ACT LIKE A MOTHER

Actor and entrepreneur Kali Rocha never envisioned herself being on a Disney show, but after a near-death medical emergency during the birth of her second child, her perspective on life and work radically shifted. Getting cast as the mom on Liv and Maddie turned out to be much more wonderful than she could have imagined. 

In this episode, Kali recounts her early years in NY pounding the pavement in punishing shoes, the moment the switch went off and she knew she wanted children, and the fortuitous film role (that she almost turned down!) which wrote her ticket t...

Growing up in the Midwest, celebrated stage and voice actor Dana Green didn’t have a plan for how to become an actor. But as fate led her from Ohio to Iowa to Chicago to the prestigious Stratford Festival in Canada, an artistically fulfilling life began to come into view. Only one thing was missing: her real-life leading man. 

Known for her command of classical text and her portrayals of some of the great Shakespearean heroines, Dana’s real-life love story plays more like a Lifetime Movie: a trip home for the holidays…a Victorian farmhouse…a handsome...

If she’d had her druthers, award winning actor, director, writer, producer Jillian Armenante would have gotten started early and had a bunch of kids. But dumpster diving as a theatre rat in the Seattle grunge scene of the 90’s wasn’t exactly the ideal lifestyle to start a family. However, after a fortuitous game of spin-the-bottle led her to her future wife and a legendary Seattle theatre gig made her a breakout star, suddenly she was a series regular on a prime-time show, buying a house in LA and shopping for sperm.

With frankness and wicked humor...

Alex Hurt knew from a young age he wanted to be a parent, but not at the moment when it happened. When his partner got pregnant and the relationship broke down just as his career was taking off, he wasn’t sure he could meet the moment. His own father, legendary actor William Hurt, had cautioned him against becoming an actor because of the instability of the artist life.

But instead of backing away, Alex committed deeply to loving his child while nurturing his craft and ambition. When Alex became a father for the second time, he almo...

Betsy Aidem is fresh off a hugely successful Broadway run in the Pulitzer Prize -winning play Liberation  when she joins Katie and Melanie in this vibrant conversation. She tells of the windfall of work that’s come her way since turning 60, and the years that came before when she balanced a career on the stage while raising her son as a single mom, during which time she often felt everyone had an intact family except her.

 Betsy speaks openly about the challenge of parenting through a divorce, how she turned down jobs so she wouldn’t miss bedtime...

Season 4 opens with a pair of conversations very near and dear to our hosts’ hearts. In this episode, Melanie and Katie speak with their own mothers, Francie Lora and Loreen MacNichol, about what it’s like to recognize that your young child is destined to be an actor;  and the unwavering support both women continue to give to their girls as they remain committed to a sometimes fickle, sometimes fulfilling business.

Vibrant, creative and still happily devoted to their own work, Francie and Loreen tell stories of their own lives, their relationship to the arts and reflect on the...

Brand new mama Celeste Arias never could have imagined the expansion she would feel after giving birth to her son - universes of love and enchantment - keeping her afloat during swells of anxiety and extreme fatigue.

After her agent dropped her and a frigid NY winter loomed, a fortuitous audition led not only to an escape to warm weather for her young family, but to a juicy role and an opportunity to reclaim her artistic self after the birth of her baby boy.

Celeste shares in real time what it’s like to do an...

Award winning actor Cindy Cheung blames a hot pink flyer stuck to a UCLA campus wall for causing her 180-degree turn away from applied mathematics and towards an acting career.

From her days in LA discovering the power of theatre and the importance of representation on stage, to turning down a job helping to build B1 bombers so she could do an acting intensive, to struggling to feel authentic and inspired as a young actor in NY, to the time she quit the business altogether and what ultimately brought her back, Cindy's stories are laced with heart...

After she was told by someone in the business that she could either have a career or a family, award winning actor April Matthis made it her mission to show the world that it was possible to do both. With intense dedication to her vocation (she went to an audition 2 days after giving birth) and to her child (she nursed him for 22 months), April has created her beautiful career and family with unwavering integrity.

April shares the frustrations of fighting for fair wages and the pleasures of being a longtime company member of the groundbreaking experimental theatre...

As an in-demand Twin Cities actor, singer, dancer and comedienne, Shinah Hey went from one job to the next with barely a break in between. When she was offered a role she’d played 10 years before, she knew she’d hit a creative ceiling. Ready to be seen not as the girl she was when she got started but as the woman she’d become—a seasoned performer, wife and mother of 2—Shinah did her research to find a new home base. She was looking for a place she could pursue fulfilling acting work and where her five-year-old daughter could have...

Kelly Lester is someone who shakes things up on a regular basis without even meaning to. While taking some time off from acting to raise a vibrant family, Kelly started not one but two super successful businesses. She then discovered, during one of her daughters’ performances, that her own creative fires were burning stronger than ever. 

Kelly entered back into acting a little older, a little wiser, and a lot more confident and castable. And when working in LA was no longer fulfilling, she and her actor husband set up shop in NYC a stone’s throw from...

NOTE BEFORE: In this episode we mention suicide ideation and drug use which may be sensitive subjects for some.



Act Like A Mother creator and co-host Katie MacNichol takes her turn in the interview seat to share her beautiful, funny and deeply moving story of acting and mothering. She describes her early days in NYC - on Broadway one day and back to waiting tables the next - her meet-cute moment with her actor husband, and how they raised their two kids while working on stage and on the road.

Katie speaks honestly with Melanie abou...

Growing up in a family of hunters in a town without much art, award-winning actor, writer and director Deborah Puette didn’t have a name for what she yearned to do. After moving to Chicago and stumbling into a breakout role on stage, she set her sights on a career and life that has propelled her ever-forward. Through an unexpected pregnancy, a move to LA, the breakup of a marriage, and seeing her child through cancer treatment, Deborah continued to tend to her artistry and her professional trajectory with focus, clarity and grace. 

Deborah’s ability to liste...

As a young woman fresh out of drama school in London, Rosina Reynolds’ wanderlust got the best of her. Instead of starting her acting career, she set sail on adventures that took her to the West Indies, Panama and eventually led her to northern Wisconsin where a San Diego magazine appeared with an article about the Old Globe Theatre. 

Was it a series of coincidences and right turns made, or was it Rosina’s commitment to live her whole life fully that led her on a wild wonderful path to find herself the leading lady of San Diego...

Welcome to Season 3!

Actor Kim Griffin did not move to LA to further her own career. After her daughter's diagnosis with Prader-Willi syndrome, Kim moved her family of 4 across the country in order to have access to the services (and the sunshine) that would benefit her two children.

Kim shares openly about her high-risk pregnancies, the special needs of her kids, her own mental health, and the daunting financial circumstances she and her actor husband continue to find solutions for.

Kim is an articulate advocate for women and caregivers learning to ask for...

Award-winning actor Purva Bedi tried to be practical by double-majoring in Economics and Theatre as an undergrad, but with acting and performing running through her bloodlines, a life on stage and screen was inevitable. In the final episode of Season 2, Purva tells Melanie and Katie incredible stories of her family and how she carries that lineage forward.  She shares about her early career as a bicoastal actor crashing with her parents, the bold declaration she made on her first date with her future husband, and how her biggest challenge as an actor has been saying No. From her own cr...

As a single gay actor going from out of town job to out of town job, J. Paul Boehmer didn’t think having children was in the realm of possibility for him. Then he met his husband, bought a house and, after a fortuitous conversation, began looking for an egg donor and a surrogate. 

In this very special Fathers’ Day episode, Paul shares the fatigue of life on the road and the reality of 8-week friendships, how he grew his audiobook side hustle into a full-time gig, and how he and his husband found their way to paren...

Actor, producer, coach, union organizer and mom to a 13-year old boy, Hilary Ward shares with Katie and Melanie her beautiful perspective on life and work. She speaks about acknowledging the “almosts” and the failures as an actor and not just the wins, how her career doesn’t define her worth, and how theatre can be relevant to the community it takes place in. Hilary explains why Primary Trust is the play of the moment and how she negotiated with her family to leave town not once but twice to perform in it.

Hilary has built a thriving...

Mary Bacon is an award-winning actor and a writer who has collaborated with countless esteemed playwrights, directors and theatres. From multiple world premieres to a canon of classical roles, Mary is a celebrated and beloved member of the New York and regional theatre communities. 

In this episode, Melanie and Katie speak with Mary about the last 2 decades: from the series of beautiful synchronicities that led to the adoption of her Ethiopian son Abadi, now 15, through a thriving career as an actor mama, to the sudden and tragic loss of her husband, Andrew Leynse of Primary Stages, in 2023. M...

Growing up as a latchkey kid with 2 working actor parents, there was little doubt that Amanda would follow in the family business. Now the mother of a 20-year-old daughter who has decided to tread the boards, Amanda shares with Katie and Melanie how she found her formula for the work/mom life, and what went down when she left her child and husband behind to hit the road with a show that called to her like no other.  Now as an empty nester, Amanda is looking forward to all kinds of juicy character roles. Amanda’s life has shown that...

Award -winning actor, director, writer and educator Annie Torsiglieri talks to Melanie and Katie about raising her twin boys while holding onto her artistic life after one of her children received an early autism diagnosis. As life's trajectory continued to unfold in unexpected ways, Annie’s humor, curiosity and fierce mama mojo led her family through the darkness and into the light. For 21 years, Annie has worked to understand, celebrate and advocate for her kids while all the time digging deeper into her creative self. 

You’ll hear a Zen parable, laugh-til-you-cry song lyrics, and a few artfu...

NOTE BEFORE: In this episode there is a brief reference to suicide which may be a sensitive subject for some.

Actor, writer, producer, educator and single mom Vivia Font speaks with Katie and Melanie about all things single parenting. From freezing her eggs to shopping for a sperm donor to the ins and outs of insemination and beyond, Vivia's zest for life and figure-it-out-as-you-go attitude infuses everything she does. After the unexpected death of a dear friend, Vivia turned to her creativity to process her grief and pain. The result: a beautiful film that...

Alysia Reiner is an actor, producer, activist, volunteer firefighter, foster parent, mother of a teenager, and a force to be reckoned with. In this episode, she speaks with Melanie and Katie about how she manages her multi-hyphenate life, the long and winding road to motherhood, and why she believes storytelling can save the world. Whether it's FaceTime dinners with her family while on location or opening her arms and home to those in need, Alysia's commitment to bridging divides began long before her star turn as Natalie "Fig" Figueroa on Orange Is The New Black. This woman is a...

Brand new mom Jacque Wilke speaks with Katie and Melanie about what it's like taking on the tour de force lead in What the Constitution Means to Me while figuring out parenting for the first time. Jacque shares the pressure she put on herself to be a supermom and the liberation she found when she embraced how motherhood had rearranged her. From learning her lines during stroller walks to allowing herself to be less than perfect and a bit exhausted, Jacque digs deep into an incredible role which means even more to her now that she's mother to a...

In the first episode of Season 2, Katie talks with Melanie about the realities of staying committed to her career while growing a big family. They discuss what Melanie has to consider before even auditioning for a job, how she keeps her energy up while rehearsing/performing and how she stays grounded in the face of life's inevitable curve balls. Currently playing Brooke in Other Desert Cities, Melanie shares how much fun it is to turn off her empathetic mama brain in order to play a character who is single, childless and entirely self-focused.

For...

Ursula Meyer, head of Graduate Acting at UC San Diego, recounts the gifts of life with a creative mother and the clear path to teaching that opened before her. When she and her husband found themselves on the path to adoption, a conversation with a theatre friend led them to their child. Through years of teaching and single parenting while her actor husband was on the road to the moment her child came out as transgender, Ursula's story affirms, as Shakespeare said, "There is no jewel in the world so prized as a mother's love".

Actor, educator and single mom Mercedes Herrero shares her story of suddenly and unexpectedly wanting a child in her early 40s, and the creative way she solved that as a single woman. (Hint: in any company of actors, there is usually one gent willing to help a lady out...) After several years of taking her baby with her to auditions, spending most of her Broadway paycheck on childcare, and surrounding herself with loving actor friends willing to help, Mercedes' single-parenting life took a bittersweet turn. When her aging parents needed care, she left New York at the height of...

Kate Rose Reynolds is an actor, director, producer and about to be a mama. At 8 months pregnant, she feels she's in tech week all the time, and shares how being an actor has prepared her for the bittersweet ephemerality of pregnancy and new motherhood. She gets honest about her fears of finding the work/mothering balance, even though she herself is a child of the theatre, and her wishes for her child as s/he grows up in this world. She vows to read Shakespeare's entire canon to the baby and teach the little one some excellent Elizabethan playground...

Actor, director, producer and educator Tracy Hill Williams takes us back to the 80s. She talks about what it was like as a pregnant grad student loosening her corset in As You Like It, being uncast from a big production, and finding a way to come out on top despite the sexism and misogyny of the time. From her days as a young mother of three balancing acting jobs and a marriage on the rocks, to her current incarnation as an inspiring educator and department chair, Tracy tells it like it is with grace, humor and her trademark charm. <...

Crescent City Stage co-founder Elizabeth Newcomer speaks with Katie and Melanie about building a theatre and a well-rounded life in New Orleans. Through her work as an Enneagram coach, Liz digs deep into what motivates the characters she plays and directs. Hear what her #1 concern was while filming Black Panther with Chadwick Boseman, and how inspired leadership and a family-first approach guide her theatre company and nurture her as a mama and an artist.

Liz's links:

elizabethnewcomer.com

@liz.newcomer

crescentcitystage.com

LOVE liz podcast

CSI: NY star Anna Belknap speaks with Melanie and Katie about navigating two pregnancies while playing Detective Lindsay Monroe and what it was like to give birth to her TV baby just weeks after delivering her own. She recalls her extreme exhaustion as a working mom, the struggle to find a work-life balance and what led to her decision to mover her family away from LA. Hear what Anna is up to these days, what brings her joy and why her neighbors might think she's in the CIA.

Anna's Book Recommendations:

All...

Note before: in this episode we talk about pregnancy loss which may be a sensitive subject for some.

Actor-singer-songwriter Lenne Klingaman speaks to Katie and Melanie about her journey to becoming a mother and how creativity supported and saved her. She shares the grief and pain of multiple miscarriages, how she advocated for herself as a pregnant actor in the workplace, and what her artistic life looks like now as the mom of a healthy baby boy.

More on Lenne and her recommendations:

lenneklingaman.com

@lenneklingaman

Phoenix

...

Award-winning actor Francesca Faridany speaks with Melanie and Katie about progesterone shots, pregnancy fatigue and what happens when the dream job comes at the same time as the baby. She shares how she's learned to let go of expectations as a mother and an actor while bringing to her work the fierceness and fire that only a woman over 50 can.

For more about Frankie:

www.francescafaridany.com

@faridanyf

Critically-acclaimed actor Tessa Auberjonois speaks with Katie and Melanie about the challenges she faced in a two-actor couple with kids, how she learned to give herself permission and redefine success, and how teaching has helped her fall in love with the craft of acting again. Plus a peek into her process as she prepared for her tour-de-force performance in Joan at South Coast Rep.

For more info on Tessa:

www.tessaauberjonois.com

www.scr.org

Working actors and mothers Katie MacNichol and Melanie Lora, talk with fellow actor moms about balancing career, creativity and parenting. While no two stories are the same, what these women have in common is an ever-deepening relationship to their craft and a profound commitment to raising their kids in a way that feels true to them.