Kimmy Shields

For Kimmy Shields, acting has always been a thing. Since she was a young kid participating in children’s theatre programs, the itch to play new characters was always strong. Now, after years of hustle in Los Angeles, Kimmy is starring in her first series regular role as Nonnie Thompson in the highly anticipated Netflix comedy, Insatiable.

Kimmy grew up in Torrance, Cali. – not too far out of Los Angeles. Her parents had met through community theatre, and that love of performing was passed down to Kimmy almost immediately. Both Kimmy and her older brother ended up doing up to three musicals a year with their local children’s theatre company. “That was where the seed was planted of living life according to a schedule,” Kimmy recalls. “That was where I was introduced to the arts and what a wonderful, loving playground it was.”

Kimmy continued on in theatre through high school and when it came time to apply to college, she knew that majoring in musical theatre was the only option for her. “My parents have always been suspiciously supportive of my brother and I, but in that, they’ve always been very good in instilling us with the idea that we’re not entitled to anything and we have to work really hard,” Kimmy says. After graduation, she moved to Hollywood to study musical theatre.

During a semester in New York, Kimmy started to come to the realization that the Broadway career she had once envisioned for herself wasn’t necessarily her path anymore. She recalls spending every Saturday waiting in line for student rush tickets to Broadway shows, and after seeing so many, she started to understand that the people on Broadway weren’t just actors – they were athletes. “They do this eight days a week – it’s insane. I’m both biologically not engineered for that, and treat my body like trash,” Kimmy jokes, “It was very humbling to see that.”

Kimmy went back to Los Angeles to finish her education, and during her last semester, her class showcased for agents and managers – which is where Kimmy met her current representation. Once her team was locked in, Kimmy started going on commercial auditions and things started to organically build. She then moved on to television auditions and booked her first one – a co-star role on ABC Family’s Chasing Life.

The turning point in her career came when she booked her first reoccurring arc on the first season of Big Little Lies. Within days she was on a plane to Monterey to shoot alongside Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon. “It was an out of body experience. Your imposter syndrome kicks in,” Kimmy reflects on her first day on set.

During this time, Kimmy was also working at Anthropologie and a pizza shop in addition to her rigorous filming and audition schedules. It was wearing her body down and after a heart-to-heart talk with some of the crew members on Big Little Lies, she changed her day job availability to weekends only and made a conscious shift to focus more on performing.

Fast forward to January 2017 and Kimmy was in the running for a series regular role on Insatiable – originally a pilot for The CW, but was scooped up by Netflix after the network passed on it. The process of actually booked the role was a long and tedious one, but in the end, she nabbed the role of Nonnie Thompson, best friend to Debby Ryan’s Patty.

Once her spot on the cast was secured, Kimmy was flown down to Atlanta to shoot the pilot. “It literally feels like you’re doing coke for three weeks because you’re on this high of knowing exactly what you’re there for and feeling so purposeful,” she reflects. Her and Debby were “immediately enamored with each other” and their natural chemistry made their scenes that much easier to shoot.

The short time between The CW passing on the show and Netflix picking it up was a weird “limbo” time for Kimmy, but ultimately after the news broke she at least knew she’d have a job come fall when they started filming and was able to relax for a second. In that time, she booked a few episodes on Hulu’s Runaways and then without ever formally auditioning, two episodes on Arrested Development. “That’s my family’s show. We always loved Arrested Development,” she gushes.

In between days on the Arrested Development set, Kimmy shot her first role in a feature film: Ad Astra, starring Brad Pitt. After she made a joke to Brad that he should “think about doing this professionally” after doing a scene with him, his production company requested a meeting with her, which she hopes will turn into something eventually.

Kimmy spent the back end of 2017 and top of 2018 in Atlanta filming Insatiable, and now that the premiere is itching closer and closer, the realization that this project she truly loves is about to be seen is nothing but exciting for her. And on top of that, she’s beyond ready for her next project. “Now I’m very aware of the seeds that have already been planted that are just now being watered and waiting for harvesting time,” she muses, “But knowing that it’s there? Last year, two years ago, I had no fucking clue what was next.”