BIO
My friends call me Katrin. My parents call me Marika, which is a Hungarian nickname for 'little Marie'.
I'm a daughter of a Hungarian pediatrician father and a Hungarian phlebotomist turned painter mother. I was born in former Czechoslovakia, raised in Boston, Massachusetts and now I live in CT and LA.
After a short residence in Montreal, New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and now Connecticut, truth be told, at heart, I remain a MassRat :)
In third grade I walked a friend to drama class, where her teacher cast me as a sunflower swaying in the wind.
The acting bug bit me pretty hard
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. We lived with the Klopfers for a few months, then 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 was there just to learn." In my senior year of High School I transferred 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 and a few local modeling gigs followed, until I began working in viceovers. At first, with 'on hold' msgs and podcasts, then, providing translations. I have a BA in Shakespearean drama with two years of film school ( learning film 'old school' 8 and 16mm style, then digital ) under the guidance of Emerson's awesome professor John Gianvito.
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, but left for an opportunity in Washington D.C. to intern at an embassy, assisting the First Secretary of Cultural Affairs in Public Relations.
As a translator, I spent many years working with US Immigration and US Customs Border Patrol under Francisco Baez and Scott Lahey. My 'road not taken' was to attend the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy so I can become Bond, Jane Bond
As fate would have it, at the Embassy I was offered the opportunity to translate a Czech musical, which reignited my love for the stage. I moved to New York and trained 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 return home to family. My dad passed away from lung caner, which ignited my holistic nutrition studies. In Connecticut, I continued writing and translating as well as providing freelance voiceover work. I became Adobe certified as a visual artist, learning full stack. I enjoy creating filmmaker pitch decks, story boards and I illustrations.
As a hobby, I have always loved costume design and filmmaking. I singlehandedly created costumes for cast of over thirty for myriad stage and film productions in college and post graduate; Boston's Wilbur theater, Arlington Friends of the Drama, Actor's Workshop in New York city and many more. I am Executive Producing with Playworld pictures and working on a screenplay. Twenty years of training in martial arts, eleven years in ballet shoes, and weekend horseback riding taught me discipline, determination and a strong work ethic. I will never stop. I know that much
I am a vegan. Animals are my passion. Love is my religion.
"People who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."
- Steve Jobs