Meet Kate Moran
I was born in Brighton in the UK, a beautiful town right on the beach. I love the ocean, it always brings me such joy. I was always dancing as a child and would never go to bed until I had done a dance recital for everyone…. You can imagine how annoying that was for my family! My favorite book was The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking. I wanted a pet monkey, a pirate for a dad and to constantly go on wild adventures.
I always loved watching quirky, funny leading ladies from all different decades. I was crazy about Carol Lombard, Katherine Hepburn, Liza, I must have seen Cabaret a million times…Madeline Kahn, Julie Walters, Tracey Ullman, Bette, Goldie, Gilda, the list goes on…always drawn to funny original women, not really understanding at that point, that I yearned to create my own unique characters.
Unfortunately, the career advice I was given at school was that I have two paths; a secretary or a hairdresser. I knew I would never be either. I left school as soon as it was legally possible and went off to make the world my teacher.
My first adventure was as a dancer in Italy, then as a personal tour guide in Spain and Portugal. Next up Bermuda then on to New York, always reinventing myself from a Private Investigator to a Hat Check Girl. I saw my life as my own movie where I was, of course, always the leading lady.
I landed a job in London as a temp and within a week, got offered a job in TV. I worked as an Assoc. Director and spent the next few years working on the top shows in the UK. However, I realized I was on the wrong side of the camera, acting was my dream and it was time to follow my heart. I gave up my career in TV and headed to NYC to study acting at the Lee Strasberg Film and TV Institute.
I had arrived! I was with My People, I was happy!!! I had the best 2 years, training, performing, and making lifelong friends who I started a Theater Company with. Unfortunately, my visa ran out. Then, out of the blue, I got a phone call from a Producer I had worked with in London asking if I could go to Los Angeles and work on a new show…back behind the camera, waa! waa! I wanted to stay in the US, so I took the job and became the Assoc. Director on Dancing with the Stars, then America’s Got Talent and American Idol. I thought, I’ll just do this until I get my Green Card.
I loved my new home in LA, living near the ocean again. As well as working in TV, I was studying the craft, directing theater, producing and directing a documentary and teaching yoga. Although ‘in my downtime’ I would occasionally return to the New York stage, I yearned to perform more so I hit the comedy clubs and gave Stand-up and Sketch comedy a go…
I was terrified. But the minute I got the mic in my hand, I grabbed the lead by the balls and it was as if I’d never done anything else. When I stepped off the stage, my head literally exploded, it was the greatest high. I loved it, absolutely loved it.
I decided that next I was going to conquer the Telly! I got an audition for ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ and landed the role, my first TV audition and I got it! My scene was with Larry David and Tracey Ullman, yes, it’s a sign I said, get back to what you LOVE!
The love of my life is performing. As an artist I want to affect the audience exactly how I was affected as a child, watching those wonderfully funny women. They gave me permission to dream, to believe in magic and to be authentically myself. As they say in fairytales, “anything is possible, if you just believe”.
“...and Kate Moran provide some lighthearted relief with their quirky characterizations.”
DIRECTING NEWS
FROM THE DIRECTOR’S GUILD OF AMERICA:
Kate Louise Moran went to work as a temp at London Weekend Television more than 20 years ago, and within three weeks she was hired as the production secretary on the talk show Michael Barrymore’s My Kind of People. "One year later," she says, "they offered us an associate director training program, and the rest of my career [in live TV] kind of fell into place."