My friends call me Katrin.
My parents call me Marika, which is Hungarian, for 'little Marie'. I'm a daughter of a Hungarian pediatrician father and a Hungarian phlebotomist /painter mother. I was born in former Czechoslovakia and raised in Boston, Massachusetts
In third grade I joined my friend's drama class, where her teacher cast me as a sunflower swaying in the wind. The acting bug bit me badly! I loved performing.
Fall admission to ballet school kept me 'en pointe' well into my college years. In 1982 my family came to New York, reuniting with my maternal relatives, who left Hungary during the 1956 uprising. My uncle owned a well known Hungarian restaurant on the Upper East side, called Mocca. We lived with the Klopfers for a few months, then we moved to Boston, where my father obtained work. I began grade school at an all girl private school. To quote Rory Gilmore of the Gilmore Girls: "Wearing a boring uniform, because everyone's there just to learn." In my senior year of High School I wanted to transfer to public school, hoping to meet boys, so that I could attend prom. Instead, I found the drama nerds!
Cast in the role of Dr. Armstrong in Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians I got to perform - for the first time in my sixth language - English. Several stage plays followed as well as a few local modeling gigs, before I began working in voiceovers. At first, with short 'on hold' msgs and podcasts, than translations and dubbing. I have a BA in Shakespearean drama with two years of film school and I trained at the Lee Strasberg institute. My film training began old style on 8mm and 16mm film, under the guidance of Emerson's awesome professor John Gianvito. Now I film digital. I edit my own work as well
With my strong interest in International Relations I continued to study languages. I took some time off college to improve my French abroad. After I earned my BA, I took graduate law courses at Harvard, where I worked in I.T. services. I left for an internship opportunity at an embassy in Washington D.C. where I assisted the First Secretary of Cultural Affairs in Public Relations and the First Secretary to the Ambassador. As a translator, I spent many years working with US Immigration and US Customs Border Patrol under Francisco Baez and Scott Lahey. This was my 'road not taken' Before college I planned to attend the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy to become Bond, Jane Bond.... I suppose it was never meant to be
At the Embassy Madam secretary offered me the opportunity to translate a Czech musical, which reignited my love for the stage. I moved to New York to train at the Lee Strasberg Institute, while working as a multilingual voiceover artist with agent Jenny Brown of the Abram Artist Agency. When the pandemic hit, I returned home. I wanted to be with family. I lost two cousins to covid and my beloved dad to cancer. This is a lesson in life that teaches a person very quickly what truly matters in life
Hustling as a freelance voiceover artist and Adobe certified visual artist I earned some meager floobaroos creating filmmaker pitch decks, story boards, illustrations and voicing various characters in independent productions. I always loved costume design and filmmaking. I created costumes for myriad stage and film productions, such as Boston's Wilbur theater, Arlington Friends of the Drama, Actor's Workshop, just to name a few and luckily, it's just another skill to have. Post pandemic I wanted to stay close to home. I was blessed with a gig as Executive Producer with Playworld pictures, while working on a my first screenplay. Unfortunately, a car accident derailed my life plans. Interestingly, recovery prompted me to learn TCM and herbal medicine; first with my father, years ago and later with prominent teachers from all corners of he world, culminating in my book of healing foods, hopefully in a bookstore near you come 2027 :)
Twenty plus years of traiming in various martial arts and eleven years in ballet shoes, with weekend horseback riding ventures taught me discipline. I get up in the morning with a task to complete what needs to be done. I am vegan, because I love animals. Love is my religion.
"People who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."
- Steve Jobs