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 7 Questions for... Lennon Parham

Lennon Parham
New York Actor

LENNON PARHAM currently performs at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in NY in the comedy Improv shows Asssscat 3000 and Reuben Williams. She is also a member of the UCBT Touring Company. For over a year, you could find her flailing about weekly as Nomi Malone in the hit stage show, Showgirls: the Best Movie Ever Made. Ever! or as Sandy Michaelson, Solid-Gold Dance Understudy in the improvised Real Real World.

She also co-created and performed The Adventures of Lock & Kay, a two-woman show about the rise of a pop superstar duo. Previous New York Improv and Sketch credits include The Shoves, Dillinger and We Built This City on Rent Control (Second City NY). NY Theatre credits include Elephant in the Room! (NY Fringe), Crepuscule, Hold the Fat, Until We Find Each Other and many other workshops with the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, Stage 13 and MCC's young playwrights group. Film and Television credits include Confessions of a Shopaholic (upcoming,) Pretty Bird, Hysterical Psycho, The Dueling Accountant, AV Club. She holds a BS in Theatre from the University of Evansville in Indiana and taught French for 2 years at TL Weston High School in Greenville, Mississippi with Teach for America. 

What have you been working on lately? 
I've been focusing my efforts on my first one-woman show, a compilation of the crazy wonderful characters that live inside my head.  I'm currently workshopping it at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater.  I also just shot a new commercial and I am shooting several scenes for the film, Confessions of a Shopaholic, in February.  And I'm teaching improv at the UCB Training Center, including a new class that I developed called Character Intensive.  

What do you love about what you do? 
Mostly I love to play.  What I do allows me to work and collaborate with some of the most fun, funniest, talented people around.  I am laughing a lot.  Also, specific to improv, I am given the opportunity to create new worlds with new rules and to be any kind of character from Beyonce to a boy scout.

What's your biggest pet peeve? 
I've had a hard time learning the "business" side of the business.  I don't consider myself particularly business savvy.  Usually I am polite and tell the truth.  But that doesn't always go well with business.  So, I'm learning how to be in that world.

If you could try any other career, what would it be? 
Probably something medical, like an obstetrician.  I am completely fascinated with how the human body works.

Who do you admire in the industry, and why? 
Many of the ladies of comedy, who have created their own path.  I am also fortunate to know and to get to perform with a lot of folks that I admire.  I am just trying to soak it all up.

What was the best career decision you ever made? 
So far . . . I'd say it was a series of decisions rather than one single decision.  That was when I got really honest with myself about what I wanted, set some serious goals and began to choose projects and do things that were in line with those goals rather than just doing everything and anything that came my way.

What's your piece of career advice for actors?

Trust yourself.  Create opportunities for yourself to play and perform every week, not just when you are auditioning or in a project.  Take a class or make a show.  Write down what you'd want in your wildest truest dreams and then set goals to get there.  Go to Capes Coaching.