Meet Kaleb Sells

We recently connected with Kaleb Sells and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kaleb, so happy to have you with us today and there is so much we want to ask you about. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others developed certain skills or qualities that we are struggling with can be helpful. Along those lines, we’d love to hear from you about how you developed your ability to take risk?

Life is nothing but risks. With every step we take, every decision we make, we are faced with a risk since we have no idea how even the most mundane of our actions could impact the trajectory of our lives. Risk is almost like a present day embodiment of the Butterfly Effect brought up so much in science fiction. If one minuscule part of our past in changed, it could drastically impact the present. Likewise, every choice we make now can have major implications about our future. So, with each choice, a new risk presents itself: will our future maintain its current course, or will it forever be changed?

Growing up, I spent my childhood and teenage years between two small towns: Palatka, Florida and Rutherfordton, North Carolina. Neither are well known, not having been heard of by many people beyond those who know of the regions of their respective states. I had very little exposure to life outside of these towns except for maybe a weekend trip to a slightly bigger town or camping in the wilderness of another state. While I always knew I wanted to see more of the world, experience more in my life, I never had much access to seeing the world beyond the pages of a book or scenes set on the TV screen. But the older I got, the more I yearned to spread my wings and fly towards what I would see and read about.

At first my aspirations were in science and research, and with that came one of the first risks I would take. In middle school, I started to stay after school and secretly be a part of my school’s quiz bowl team. While clearly this was found out about by my mother (you kinda notice when your kid doesn’t come home from school), it was one of the many times I risked punishment (and my mother’s sanity) for a chance to further learn and challenge myself. These risks would continue as I got older, leading me to have a multitude of new experiences that ultimately led to my acceptance into Columbia University in New York. However, all of those risks in my childhood didn’t feel like risks. They were safe, at most risking a scolding, feeling more like rebellion than anything. I didn’t confront real risks and start developing my own abilities at risk taking until I was 19.

Remember how my original aspirations were in science? Well, my first year of college I was still pursuing that as a Biochemistry major. However, in many of my rebellious moments growing up, I had started to develop a deep passion for performance. While singing was what I did the most (I still have vivid memories of being 6 and scream-singing Alicia Keys’ “Fallin'” from her Songs in A Minor album), the moment I joined my middle school chorus (another secret act that my mother very quickly found out about) and then was put on stage for our production of A Christmas Carol, I started to crave that limelight. However, after middle school, a mix of a lack of a theatre program and underfunding towards the music department along with the growing push from my family and community members to pursue science as a career since performance wasn’t a stable stream of income led me to instead focus all of my efforts into academia. Yet, I always maintained that itch for performance and decided I would attempt Theatre as a possible double major. My first semester of college I took a risk and auditioned for a musical theatre class being taught by Mana Allen (who later would become one of many mentors who I still look to as inspiration in pursuing my own performance and theatre life). Somehow, taking that risk got me accepted into the class even though I was woefully underprepared and undertrained at the start. Despite that though, I took every new assignment as a moment to learn and grow, finding a footing in performance and performance study that seemed almost effortless. Definitely not easy, but effortless in the way that doing the work didn’t feel like a chore. This one tiny risk to audition led to a much larger risk: I decided to risk what would have been stability in pursuing biochemical research to become a Theatre major full-time and pursue acting.

This risk was monumental for me. I was giving up a future I was always told would be viable, a guaranteed job, a life I had always been told was the dream for a life I had no idea about beyond hearing the “starving artist” trope. Yet, something in my core told me it was a risk I had to take. So I did. At first it was horrifying, my life felt like it was crumbling around me, especially as I began to audition. I would face rejections that I had no way to rationalize, putting myself out there to only be told “thank you, not this time.” And yet, I found that every time I took a risk and auditioned, whether I heard back from the production or not, I was learning something new. Whether it be something I needed to improve upon, a new fact about the industry I was starting to devote my life to, or about the people I would be encountering on my journey, every audition became a moment of growth and understanding.

After I graduated college (and after a rather forced moment of reprieve from performance due to a certain world event), I returned to New York with the goal of pursuing theatre professionally as an actor and director. It was in my auditions for professional acting gigs that I fully embraced taking risks, as it seems like every time I took a risk on a piece of music or a monologue was the moment I would see the most success in securing a callback or a role. This was how I secured my Off-Broadway debut in the U.S. premier of “The Clockmaker’s Daughter” back in 2022, taking the risk to complete my virtual callback at the risk of completely blowing it due to having just learned the material while being sick and feeling like I would give a performance so poor it would tarnish my chances of working with the company in the future. Yet thanks to this risk, not only did I book a spot in the ensemble (which I took after fully recovering), but I also recently performed again with Emergent Theatreworks at their latest fundraising cabaret at the start of October 2024! And now, looking back, every time I took a risk and broke out of my own fears, insecurities, or rebelled against what was viewed as the “norm” in my life, those were the moments where I would truly understand who I was, what I wanted, and where I wanted to be. So now, when I see a risk, I take it, because I know it will be another moment for me to grow and maybe even continue to change my future for the better.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I am an actor, director, and playwright in New York City! While I primarily have done acting and directing professionally, I am also at a point with my writing where I will be submitting scripts for production in the near future. But that’s just the surface level, so let’s get into it.

I grew up in the South, spending my adolescent years in Florida and teenage years in North Carolina. I moved to New York in 2016 to attend Columbia University, where I got my B.A. in Drama & Theatre Arts. After taking a year to be with family in 2020, I returned to NYC in 2021 to pursue acting professionally. As I pursued acting, I also have found myself directing productions and exploring writing.

As an actor, I have dedicated myself to attempting to play roles that break stereotypes and question societal norms. I aim to perform in roles that will give depth to characters, showing their humanity as much as possible, whether it be in musical theatre, plays, film, or television.

When directing, I aim to bring light to under-heard and underrepresented stories and breathe life into them. From stories of addiction and mental health to socio-economic disparity and prejudice, I always aim to direct shows that will force the audience to reflect on how we view and treat other people in society. I also do love a good romance and romantic comedy, so any excuse to direct something cute and upbeat is also a fun time.

While my writing is definitely the least acted on of my career, it is also one I hold dear. As a playwright, I aim to tell stories based around either the LGBTQ+ community or from my experiences growing up in the American South. Whether they be stories rooted in history, retellings of old myths through a new lens, or pieces questioning how we got to our current state of being, my writing is something that I want to both raise questions and spark conversation.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The three most important qualities that have impacted my journey have to be patience, perseverance, and empathy. Sometimes it’s easy to forget this when we see extremely successful people in their youths, and it becomes easy to say that maybe it’s “too late” to start something new or that we are passionate about, but that is absolutely not true. The key is patience and knowing that so long as you keep putting in the work, one day you will enter into a network that will lead you to more opportunities in your field. That’s also where perseverance comes in. Through every rejection, every judgement made, every seeming fail, you have to persevere and keep reaching for your dreams. It’s not easy by any means, but persevering through every setback that comes your way will not only teach you so much about yourself, but also make the moment you achieve your goals that much sweeter.

However, above all, the quality that has to be developed the most in empathy. We all have a past, a story to be told, struggles that no one sees. We are all on our own journeys, trying to have patience, trying to persevere. Sometimes that gets hard. Sometimes it’s easy to fall into the trap of becoming overly competitive. Sometimes we are tempted to tear into other people on a similar journey to our own. We can’t let that happen. We have to maintain empathy for people navigating their journeys and their lives, whether they be after the same dream as us or something different. Too often, we forget that we are not alone in this world and don’t make space to hear or be there for others. Yet, making that space is essential, as we can not learn and grow if we are not sharing moments with people and hearing the tales they have to tell. And along with that, showing kindness and grace to those going through their own life and career struggles will help them keep stay strong on their own journeys. We all want to achieve our dreams, it’s better to be there and relate to others so we can all reach our goals than to try to reach our dreams while cutting off people on their own journeys.

My advice on developing these skills? Take time to live life and breathe. Listen to the stories of your friends, family, elders, and try to understand and relate to them. Maybe you’ll learn something that will apply to your own life, whether it be a reason to stay patient, a reason to keep persevering, or a new way empathize with those around you.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I’m always looking for new collaborators! I enjoy working with genuine people, people who are authentic to themselves and the stories they want to tell. Feel free to reach out to me via my Instagram @kalebsells and we can discuss opportunities (my website is still a work in progress but that will become an avenue of contact at some point soon)!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @kalebsells