Please introduce yourself, what you do, why you do it, and what you want people to know about you.
Hey! I’m Camille Umoff. I graduated from Yale University in May and just wrapped a role in my first feature, StudioCanal and Imperative Entertainment’s Cat Person.
I’m an actor and a singer, and I do this crazy thing because I believe in the power of actors to heal the planet by bringing a shared experience to people of diverse backgrounds.
What qualities make you different and unique from everyone else in the industry?
I’m super curious! My interests range from criminal psychology to sustainable farming to current politics.
I attended a liberal arts program to get some education in all different things, and the wonderful byproduct of that has been how it has impacted my craft.
I get to pull from all these areas when I work on scenes and roles, and I hope that my education will help me to function as an artist who is a citizen, always relating my work to the world around me.
Describe THAT moment when you realized you wanted to do what you do now. Who did you tell first? What has it been like since that moment?
I actually started acting by mistake.
When I was five, my mom signed my brother up for an after school theater program. I went with her to drop him off, and as soon as I saw what those other kids were doing I knew I had to be there too.
I wanted to have as much fun as they were having. I don’t think there was a moment after that when I didn’t know what I wanted to do.
Suddenly, I felt I was exactly where I needed to be, and I feel incredibly lucky to have found that place at such a young age.
What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to face and how did you overcome it?
One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced so far has been learning to foster self-compassion in this industry which, as I’m sure everyone knows, can really shake your sense of self.
As someone prone to being a bit too much of a perfectionist, I’ve had to realize that nothing I ever do will be perfect.
But I’m starting to love that because no character is perfect either.
If you had to pick the TOP 3 people you’d want to meet that could take your career (or business) to the next level…who would those 3 people be?
Often, I’ve found help comes from the unlikeliest of places. I’m always excited to meet new collaborators and mentors.
