Meet Rachel Emmanuela Frost

We were lucky to catch up with Rachel Emmanuela Frost recently and have shared our conversation below.

Rachel Emmanuela, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

Resilience is formed by facing any sort of challenge and coming out the other side. Life gives you opportunities to develop your resilience every time something happens that is outside out of your control – and it’s often the moments that are incredibly painful, or seem impossible to survive, that teach us the most. For me, one defining moment was when I lost my mom unexpectedly at the age of 15. That experience really shaped my perception of the world, and taught me that everything – joy, success, pain, grief – is temporary. And there’s only so much control we really have.

The wonderful thing about resiliency is that we can teach ourselves how to be more resilient by taking a step back and acknowledging the effort we put into something, even when it felt like we got nothing in return or the result is not what we wanted. Remembering what you have control over (yourself and your actions) and what you don’t have control over (other people, or the outcome) is the most important thing. When you’re in a tough moment, or coming out of a situation where things didn’t go your way, you have a chance to ask yourself: how do I want to handle this? What lessons can I learn from this experience? And ultimately, what kind of person do I want to be? And then be prepared to make mistakes, forgive yourself, and do a better job the next time. This is something I try to remind myself of every day.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Rachel is an actor, writer and performer based in New York City. A graduate of the University of San Francisco and a conservatory alumni of the William Esper Studio, she’s a continuing student of Jessica Cummings and Bob Krakower since 2019.

Rachel has portrayed numerous roles on stage and in film and television. She has been seen off-Broadway at the Jerry Orbach Theater in Chasing Jack (Taylor) and as a solo performer in her own show Becoming A Woman at Theater Row. On screen, you might recognize her from WB Mason’s commercial “I Speak Millenial” or as Christina Carlin-Kraft on The Playboy Murders (ID NETWORK/HBO).

As a filmmaker, Rachel’s self-produced short film Bound premiered at Cinema Village in New York City in 2022, and her ensemble-led short film Ghosted with Jonny Beauchamp (Katy Keene, Penny Dreadful) and Kathy Searle (The Other Two, The Good Fight) is currently on the 2024/2025 festival circuit. She has two other projects currently in development.

In her free time, Rachel enjoys pole dancing and has even dabbled in competition (PSO Philly 2nd Place, Dramatic L4). She also loves to bake, and is obsessed with making the best browned-butter chocolate chip cookie.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Confidence, Persistence, and Listening.

In an industry that loves to say the word “no”, it can be easy to let that rejection define you. But finding ways to keep your confidence up in the face of rejection is absolutely essential. So much about what makes art work well is subjective, so putting your self-worth in the hands of other people will not benefit you. Ultimately we are storytellers and we have to find the best way to serve the story at every turn – the same is true for everyone else involved in any project. It’s behooves us to remember it’s not personal.

To that end, keep going. I know it sounds trite but find ways to stay persistent. For me, writing and making my own work helped me feel grounded in who I am and the artist I want to be without waiting for someone to hand me an opportunity to discover that. I really started to understand myself, how I fit into this industry, and what kind of stories I want to tell, when I started creating for myself. It helped me want to keep going even when I was feeling discouraged.

Lastly, listening. This is just a life skill I think we all need more of (myself included). If someone gives you a compliment, really listen to it. If someone gives you a critique, really listen to it. Absorb as much as you can, so you know what you need to bring with you into the future, and what you can leave in the past. Listening to other people’s wants/needs/hopes/dreams/stories will make you a better person, and a better storyteller. It will make you a better human. It will also make you better at building relationships in an industry where it is so easy to feel alone. So build connections – it will help!

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

I think that being well-rounded is the best approach to life in general. In an effort to protect ourselves we often want to downplay our weaknesses, but ultimately they will become strengths with a little time and attention.

The way I think about it is to approach something new with curiosity, and a desire to learn. I am always searching for ways to expand myself and grow, with the hopes of building upon my strengths. In the end I don’t think that I will improve nearly as much at the things I care about without getting out of my comfort zone by trying something new, failing, and trying again.

For example, as a filmmaker I’ve been interested in directing but didn’t feel confident enough to do it for my first two films. I had written these films, sure, but had absolutely no experience or education in directing at all. So instead of doing it myself I hired two wonderful women to direct my films, and they each did a great job. But since completing my second film I’ve realized that the fear of failing is what’s been holding me back, and I don’t believe that’s serving me. So I’ve decided that I’m going to direct the next one. I’m going to prepare as much as possible by learning everything I can going into it, but I’m also going in with the awareness that I will be learning along the way – and I have to accept that I’ll make a thousand mistakes in the process, and that’s ok.

As I’ve started to read books about directing, and talk to directors to learn from their experience, the most interesting part of this journey already is how it’s evolving my perspective about acting for the camera and storytelling in a visual medium. It’s inevitable that by thinking about filmmaking from a different point of view, as a director, my existing skills as an actor will start to change and improve as well. I am excited about how much more well-rounded I will become as an artist if I continue to approach my career this way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rachel-frost.com
• Instagram: rachelfrostgenise

Image Credits

Amanda Whiteley, Dana Patrick