About Katrina

Katrina Charles is a writer, musician, and improviser currently based in Seattle, Washington.

Part 1: Writing

Katrina began writing at a very young age. Well, probably like the standard age for writing. She was super enthusiastic about being able to craft imaginative worlds and share them through words. In fourth grade, Katrina took the lead of writing and illustrating a picture book for a contest that her class wanted to enter. While they didn’t win, years later Katrina asked her teacher if they had any luck in following years. Her teacher divulged that she hadn’t entered the contest since; if they hadn’t won with Katrina’s story, she figured they wouldn’t ever have a chance. This gave Katrina an ego boost that lasted about .3 seconds because middle school was wearing her down at that point, but it was still nice to hear.

High school was mostly essays and defiant avoidance of the written word, but in college Katrina found her way back to her passion through her Broadcast Journalism & Television minor. She found a love for screenwriting and had fun putting comedy into her news segments, one of which got her a bad grade although it was probably her proudest work.

After college, Katrina spent time writing customer service emails at the Cheezburger Network and music blogs at Seattle Music Insider, Inside Right Wrist, and her own blog B-Side Sound. She eventually found her way into tech by becoming a UX Writer, writing strategic content focusing on accessibility and user safety at large tech companies. In the last couple of years, Katrina has rediscovered her love for screenwriting. She has so far written three comedy pilots and is working on a comedy screenplay. And, one day, she’ll figure out what to do with them.

Part 2: Music

At 8 years old, Katrina quit piano lessons. She did it again a few years later. Lessons weren’t for her, she was a rebel. Well, rather, she just didn’t like her piano teacher taping down her pinky because it stuck up while she was playing. Or how her first teacher compared her to another kid in her class. She was probably less of a rebel, and more just easily annoyed. Anyoo, when she was 16 and away at boarding school, she rediscovered the piano and began learning on her own, subjecting her friends to countless hours of her just playing the same few chords over and over and over and over. It was a miracle she had any friends. Again, anyoo, she began writing music and even got to perform an original song with a friend and her high school graduation.

She began playing open mics in college and discovered that she had a lot of anxiety around performing her own music. Nevertheless, she persisted. After college, she moved to Seattle and began playing more regularly. First open mics, then solo shows, then as a keyboard player with a band, and even some shows for her own music with a band. It was so fun, but Katrina discovered that she still had a lot of anxiety around playing music. So, she took a break. One year became a few, and then the pandemic happened. In 2020, Katrina found a great therapist and started working on her anxiety, which turned out to be a symptom of undiagnosed C-PTSD which was so fun to find out. But after years of working on it, Katrina is feeling much better and excited to be getting back to playing and writing music. You can occasionally find her streaming on Twitch, and she’s working on integrating music into her narrative writing as well.

Part 3: Improv

Katrina began improv at a very old age. Jk she was 29. I think. Which is still really young in the whole scheme of things. She began classes at Unexpected Productions in Seattle, Washington and did all of their core classes (although they have since added one, and Katrina accidentally put on her improv resume that she did all of them, but she didn’t. So, if you’re reading this, SHE APOLOGIZES SHE DIDN’T TAKE 700 SHE ONLY TOOK TO 600). Afterwards, she joined a couple of local groups and then the pandemic happened. So, armed with her laptop, she began online classes. She had wanted to take classes at the UCB theater since she was in high school and her drama class went to a show there, and she found out that with the power of the internet, she could. So she did. She also took sketch, podcasting, pilot writing, and narrative audio series writing. Really just took all those classes. She also began classes at the World’s Greatest Improv School and that was fun, too. Katrina has currently run out of money so she is not taking any more classes at this time, but she does have a few coaching groups she’s in that are really fun and cool. Due to the pandemic, Katrina is still mostly an online improviser. She dreams of the day when society can get its sh*t together enough to allow high-risk people to participate in in-person events again. 🙂 – Written in September, 2024