Embracing Your Worth: Lessons from Actress Christina Karis

Christina Karis and I share more than just a conversation here—we share roots, similar experiences, and the understanding of what it feels like to grow up in a place where you don’t fully feel like you belong. From the same small Alabama town and even the same high school, we both knew there was something bigger waiting for us, even if we didn’t yet know how to reach it. Watching Christina build a career in film and television has been inspiring, and hearing her reflect on that path makes this conversation especially meaningful.

We talk about identity, worth, imagination, and what it takes to keep saying yes to your dream even when fear, doubt, and old wounds try to convince you otherwise. Christina opens up about her childhood, how acting became both an escape and a calling, and how she’s learned to trust the gifts she’s been given. Her story is honest, grounding, and such a beautiful reminder that the dream in your heart is there for a reason. 

Episode Highlights

[00:00:38] – I introduce Christina and share why this conversation feels so personal for me, given our shared hometown and similar journey out of it

[00:04:12] – Christina reflects on growing up in a racially divided small town and realizing what those divides meant as she got older

[00:08:38] – She talks about acting as her earliest form of imagination, escape, and self-expression

[00:10:40] – Christina shares what it took to finally say yes to pursuing acting fully and how self-worth played a major role in that journey

[00:12:47] – Landing the role of Dana Wheatley on Law & Order: Organized Crime and why the part felt deeply aligned

[00:14:08] – How this character is helping her discover new parts of herself, especially power, confidence, and presence

[00:15:17] – What it has been like joining a major cast during such an uncertain time and how that created a sense of connection on set

[00:16:40] – The advice she would give her younger self about trusting the opportunities placed in front of her

[00:17:56] – How she hopes to use her influence to build empathy and help people see the humanity in one another

[00:18:53] – The daily creative and meditation practices that help her stay grounded and balanced

[00:19:43] – Christina opens up about branching into writing and producing and listening to the stories that keep calling her

[00:21:48] – Her closing words of wisdom about dreams, perseverance, and why the dream chooses you too

Links & Resources

• Christina IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2458187/

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Website: https://AmeliaOld.com

If this conversation encouraged you, share it with someone who needs the reminder to trust their voice and keep showing up for their dream. Don’t forget to follow, rate, and leave a review—it helps more people find these stories.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Everyone has a story to tell. We connect and relate to one another when we share our stories. My name is Amelia Owen, and I am your host of Voices of Inspiration. Join me as I share stories of friends, family, and strangers through my everyday life and travels. We will laugh, possibly cry, but walk away feeling connected more than ever to those around you and ready to be the change our world needs. Everyone has a story to tell. What's yours?

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Welcome to Voices of Inspiration. I'm your host, Amelia Old. Thank you for joining me today. If you are new here, I share stories of people in my everyday life and those I meet along the way. I think we all have a story to tell, and it's my desire to give as many people as I can that platform so that we can connect and inspire each other on a deeper level. So for those who know very little about my background, I was actually born in Georgia. That's where the majority of my family live. And at a very young age, my mother moved, just her and I, to Alabama, to central Alabama, to a very small town called Clanton in Chilton County. It's known for peaches. And if you've ever driven through the state and stopped at Peach Park or have seen the Peach Water Tower, that is Clanton. And that is where I lived until I graduated high school. My mother and sister, they do still live there, and I do have a couple of friends, although I don't really visit often. I actually haven't been in probably nine years. But honestly, for many reasons, I struggled and always had this feeling of not belonging. I didn't always feel like I fit in there. I felt like there was more out there for me to experience. This was long before social media, and back then things weren't as accepted as they may be today. And I had a really hard time with that. I really struggled with that. And so right out of high school, I ended up sort of just falling into the entertainment business and started working as a model, and that led me moving to Atlanta where I continued my career, and then I began working behind the camera as a talent, which was something I was extremely passionate about. And ever since then, I've always been in the industry. So that's definitely the short story, but we will save the rest for another episode. I shared this with you because today's guest and I share very similar experiences. In fact, while I'm a little bit older, we actually lived in the same town and attended the same high school. She also moved away as a young adult and now works as a film and television actress. Christina Karis knew from a very young age that her one dream was to become an actress. Christina has dedicated her life to honing her craft, studying with distinguished teachers in New York City, Virginia, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. Some of Christina's most notable works include Miles Ahead with Don Cheadle, guest starring roles on the hit NBC drama This Is Us, Queen of the South, The Walking Dead World Beyond, The Resident, and the recent reboot of Mad About You. Christina currently portrays Dana Wheatley, daughter of an online pharmaceutical mogul played by Dylan McDermott on the new hit NBC series Law and Order Organized Crime. Thank you for joining me, Christina.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Thank you for having me. Like just listening to you read that. I'm like, wow, that's me. Kind of surreal.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

This is our first time really seeing each other face to face, even though it's remotely in uh quite some time.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Long time.

unknown 3:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

So first of all, I want to start off by saying congratulations on your new role as Daniel Wheatley on Law and Order, Organized Crime. I think that's so exciting, and I really want to kind of dive into that role later in the show. And I kind of want to start at the beginning. You know, you first moved to Alabama like myself at a really young age. And it's difficult moving anywhere as a child. And at the time, that area was definitely racially divided in many ways. Can you kind of talk about that move and how you found yourself fitting in?

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Oh, that's so interesting. The thing about being poor, you don't even know you're poor until someone tells you you're poor, or you don't know that you're different until someone tells you you're different. I didn't have a cognizant understanding that because we live in the projects, we were poor, or because we lived on this side of the town, this side of the railroad tracks, we were racially divided. I didn't understand any of that, kindergarten, first grade, second grade. I went to Ohio and came back in the seventh grade. And that's when I realized, oh, wait, this is this is real life. There was a railroad track that divided white and black, more well-off and distinguished and poor. And I lived on the poor black side and I knew it. And it was just, I don't know, like we didn't have YouTube or like we weren't, we didn't really see other people encountering our same situations and circumstances at that time. We just had our reality. I didn't necessarily want to identify with my surroundings, so I was always in my imagination. So I've been acting from a very young age because I just always imagined my life looking different ways. If we had this or if I had this opportunity, or if I was able to do this. And I think that's kind of how I got through it. Just, you know, there was an unstated knowing of if you were from here, this is what that meant. And to kind of escape those shame feelings that I was having, I just used my imagination. I just always saw and envisioned myself going off to college, you know, becoming an actress, even though I didn't talk about it because I was kind of embarrassed to tell people, I it lived here in my in my mind and it lived in my heart. And so I think that's kind of how I navigated those those times. If that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you were a biracial child in a community that at this time still had that divide. I mean, I remember even there were still some places, including a doctor's office, that people were just kind of still in the ways of the separation. There was still an area that black people visited and that white people. And I remember seeing that even as a young child and seeing the KKK in person and things. And, you know, it wasn't that long ago and that it still existed. You know, what hurdles did you personally face during your time there? And and how did you kind of work through that and overcome that?

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Interestingly enough, I actually had a lot of support from the white community in terms of my teachers, my counselors, my principals. I got my first job when I was 15, my boss. I didn't really experience racism from, I guess, leaders in that way. I actually felt very supported. What I did notice is the black table in the cafeteria. And that always bothered me. And I felt kind of torn because I didn't want to sit with people just because I was black. Well, where else was I gonna go? It was like taboo. So it wasn't so much that I felt it from the white community, I just felt it from my peers. Again, it was like this unspoken, this is the way that it goes. And I remember feeling like there were some black people that were kind of like, and this is just my interpretation as a 14-year-old. So this could be totally off. But it felt like there were some black people who were like the token black people who mingled in both circles. And I just never was one of those people. I knew I was black, but I knew I was more than just black, and I didn't quite know how to express that. I just so I felt I felt like I belonged with my black community absolutely and unequivocally accepted. I just knew that we weren't just black. We had more to offer, and I'm not sure that I experienced that until I left. Those moments certainly shaped who you are now.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

Absolutely. And you always had dreams of being an actress. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

That's the only thing I've ever felt like I was like really good at. Like again, I lived in my imagination from a very early age. I think all kids do. Some kids just kind of go into sports or they go into cheerleading or whatever. I stayed there. And I've just, I turned every tour, every making my bed. I was in a film, I was doing, you know, it's just, it's just who I am. And it actually took me a long time to realize that that's just the way God created me. And not only is that beautiful, but there's so much success if I just stay true to myself. You know, a lot of my friends are like, oh, you gotta go do this and you gotta produce this and you gotta write this. And I've only wanted to act. Like I've just it just feels like, you know, I'm home when I'm acting, like I'm at home in my heart. So I hope I'll be doing it. I will be doing it until the end of my days, but I hope that I'll be doing it in a way that I can share it with people until the end of my days.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

And I do think it's true, you know, I haven't been in the industry for a really long time, but as an agent, instead, you can't really ever get away from the industry. And if you try, you will be brought back in every single time. I see experience.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Yeah, I think when it's your calling, it won't leave you alone until you say yes. And I say that from personal experience. I have feared my way, I have sabotaged my way, I have run away. I just I've always had this talent. I just didn't necessarily have the knowing of the self-worth or the self-love. I didn't know that I was worthy of it. So combining the worth and the talent has been my life process. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

What was the moment you decided, you know what, I'm just going to go for it? Like, how did what was that moment? And also how did your loved ones react?

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Well, in the beginning, when you first say you want to do it before you've been rejected 500 times, there's a bit of naivete and there's a bit of, oh, it's just, you know, I'm going out there. I mean, I went to grad, I went to undergrad for theater, and then I went to grad school for and I have an MFA in acting. So I just always got parts. And I I think there was, I was so, I was kind of naive that that's not how it necessarily works in business. So when I was 25, I moved to LA and I started booking things like kind of quick, I guess. But I don't think that I was mature enough in my in my emotions, but I just wasn't as prepared as I could have been to embark on the journey. There was still a lot of growing that I needed to do. Again, it comes back to that self-worth. Everybody can believe in you, but if you don't believe in yourself, you're gonna talk yourself out of going for it. You're gonna talk yourself out of really putting everything into it. So this has been a 10-year journey, literally, of the dream saying, Come on, Christina, you can do it, and me saying, I don't know. So it's been a journey of my own character, of the woman that I've become to really see myself the way the universe sees me. Where I am right now is in complete synchronicity with where the universe sees me. That took 10 years. And I tell people all the time, it's not just that I'm doing the work, but the work is working on me. Like every job, every audition, every character is teaching me something as a person to make me the character that I can be, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Yeah. And now you've landed, you know, your biggest role yet. Let's talk about Dana Wheatley on Law and Order, Organized Crime. How were you approached for this role? And how do you how did you feel when you learned you had landed it?

SPEAKER_00 12:46

It felt very right. It felt very, very right. So funny story, I actually was up for two different parts, Dana and another part on an NBC show. And both of the producers were interested in me. And my agent said to me, If if it comes down to it and you have to pick, which one are you gonna pick? And I was like, Oh, I'm gonna do the other one. And he said, I said, I just feel like I connected to her more and I can, whatever. I went to sleep, I had a dream that night, and I was like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm choosing Dana. And he said, why? I said, because there's things about Dana that I need to find out about Christina. And what I meant, what I mean by that is a black woman who grows up in New York City with a father who runs a multimillion dollar business, who has always been affirmed, who hasn't been marginalized, walks in a sort of power and authority that I needed to find within myself. So it's kind of like Dana and I, we're one. And the the the life of Dana is in me. It's always been there, but the story helps me to find it, to find that power.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

That actually answered my next question about, you know, you definitely feel like you can relate to this character in her story. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Well, interesting, in some ways, yes, and in some ways, no. In terms of race, absolutely. In terms of being uh a senior vice president, no. In terms of running a nonprofit organization, no. I this story allows me to see the potential that I really have. I never really like I said, I've only I've only wanted to act. I've never really saw myself as the entrepreneur or the businesswoman, but I am. Obviously, I am if I'm doing the job as Dana, you know. So, in some ways, Dana is showing me parts of myself that I've never seen before, which is so freaking cool that I get to live that life. I get to go to school every day, learn about myself, and be paid for it. Like it's just amazing.

unknown 14:55

I love that.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

That's so awesome. This show has a great cast lineup, including Dylan McDermott, who plays your father, Chris Maloney, who is well known for his role as Detective Elliot Stabler on SVU, and Tamara Taylor, who plays your mother, among many others. How has the cast supported you coming into this role?

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Well, I think we've had no other choice but to support each other because we're making a TV show in the midst of so much uncertainty. We don't know what's gonna happen. We don't know. I mean, you could be shut down any day. Like all these things can happen. The only thing we have is when we get to come to set and tell a story. And so I think we've bonded in a beautiful way because we're all just so grateful to be working. So you feel as though you're family now. Yeah, it kind of feels like that. I'm a lot closer to tomorrow than I am to my mom on the show. Like Christina and Tamara, we Kiki and Google and all that on the show. Our relationship is a little bit more distant.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

What's it like filming in New York City right now?

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Ooh, it's so different. Again, because of the pandemic and so much uncertainty, I feel like this responsibility to stay COVID-free, to stay healthy. You know what I mean? So there's a lot more, I think, responsibility, I feel, than oh, I get to just go out and explore the streets of New York City. I mean, I can, but I feel such a responsibility to making sure the story gets told. So it's like I'm in New York City, but I'm really in my hotel.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Knowing all that you know now, what advice would you give your younger self?

SPEAKER_00 16:40

The advice I would give my inner self. Oh, girl, that's a good question. I haven't thought about that in so long. When other people affirm you that you believe, trust them. It's it took me a long time to get enough confidence in myself. Like I would book roles and still feel inadequate. I would still feel like they made a mistake. What were they doing? Like I had such bad imposter syndrome. I just I trusted more, I guess, in some of the trauma that I endured in my childhood than what was right before me. And if you stay in your history and if you keep recycling, you'll never get past it. And so now I look at life as a mirror. So I look at if I was chosen for this role, that means out of the entire world, I am the best person to bring this role to life. And I will not negotiate that for anything. And it, I just my younger self just never could kind of believe that I was worth these opportunities.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

I can relate to that a lot. How would you like to use your influence for good to quote unquote be the change?

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Well, I think being a storyteller, your your eyes are opened to a lot of different views of life because everybody has a lens, everybody has a perspective, everybody has an interpretation. And I think my goal is to help everyday people to gain empathy for their brothers and sisters in humanity. That's what I do for a living. I'm an empathetic feeler and I tell stories for empathy. If I can translate that to other people, and if we could really see beyond the judgments and the externals into people's heart, like I would love that we just start to have conversations about empathy and seeing like the God in each other, seeing the humanity in each other, seeing the beauty in each other instead of what we were taught necessarily.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

How do you find your balance through all of this?

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Meditation, girl. Meditation. And I actually have a creative practice that I do every day. Because what I've realized for me is that I because I'm a creator, creating is this it's necessary for me every day. So even if I'm not on set, I have a creative practice that I show up for. Like a writer writes every day, a dancer goes to the ballet bar every day. As an actress, I have to come to that space. And in that space, I can bring anything and show up and create. And it's like that's that's like my church. It's like it it refuels me in a sense.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

You are also branching out into other realms of storytelling, including production and writing, which is something I'm also passionate about. Can you share what's next for you with that?

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Well, it's a very dear story to my heart that the story has been asking me to write it for like five or seven years. And again, it was like, can I really do it? Like, oh and just in the past six months, I finally said, you know what, Christina, if you don't write the story, somebody else is. And you should be grateful that a story wants to be written by you. A lot of writers say that they they get chosen by stories too, like when stories come to them in their mind or their dream, and then you have the opportunity to say to say yes or no. If you say no, it's going to move on to the next person. And I would just be devastated if I didn't show up. So it's kind of I don't I don't talk about it a lot, but it's something that I I write an hour a day, every day, and it's it's coming. So we'll see. I hope to release it in the fall. That's exciting.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Where can our listeners find you online and also on the screen?

SPEAKER_00 20:50

So right now the show is on NBC, obviously, Thursdays at 10 o'clock. There's also some crossovers with SBU. So if you watch both shows, you'll probably see both Chris Maloney and Mariska on on both shows. It also streams on Peacock and Hulu. And uh there'll be eight episodes. So interestingly, I don't even know what's gonna happen. Like, I don't know what's gonna happen until I get the script for that week. So I'm just as excited to see how it unfolds as the audience is.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

I love that. That's so fun. Um I will make sure to link to information about the show and you also under the notes of this episode at voices of inspiration podcast.com. Do you have any words of wisdom or a favorite quote that you would like to leave with our listeners, maybe to that young girl in a small town somewhere who has the same dreams you did?

SPEAKER_00 21:47

Oh, definitely. I would say if you have a dream, your dream has you. Meaning you're not just chasing the dream, the dream chose you. So if you keep showing up. You're gonna get there. It's about perseverance, it's about tenacity, it's about persistence, and it's about knowing that it's not some elusive thing. The dream chose you. You just have to say yes. And if you continue to say yes, it will reveal itself to you.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

Thank you for being with me today. Thank you so much. Being open to talking about your journey. I think that you are such a beautiful light and inspiration. And I know that you are going to continue to do great things, and I'm excited to watch where your path takes you next. Me too. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you to our listeners. There are hundreds of thousands of podcasts out there, and I'm so grateful that you have chosen to join us. My name is Amelia, and I'm your host and hostess of inspiration. Everyone has a story to tell. What's yours?