy traveling, baseball games, keeping fit emotionally & physically, anything chocolate and finding the Unicorn in everything I see.