Meet Carly Maureen Doyle | Actor & Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Carly Maureen Doyle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Carly Maureen, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
For a long time, I didn’t take risks at all. I grew up with anxiety, and I didn’t know what that was, or realize that that was what was going on with me until college. So my whole childhood, I thought that the feelings of fear or risk were just me not wanting to do something. And as I got older, and started to find my way to acting, and develop as an actress, I realized that risk is fundamental to the human experience. It’s in risk and chance that you discover just how capable you are, it’s where you discover who you are.

A lesson I’ve learned is that being scared isn’t a good enough reason not to do something.
If you’re afraid and you don’t have the money, or you’re afraid and you aren’t healthy, or you don’t have a support network, or any of those things. The fear really has nothing to do with it. It’s the other fundamental things you need to take care of that are in your way, which is fine! But if you ever find yourself in a situation of doubt, and the only reason you have that’s holding you back is you’re fear? Well, that’s when I would tell myself, “not a good enough reason.” And I would do it.
A lot of celebrities will have inspirational talks and they’ll say “everything you want is on the other side of fear,” and as I’ve grown, I find that to be truer and truer. Especially as a person who lives with anxiety.
To take the risk to change my major to acting, the risk to move to LA, or even the risk of just stepping out onto a stage… each one has given me so much in my life, and rewarded me with being one step closer to my dreams. So risks, big or small, they’re like little direction marks on where to go in life.
And they remind us, or at least me– I’ll speak for myself– they remind me, that everything is going to be okay. Even if I take a risk and I fail, I did it. And that matters a lot more to young Carly who was afraid all the time.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m an actor, and I started acting seriously in college. I think it’s where I was always meant to be, but it took me a while to get there. Like I said before, I grew up not realizing I had anxiety, and so I took myself out of the running for a lot of things. And I always thought that being in the spotlight was for someone else, and not for me. But when I really found acting it was in a Meisner Technique class in my undergrad. It was one of those like notorious classes where people threw chairs, and shit; and honestly, I don’t even know what I was doing there. I had to get special permission to be in it, because I had changed my major and I didn’t take one of the pre-requisites. Anyway, Meisner is all about your partner. It’s about how your partner effects you and makes you feel. And I’m sure I’m not the only person out there who finds art deeply therapeutic, and it was definitely that. But it was also like the courage to walk out in front of the whole class, and show your truest self, and then grapple in the moment with whatever was thrown at you…
I just feel like this vocation connects me deeply with other people, with the human condition, and I was like why do anything else?
Acting is about being brave enough to be yourself on a stage, so that you and others around you can learn more about what it means to be human.
So that’s why I do it. And I’m a very driven person, I’ve taken many many classes since then. I just graduated from a professional conservatory program, and I’m honestly ready to take on the world.
I want to make art that makes people happy, that moves people. I know we all want to change the world. But I’m deeply inspired by the hustle, by bringing it back to who is in the room, what are we trying to do here, and why must we do it?
I am a really big believer in community, and so I want to make art and film/TV about our communities and what human beings really mean to each other. Especially right now in the world, I feel such a disconnect in people being able to actually communicate to one another and understand each other. Like I love Tiktok because it makes me feel like I belong, yknow?
And with all this chaos, politically and economically, I think we’ve lost some sight on how to trust and rely on one another. In the dating world?? We’ve lost sight of how to treat each other. Online? We don’t know how to speak to each other anymore.
That’s also one reason why Acting is my home. No matter how much I direct or produce, acting is where I get to have fights, and fall in love, and flirt, and be someones best friend, and break someone’s heart. It’s where I really get to connect to my partner(s) on stage. And that’s what being human is about.

Comedy is a huge part of who I am. I grew up watching Mrs. Doubtfire over and over and over. And every year, watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas with Jim Carey is like a religious experience. I watched MadTV at probably much too young an age. My first stand up routine was making fun of Tom Cruise, and man when it doubt make fun of Tom Cruise, people really respond to that. I even wrote and performed a solo show about the life of Gilda Radner this past year.
My “brand” I guess is the same as these greats. I lie somewhere in the middle where life can be both “the heartache and thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to” and also this silly, wonderful, beautiful thing, that makes no sense at all and we just have to laugh.

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?
Well I’m an art girly professionally, so in my free time I honestly do anything but go see art. (Maybe that makes me a bad artist, but who cares?) So, I would take someone to a rooftop bar I found on Tiktok, or somewhere a little bougie in Hollywood so they get a little bit of the experience of this city. I took my mom to Pump one time, and she had the best time, and the food was excellent. I love the parks in LA, I grew up in the desert, so hanging out at the Hollywood Sign park, Pan Pacific, or just one of the tiny local ones with some friends and food is truly my new favorite past time. And on Ventura Blvd, there’s a small French cafe, Nesmon Cafe, that is excellent. Every time someone comes to town, I take them there, and I eat an omelette and a lemon crepe. All the restaurants on Ventura are worth it though.
When I first moved to town I would just go to the places they went on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, so when in doubt, trust those ladies.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
In the past two years, my community has grown so much. I recently graduated from the Art of Acting professional conservatory, and when you grow with a group of artists who become your family, and you watch these people with the same hopes and dreams as you, get on stage or on camera time and time again– you see them fail, you see them tired, you see them grow, and you just see them be absolutely amazing. And I feel really lucky to have a group of friends like that, and without them I certainly wouldn’t be the person I am today. I’ve also gotten a lot of support at home, from my boyfriend, who basically keeps me running and chasing those dreams.

Website: https://carlymaureen96.wixsite.com/actor

Instagram: @carlymaureend