Meet Kamden Andrews & Mariangela Kara | Actress’s/ Co-Producers

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kamden Andrews & Mariangela Kara and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kamden Andrews & Mariangela Kara, how do you think about risk?
Kamden: For me personally risk taking is what got me to where I am today. If I always played it safe I wouldn’t have gotten into one of the top performing arts colleges in America or moved to LA when I was 18. Or, emailed 90 agents with no guidance and gotten signed by one. Before I first got signed by my previous agent I emailed 90 agents. Only two responded. One was my boyfriend’s agent, granted she only responded as she was my boyfriend’s agent and she rejected me. And, the other agent that responded was my first agent ever and he did sign me. I felt very defeated and it was rough but, even though 89 said no and one said yes that one yes was all I needed to keep me going. After being signed I ended up booking my first campaign the first week of being signed for Snapchat’s 2023 New York Fashion Week. In my opinion you don’t have too much to lose my by taking a risk.
Mariangela: The moment when I began to see change only happened when I started taking risks. I was an 18 year old girl from Greece applying to American Colleges that my middle class family couldn’t afford. I didn’t know if I would get in, how I would pay for college if I got in, or how daunting it would be to fly from Greece to Los Angeles by myself during Covid. As, due to Covid restrictions my parents couldn’t fly with me. So, I flew to a place I had never been in, another country on my own. But, it worked out. I got into AMDA College of The Performing Arts. My family found a way to fund my college and I am thriving in Los Angeles all because I took a risk.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
For us, we believe what sets us apart is we represent the people. We represent women from working class families pursuing their dreams in an expensive city. Kamden represents a person of color trying to create more opportunities for brown and black people. Mariangela represents that young international women can move across the globe and succeed with their careers. So, for us as two young women who are educated and creatives to produce and star in our own film that we wrote and cast two other women of color one, being from another country, encourages us that we can build our future and inspire young women from non-traditional backgrounds to do the same. It definitely has not been easy. Being as we are in an industry where networking and being well connected is a benefit and neither of us are from LA that has been our biggest obstacle career wise. We believe we have the look, the talent, the work ethic, and the representation to impact Hollywood but, without connections it is a hard uphill battle. So, one thing we have both worked on is putting ourselves out there more often. And building relationships with people who we wouldn’t meet on a regular basis but, have similar interests with to build our community of creatives. We want the world to know about our film. Our film is entitled, The Nation of Dance. It is a Sag-Aftra New Media Agreement Film. About four teenage girls who are dancers and battling body dysmorphia while in a very competitive dance environment competing for a prestigious dance scholarship. We took a lot of inspiration from Dance moms as the young girls in that reality show were put under so much pressure at such a young age and at times experienced and witnessed adults act questionably in front of them. We especially focused on Maddie Ziegler as inspiration for one of our characters, as Maddie Ziegler is an extremely talented dancer and actor but, experienced a lot of abuse from adults and her dance teacher that made her at times have low confidence and to not be able to fully shine as the talented young dancer she was and still is. Another one of our inspirations for our characters from dance moms is, Chloe Lukasiak. As, she was an amazing technical dancer but, was bullied and torn down by her dance teacher. In our film we are focusing on not so much the adults and their behavior but, purely from the perspective of the young girls who dance their heart out and are beautiful but still feel too big, too curvy, too thin, who feel they need to watch what they eat. Even though they are top ranked talented dancers but, don’t feel their enough. Because in Dance moms A lot of the show is focused on the mothers behavior. But, if you watch the children closely on the show and see their tears and their pain, you can really see how much they’re going through emotionally and how much trauma they dealt with such a young age. And, that is what we would like to show through our film. The stress that young teenage female dancers who are extremely talented go through. With our film, the nation of dance, we are going to use the emotion that comes from the trauma, that young female dancers experience and showcase that through female teenage relationships. While, this film does focus on young teenage female dancers. I think this is a theme that young women and women in general can relate too. It’s hard being a woman, and it is hard being a young woman trying to find your identity without it being tied to anything or anyone else. So, we feel like this is a film that we will touch a lot of women.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
One of our favorite diners is in Santa Monica. It is called John O’ Groats. It is a locally and family owned dinner located on 10516 W pico Blvd. John O’ Groats has the best biscuits in all of Southern California. And, the staff there are so kind and so sweet. We are also huge advocates for small businesses and family owned businesses. So please go check them out!! We also love thrifting and we often go to the Silverlake flea market and we sometimes go on Saturday mornings. We are also currently reading a really good book by a small business author Lynette Smtih called the Silence of my Inceptive Self. It is a really good book that showcases the stages of a woman’s life it is very impactful.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
First and foremost we would like to give a shout to some of our cast members who will be staring in our film,The Nation of Dance, a Sag-Aftra New Media Film, that we will be co-producing and starring in. First off, Brianna Marie Bell, who has been featured on Broadways, A Bronx Tale directed by Robert Dinero. She is a multi talented actress, singer, and dancer and the sky is the limit for her. She is will be playing Melissa. Secondly, we would like to give a shout out to Kiyanta Muthray, who is a South African actress, who just got her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Acting at the 4th rated performing arts college national. She carries a huge love and passion for both theatre and film and we are excited to share the set with her. Mariangela and Kamden would also like to give shout outs to there families for always supporting their endeavors.

Other: IndieGoGo Link for public donations for our film: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/nation-of-dance-film-sag-aftra-new-media-agreement

Image Credits
Kamden Andrews Headshot: Caroline Rose Headshots
Mariangela Kara Headshot: Dana Patrick Photography
Reel Stills: Leo Foti