Kristina Valada-Viars

Kristina (KVV) is an artist working in theatre, film and television (and whatever comes next) based in Chicago and New York. She works to foster artist-led exchange with community-based artists practicing outside of traditional commercial circuits and cities. Her work as a stage director and performer has been devoted to new work development and first and second productions of new American plays. Theatre credits include: Broadway,  13P, Steppenwolf, Goodman, Theater Wit, Pride Plays Inaugural Season, New Dramatists, The New Group, and About Face. She received the Princess Grace Award and Fellowship for acting and directing in residence with Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Favorite film and television credits include: Kris Rey’s I Used To Go Here (SXSW Premiere), Andrew Repasky McElhinney’s Animal Kingdom (MoMa Vault), and working with Kevin Hooks, Aurora Guerrero, DeMane Davis, Victoria Mahoney, Thomas Carter and Sheelin Choksey in the recurring role of Noah Wylie’s lawyer, Elizabeth Fermi, on The Red Line on CBS from team of Caitlin Parrish and Erica Weiss (an Ava DuVernay and Greg Berlanti production). She received the Best Actress in a Feature award at the Iris International Film Festival in Cardiff, Wales, for her work in the independent feature Molly's Girl filmed and produced in and around where she was raised in Des Moines, IA. 

 

As a director: long-time collaborative partner Steven Strafford’s Small Jokes About Monsters premiered at 16th Street Theatre, Invitation Song (Phyl) a narrative short with DP Christopher Rejano, written by Coburn Goss and featuring Peggy Roeder and Francis Guinan among a 13 person credited cast and production crew of 18, was filmed in an active community church on Chicago’s Northwest side and features collaborators from her work in Chicago theatre, television and film. She serves as the transmission director and coach for Reach+You, an augmented reality interactive performance and conversation created, developed, and hosted by Katrina and Jonah Goldsaito with additional support provided by a Transformative Public Art Grant from the City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture. Her self-produced mini-short, A Different Time, was a selection for the Experimental Short Program at WickedQueer (2021, Boston).

 

As a writer: Her short screenplay 2 Spruce Street was an official selection of the Scario Film Festival. Her narrative podcast teleplay, Jane: 1891, about Jane Addam’s Hull House, assimilation, and the opening of the Butler Art Gallery, was commissioned by Make Believe Association where she is currently a member of a seven-person writing team for a new serial narrative podcast alongside Natalie Moore, Nate Marshall, Sydney Charles, Laura Acalá Baker, Mikhail Fiksel and Jeremy McCarter.

 

The first film in her passion project, Where Could We Go: A Map Of Finding Home (a collection of six short films co-created with her partner in life and creativity Echaka Agba exploring the meaning of Home through an aspiration of Black and Queer Liberation), was an official selection for Afrikana Independent Film Festival (US Premiere) and BlackX in 2021 and received a grant from The Derek Freese Film Foundation. Through a collaboration with video artist Marco G. Ferrari and the V. Ferrari Foundation The Root/The Bloom (Coordinates 1&2) from this collection were screened as a part of the 12th annual LOGOS Festival, a community based multidisciplinary arts festival supporting the community green space and protected natural monument Lago Bullicante at the historic Nuovo Cinema Aquila in the Pigneto neighborhood of Rome, Italy. www.wherecouldwegoseries.com

 

She is always interested in new collaborations and available for coaching for performance in any medium, audition for stage and camera, and original new work development. 
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Location Chicago
Union SAG/AFTRA
Union 2 Equity
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