NYWIFT Blog

By Guneet K. Singh

Mic up. Headphones on. Press record for Chapter 1: NYWIFT’s Newest Member.

We’re pleased to welcome Katharine Chin to the NYWIFT community! Katharine is an actor, writer, and audiobook narrator who has worked on numerous audiobooks for Harper Collins, Penguin Random House and more.

As an actor and writer, her career spans television, film and theater. She’s a founding member of The Nobodies Collective, which offers a space to nurture new work for the stage and screen.

Read our interview with Katharine to learn more about her creative journey, what it’s like recording audiobooks, and her advice for other artists.

NYWIFT Member Katharine Chin (Photo Courtesy of Katharine Chin)

Tell us about yourself! Give us some insight into your creative journey, your career aspirations and what drives you.

Where to begin! I’m an actor, writer, and audiobook narrator based in the Hudson Valley, NY. Like many folks who find themselves on a creative journey, I have “always” been immersed in writing and imagining, but it wasn’t until college that I discovered that there was craft, technique, and history behind acting training and thus the entertainment industry.

I started college looking for my way to make a positive impact in the world and I thought it would be through International Relations or possibly scientific endeavors through Biology or teaching. Then I took an Intro to Acting class. I learned about the history of “method” acting in America, about Stanislavsky, about the Group Theatre. I devoured the intellectual stuff, but it was the final scene presentation of that class that caused a change in my life trajectory. After that final scene and hearing its impact on my teacher, scene partner, and classmates, I realized I could instill empathy in another person in a more direct way than I’d found through teaching, volunteering, canvassing, researching: through an authentically and compassionately inhabited character!

From there I did everything I could to learn more: I auditioned, took classes, took extra classes, graduated and joined more experienced classmates to start a theatre company. We produced plays, we trained amongst ourselves, we built education & outreach programs. I moved to Los Angeles and learned what trying to make it as an actor in a big market was like. I moved to San Francisco for love and worked in theatre, got equity points, joined the San Francisco Neo-Futurists, who were and are doing some of the most inspiring, evocative, life-affirming, irreverent, cuckoo, edgy, sincere, authentic theatre in the Bay Area. I learned how to write, how to write on a deadline, (how to fail to write on a deadline), how to cast and direct my own pieces, how to perform week after week in a long run.

I was still craving a stronger acting foundation. I got into the New School of Drama’s grad acting program and moved to New York. Grad school gave me exactly what I needed: intense and repeated production experience, extended vocal training, technical dialect training, continuous and focused physical training (and so much more!). I also graduated with an incredible network of artists who I trust completely.

So grad school gave me a foundation and a community, I graduated in 2019, I got a manager, auditioned for network television, booked my first co-star, was out and felt like I hit the ground running. Then I got pregnant – okay, no problem! Then the world shut down in March 2020. I delivered my baby in May 2020 during unprecedented times, with no family support nearby. My new little family and I moved up to the Hudson Valley in July 2020 as a one-year experiment and we’ve been there ever since. I got dropped by my manager. I recorded my first audiobook. Then my second and third and fourth. I gave birth to my second child in April 2022. Like everyone else in the industry during the pandemic, I did my best to cobble together a creative and fulfilling life, while balancing becoming a mother.

Becoming a mother challenged and shifted my creative journey, which is its own story. I’ll just say that on the other side of it, four years later, my priorities have shifted. I have less free time each day and I must be extremely intentional about how I want to use it. What I know right now is that I am still drawn to telling stories that hold a mirror up to humanity; that I love to inhabit characters on stage, in front of the camera, behind the mic; and that I am finding artistic fulfillment through creating opportunities for others.

(Photo Courtesy of Katharine Chin)

What brought you to NYWIFT?

I was fortunate enough to win a year-long membership as a prize from the Astoria Film Festival, where my short film won best comedy. I’ve been interested in joining NYWIFT for a while and leapt at the opportunity!

Katharine Chin (left) at the 2024 Astoria Film Festival (Photo Courtesy of Katharine Chin)

Your multi-faceted acting career spans film, theater, television. You have also used your voice as an audiobook narrator, recording numerous audiobooks for Harper Collins, Penguin Random House, Macmillan and more. How does your experience recording audiobooks compare to your other acting pursuits?

I use my acting training every time I step into the recording booth! The main difference between audiobook work and film/tv/theatre is that you’re working alone, as opposed to with a scene partner, when you record audiobooks. I record most of my books without a director or sound engineer — which means I’m balancing those hats too!

The other big difference is the endurance required to finish a book. You’re sitting alone in a room and speaking and acting for hours at a time. I have to use all my vocal and acting training to make sure I’m using my voice and body in a healthy way and staying present, moment to moment in bringing the words to life.

Katharine Chin in the recording booth (Photo Courtesy of Katharine Chin)

How has your experience as an actor influenced your work as a writer and filmmaker?

My acting experience has been vital to my work as a writer and filmmaker. I think without having trained and worked as an actor, I wouldn’t have known how or what to write about. Technically, acting taught me how to think dramaturgically, how to break down a scene. Philosophically, acting taught me how to look for the humanity in each character, in each story.

Acting helped me find my reason for storytelling, which, for me, is to hold a mirror up to humanity. Acting training also helped me be the “best” me, and by that I mean the most unvarnished me; acting training gave me tools to physically relax, to tune into my intuition, and to tune out the impulse to act/write/think for external validation.

Katharine Chin at a reading (Photo Courtesy of Katharine Chin)

You are a founding member of The Nobodies Collective, a new works development group in New York City. Can you tell us more about your experience with this group?

After grad school, a few classmates and I started gathering informally to workshop new plays by the playwrights in our cohort. After a few informal workshops at folks’ apartments, two actors in my cohort and I decided to try to formalize our process. We started by gathering monthly to read new or in-process plays by fellow playwrights and have been growing slowly through word of mouth. Our main program is Monthly Lab, a professional and supportive environment for artists to workshop new projects. We meet once a month with playwrights, actors, and directors to rehearse new works (plays, screenplays, audio plays, and more).

We are collectively run by Christopher F. Costa, Tori Ernst, and myself, who share administrative and artistic duties equally. Each of us already wears many hats in the industry (actor, filmmaker, writer, producer, etc.!) and this shared leadership structure has been a sustainable way to keep our small organization running smoothly.

Katharine Chin at the SOHO International Film Festival (Photo Courtesy of Katharine Chin)

As an actor, writer and filmmaker, you’ve been a part of various ensemble groups, collectives and casts. What advice do you have for creatives trying to find their community?

Join as many groups or classes that you have time and the capacity for. Every experience gives you a little more information about what you want to create and how you want to do it. Joining and trying as much as you can also helps you find your limit, your boundaries, which is also important as a creative trying to find their community.

Katharine Chin (left) with colleagues at the NYC Indie Theatre Film Festival (Photo Courtesy of Katharine Chin)

What projects do you have coming up?

I’m working on a short film, ST/RANGER, about a new mother suffering from postpartum depression who walks away from her life. She stops for nothing, not even a mysterious stranger who crosses her path. We’re currently in pre-production and scheduled to film in September 2024. I also have several audiobooks lined up to record for Tantor Audio and Harper Collins through the end of 2024.

Katharine Chin at the SOHO International Film Festival (Photo Courtesy of Katharine Chin)

What is the best industry advice you’ve received?

It’s a marathon, not a sprint. And, related: success in this industry is not linear. Do not compare or measure your success against others’!

For more information on Katharine, check out her website and Instagram at @katharinechinactor. Follow her film, Hot Idiot, on Instagram @hotidiotfilm