I'M A Bicoastal ACTOR LIVING AND WORKING IN THE NEW YORK CITY AND SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREAs.
I’ve been onstage continuously my whole life. In my youth through college years, I appeared in leading roles in plays, musicals, and operas. I then took a long hiatus into conducting—yes, conducting. I’ve been the “maestra” of university and professional ensembles over some thirty years, leading concerts at prestigious venues, making recordings, and collaborating with artists around the world. (If you’re curious: marikakuzmamusician.com).
I returned to acting— facing the audience and uttering sounds of my own again — several years ago and have enjoyed joining in various theater and film productions. I’ve appeared onstage at theaters including Berkeley Rep, Marin Shakes, and La MaMa in NYC as a French widow (César), a Jewish mother (Edith Stein), a Scottish astronomer (Silent Sky), wealthy American matriarchs (Watch on the Rhine and Other Desert Cities), and the Sun (Midwinter Night). In film, I’ve played a self-less mother living on a California farm (short film Way Out), an alcoholic mother in Boston (Scout), a women appearing to her husband in the afterlife (Wherever), a trans father-turned-mother (short film Mrs. Peterson’s Day Out), a grieving widow in NYC (Sora), a Polish immigrant (We Speak NYC).
Growing up multilingual—the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants in an Italian-Irish neighborhood— and immersed in music, I’m used to deep listening and bridging cultural borders. I look forward to new roles and collaborations ahead… coast to coast.
