Meet Kristen King | Actress, Singer-Songwriter & Speaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kristen King and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kristen, as a parent, what have you done for you children that you feel has had the most significant impact?
That I continued to follow my dreams and pursue my goals despite how “hard” it is. We instill in our children what hard work is, exchange, the idea of money and how it gets produced by literally demo-ing it out with their stuffed animals and paper money. They are only 5 and 3 1/2 but they fully understand, and so will help us by doing their part as a team. My daughters have about 7 chores between them that we do like clockwork, every week. They get rewarded when they’ve put in a certain amount of chores in a month by going to a store where they get to pick whatever it is that they want (which are usually not that expensive, thank goodness). My husband and I also try to set a good example as humans in front of them so that being a grown-up is a good thing–which is something my daughters strive to be. Sometimes, I get a little teary-eyed because they are growing up so fast, but its beautiful to see them handle responsibility, care for each other, and think and make decisions by observation, and not by what someone said.  I hope that one day they will both be leaders in their own right.

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 am and actress, singer and songwriter. And I love helping people grow to be better versions of themselves. When I was in my early 20s, I thought I had “missed” my time. There was a lot of negativity going on in my life, and what made it worse, was when I saw my counterparts’ stars rising, or they were getting married and having kids, and hitting milestones faster than me. But then one day, I came upon these words,“dimming someone else’s light wont make yours shine any brighter.” That quote was really, REAL to me. I found that I was mentally doing that to those that had garnered success, when really, whether I make it or not is completely dependent on me. It was at that moment I became a hustler. Now, I wake up before my kids every morning at 6:15 or earlier to work, and any time there is downtime, I use THAT to work on my craft or my business. Until I’m on set with a consistent schedule, I work a 70 hour work week between taking care of my kids to promoting myself, practicing my craft, and/or creating some sort of content.

Before kids, I used to have time to “loaf” aka watch reality TV, be “busy,” without actually getting anything done. But now, I am a lot more focused, and I know what was holding me back. I have been told that I’m singleminded, but I don’t exactly see that as a bad thing. My goal is to deliver a compelling performance that creates an emotional impact every time I perform. And if I didn’t do that, then I didn’t do my job. I live to pull my audience away from the troubles in their life, and have them walking out thinking, having a viewpoint shift, being happier, whatever it is that I wanted to get across. A big lesson I learned, is to stop comparing my journey to others. I now relish and enjoy the journey.  I have been on set with people who forgot what the journey was, right before they snagged this BIG job and have been doing it awhile. It’s almost like the flame got dimmer once they reached their goal. So, I promised to myself that I will never be complacent, and to always remember that my journey, though long, was worth it. And, how lucky I am to be the select few that gets to play make-believe for a living.

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?
This is a tough question. If I was still living in New York, I could answer this in a heartbeat, however, living in LA, I feel like there is still things that I need to discover. However, one thing is for sure, nothing beats the outdoors in Cali. So our day would definetly consist of lots of road tripping, going off on a beaten path, picking fruit at Underwood Family Farms or going to an apple orchard. Then, we would go to the Poppy fields on the way back, in Antelope Valley.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There have been many people in my life that have helped me become the person I am today.  But the ultimate recognition, would be to my parents, who have always believed in me, and have caught me several times, when I fell.  You could say, that my mom has been dragged into this business out of my love for performing, and now being a Mom myself, I recognize and acknowledge her own sacrifices she made for me to do so.  I only hope that I can help pave the way for my kids into a successful career of their choosing, the way my parents have paved the way for me.  I would also like to give a shoutout to my husband, Alex. Because of him, I literally don’t need to focus on anything else but being a good Mom, creating art through Acting and Music, and continuing to push for what I want in life. He fully supports my artistic path and when I win, he wins and vice versa. We truly are a great team and he knows how to reel me in whenever I try to make un-calculated risks.

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