We recently connected with Julia Knox and have shared our conversation below.
Julia, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
I discovered my purpose as an actor and storyteller when I was a kid playing pretend with barbie dolls with my best friend and found my love for singing and acting whenever I learned how to walk and talk. I always gravitated toward creative extra curricular activities in school such as acting, dance, and art classes and I pursued and studied visual and performing arts growing up. I learned quickly I didn’t have a natural talent for drawing, I learned later I can’t dance really well, but acting and writing the sweet spot where I shine the most.
I am an actress, writer, and producer based in Los Angeles. I grew up in New Orleans until I was about 10 years old. I am so thankful for the childhood experiences of growing up in such a culturally rich and performative atmosphere. Of course I am talking about Mardi Gras, a time where there’s so much creative freedom and showmanship. One of my earliest memories is being in singing and dance classes and putting on musical revue at my school fair where we performed “Rock-In Robin” along with other american bandstand and jazz songs before hopping on a float and throwing beads out to crowds of people yelling, “throw me something mister!”
My parents job moved me to Orlando, Florida at 10 years old. I continued finding ways to spend as much time learning from and creating live art and entertainment. I found a theatre group where I performed in the youth versions of musicals, including “Rent” and “Sweeney Todd,” which as an adult I find it funny but also love the fact that I was having those conversations at such a young age. When I was growing up in the theatre, my interest in film sparked when a casting director was renting out one of spaces at our rehearsal venue. I ended up asking if I could help and learn and he kindly taught me everything he knew. Now that I think about it, my film journey technically started behind the camera in the casting department. This was such a valuable time for me because of the many things I was able to take away in terms of auditioning and what to do/what not to do in the audition room.
In middle and high school, I continued to pursue musical theatre. I was SUCH a theatre nerd. All I listened to was musical theatre, every weekend I would go by myself to Broadway Across America shows and buy a $20 student ticket where I usually got to sit in the front orchestra section and get totally immersed by these amazing actor and musicians. It was amazing. I was such a theatre nerd, I used to trade piano scores on the deep dark web (not really, but kinda). When I wasn’t watching musicals, I was volunteering and taking classes at a local improv theatre, which is where my love for comedy began. I went to a magnet school for the visual and performing arts, which if you don’t know what that is, it basically just means I went out of my way to go to a specific school to get the best education with a focus on the arts. The idea was to graduate and immediately star on broadway, but after trying and training, I realized I can’t really dance (not like they do on broadway), and I’m only a decent singer (not like the powerhouses on broadway), and that got me really thinking about where I really saw myself not only fitting in but thriving!
Fun fact! I found myself working professionally as a living statue and stilt walker at the Disney and Universal theme parks. Which just means, I get to stand really still and freak people out and that I walk really tall! I hold this time of my life so near and dear to my heart. I absolutely love live entertainment and I love that I found a way to incorporate my movement and performance skills in a way I could make people smile, laugh, and dance. Truth: I am a better dancer on stilts than I am on the ground. I got to travel the country doing these things and you can even occasionally find me performing live in LA!
Onwards to the dream, my love, my career- film.
Before I moved to Los Angeles, I enrolled in a life-changing acting program that was specifically curated for film acting at a place called Arts Sake Acting Studio in Orlando, FL. After the program, I went on to be accepted into their advanced classes, all the while intensely studying film acting and the Meisner technique. This is where I really got to hone my skills and begin to learn the difference in the technical aspects of acting for the stage and acting for the camera. Arts Sake will always be a second home for me and I am grateful for the experiences and family I earned along the way.
The most important thing I learned here that I use on set and in real life – be present.
I moved to Los Angeles a few months before the pandemic. When I got here, I hit the ground running. I mostly just called myself an actor, but I was frequenting stand up comedy open mics and my first job was actually writing for a Youtube show. I realized the materials I had from the films I had done in Orlando wasn’t enough and I needed more footage of myself in roles that really fit my “castability.” At the time, I didn’t have much, if any at all, experience writing narrative screenplays but I found myself doing it anyway. Not only that, but I also needed to actually make it a reality by putting it on camera, so I found myself researching and putting together the necessary plans to get it made, my intro to producing. And I shot it! But then literally the next day, the world shut down. I was the last person to rent the sound stage we used before Covid.
The lows were low, and there were a lot of lows at that time. But the thing that kept me going, the thing that inspired and excited me throughout that season of life, was writing. It was during this time I also found an amazing group of friends and filmmakers where we all encouraged each other and kept one another going emotionally and creatively. I wrote my first feature. I wrote a bunch of short films. I wrote sketches. I was (we all were) really setting myself up for when the opportunity comes to bring my imagination to life from the page to the screen. Telling stories that truly excite me. What I call- my purpose.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am an actress, writer, and producer based in Los Angeles. I consider myself a visual storyteller of narrative films that are comedy at heart told in a dark and compelling way. My influences and inspiration come from the Coen Brothers and Edgar Wright.
My latest project is a short film called “Barefoot.” It’s the story of a woman that goes to the OBGYN and the doctor can’t get to her vagina because she is distracted by her ugly feet. It is showing in Los Angeles at the LA Indie Film Festival on March 15th at 7pm.
It is currently making it rounds in the festival circuit and it is doing really well! It has screened in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, and a few other cities and it will be screening in France later this year where it won “Best Comedy” in the World Cannes Festival. It has also won “Best Comedy Short,” “Best First Time Director,” & “Best Ensemble Cast” at the Independent Shorts Awards in Los Angeles, and “Best Indie Short” at Oniros Film Festival in New York, among other awards granted in LA and around the US.
It’s been really exciting! The really awesome part is the fact that when I show people the weird stuff my brain thought of, they like it. I am definitely grateful to those who saw my film and thought it was worthy of an award. That’s obviously really cool and such an honor. But it’s a really special feeling when I get to sit in a theatre full of strangers and listen to them react and laugh to the thing I created. Making a film is really hard, but that is the part that is most rewarding and makes me want to keep making more!
Up next for me is a dark comedy called, “Going Overboard.” It is the story of a couple that get stranded out to sea after accidentally knocking their captain overboard and they have to work together to get home while their relationship teeters on a breakup. Current status: looking for financing to make the short.
Both of these projects, Barefoot & Going Overboard, are proof of concepts for feature length movies I hope to make soon! I look forward to continue showing my short form work to audiences in hopes that they gain the right attention of individuals and companies who would want to invest in my career and film journey!
Also coming out this year is Gringo Latino!! A project I am so excited to share!! It is a pilot presentation about a white-passing Latino struggling to find his place between his American environment and his Latin community. I had the pleasure of producing and starring in it! Getting this off the ground has been a long process with it’s own stories but it has been such a pleasure working with my co-producer and the creator, Eric Delgado! More to come on this soon!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Keep going!!
Film is hard. It’s really hard. But it is also soooo rewarding. If you are determined, persistent, and disciplined enough in your pursuit of your dreams and career, you will get out of it what you put in. And that’s true for whatever you do.
Surround yourself with people who love it, too.
Again, film is hard. Do it with people you enjoy and love the craft, too. I am so fortunate to have a group of people around me that are so talented in what they do and share a vision with me and the stories I want to tell. If that is something you want but don’t have- join groups online, go take classes, do something in person with likeminded people.
Exercise.
Whatever it is that you do, get out and find a hobby that gets you moving and active. I found rowing! I absolutely love getting up in the early mornings and going out onto the water to watch the sunrise while also getting a workout in.
What’s next, or what do I need now to keep going?
I feel as if I am at the point in my career equivalent to a start-up company.
I’ve done a lot of prep work, I have financed my own product, I’m putting feelers out there to see if people are interested in the things I’ve created, and now I am looking for individuals and companies who want to invest in me and my work.
I am fortunate to have an amazing team of filmmakers around me and camera and lighting gear as resources, but I am at the point now that for the ideas I have and the things I want to make, I need serious financing to bring those projects to life and actually contribute to film as a creative and as a business.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.juliaknox.me/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejuliaknox/
- Other: https://kickstarter.com/projects/goingoverboard/going-overboard
Image Credits
Arthur Marroquin, Kasey Orthmann
