Tessa Thompson

“I’m an odd breed in that I’m a Los Angeles native. I’m very much an LA girl. I went to Santa Monica High School and, as a teenager, lived in Hollywood. I’m as LA as they come. I now work in Hollywood the industry, but to me Hollywood has always meant that kind of armpit of LA rather than the hills of Hollywood, the sign and that star-lined stretch of Hollywood Blvd. I started acting in theatre. Los Angeles professional theatre is a community that doesn’t get its due from outsiders. I worked in theatre and then television – film was an afterthought in some ways. I never grew up watching movies thinking I wanted to be in them, but I always grew up doing theatre and I wanted to be on Broadway. So I still get involved in LA theatre and celebrate it and go to shows.”