Olivia Kate Iatridis

At age 13, Olivia Kate Iatridis declared to her mother, Gloria, that she was leaving home at 18 to go to Los Angeles to become an actress.

“It scared the crap out of me,” said Gloria, whose daughter is now 16 and successfully on her way to her dream. “I looked at her and knew how serious she was, and I said if that’s what she wants to do, we need to invest in it.”

Gloria, who’s from Tuktoyaktuk but raised Olivia in Yellowknife, invested in acting training for her daughter, just as parents invest in sports or other activities. She wanted Olivia to be as prepared as possible and have every opportunity to live her dream.

For Olivia, that’s meant she’s already been in three short films, two feature films and several other projects. Her passion for acting took off after the family moved to St. Albert, Alta., when Olivia was 13 and started taking acting classes and joined the Core Acting Group.

“My end goal is to make big, big movies,” said Olivia. “I want to go to L.A. That’s where all the big-budget movies are.”

Though young, Olivia has managed to secure roles for older characters because of her mature look, and few people would realize she is not an adult yet based on how well and confidently she carries herself.

“My mom always says I’m an old soul,” said Olivia. “I think I just discovered my passion earlier than most teenagers do.”

Still, she’s finishing Grade 12 this year and has had to balance her dream career with the needs of school, which hasn’t always been easy.

“It’s a struggle,” said Olivia. “This whole last week when I was filming Hot Box (an upcoming film), I missed two or three days, and then going to Vancouver for the Joey Awards took more time out. A lot of my teachers try to help me out when I go away. I have a great support system.”

Despite her passion, there’s an interesting fact about the youth: she doesn’t tend to watch the films she’s in afterward.

“I don’t know what it is,” mused Olivia. “Most people don’t want to see themselves, I guess.”

Screenshot from Indra’s Awakening.

That said, she loves the process of acting, including all of the hard work involved. Most challenging is when she has a deep script with lots of new words, but she enjoys the educational process of learning about the roles she’s playing.

“I’m kind of dramatic sometimes,” said Olivia about why she likes acting. “It’s fun to be different people once in a while.”

She has also enjoyed meeting people in the film industry, whom she calls cool and outgoing.

“It’s a lot of adults, but I find I get along better with adults anyway.”

Her youth has led to some challenges, though. Because of her age, regulations state a guardian must accompany her to shoots, and there are rules about working conditions and how she must have a tutor for longer shoots.

She has also found opportunity in her Inuvialuit looks. She’s been described as ethnically ambiguous and is able to play First Nations, Asian and other roles.

Through it all, Olivia has not found it hard to keep in touch with her Inuvialuit culture. Gloria makes sure to take her back to her “true” home of Tuktoyaktuk regularly and keeps her connected to her extended family. Until her nanuk Sarah Anderson’s recent passing, Olivia enjoyed spending time with her and learning about Inuvialuit culture.

For the youth, the greatest challenge along the way has been other people’s judgement, sometimes from superiors who doubt her career ambitions.

“People tell you that you can’t do it because they couldn’t do it,” said Olivia. “If you’re passionate about something, you have to get over what people think and their opinions of you. I have plenty of supporters who believe in my dream. That’s the most important part – having people believe in you.”