Amber Nash: Actor, Vegan, Activist

AMBER NASH

Amber Nash is currently the voice of Pam Poovey of Archer, the hit FX/FXX animated adult series. Her character is the former head of an international spy agency and has become a fan-favorite on the show. The series has been honored with two Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Animated Program and a Critics Choice Television Award for Best Animated Series as well as a Gold Derby TV Award, to name just a few. Nash’s character has garnered a lot of buzz and is referred to as “the real hero of Archer” by BuzzFeed.

Nash also co-created and hosted the Facebook Live show Archer After Hours alongside co-star Lucky Yates. The three-episode series aired on Archer’s Facebook page and featured special guest interviews, behind-the-scenes commentary, cosplay spotlights, and more.

When she is not busy acting, Nash prides herself on maintaining a healthy lifestyle. She was pescatarian for several years and recently began adding vegan meals to her diet.

On top of the many tv and movie appearances, Nash is a board member for Project Chimps, a Georgia-based sanctuary for retired research chimpanzees.

We had the opportunity to virtually meet with Amber to dive into her wide array of exciting projects to learn more about her life’s mission and what she has in store.

The Archer star talks about veganism, Judy Greer, chimps, and more

by Courtney Garza

What was your trigger to start moving from a pescatarian lifestyle to vegan?

When I stopped eating meat and became a pescatarian and a vegetarian before that, it was sure that everyone knows that I have a particu-

always an ethical thing for me. When I was 19 and then say that there’s pork in the green beans!

I moved out of my parent’s house I realized that I could eat what I wanted and didn’t have to eat what my parents ate. I realized, if I wasn’t able to kill this animal, I shouldn’t be able to eat it.

For about 20 years, I would switch between vegstuff like that that makes it really exciting to see!

etarian and pescatarian, and the thing that tipped the scale for me into veganism was everything happening with the pandemic, with meat shortages and the fact that we exploited the animals, contributing to this global pandemic. It became too much to not see anymore and it was always about not exploiting animals; not eating meat when there’s so much bad that happens to animals.

I thought to myself, “I can totally do this!” Cheese was a little hard to give up, but I realized after I did it became easy. Then with eggs, I found JUST Also, I am on the board of directors of an Animal Sanctuary for chimpanzees and they operate as a vegan organization, so whenever we have board meetings all the food offerings have to be only vegan. It’s important for animal advocacy programs, such as this, to not consume animals.

Was it hard to go vegan with your busy acting lifestyle?

In the last 10-20 years especially in California, there have been a lot more vegan options available when you’re on set and at events. I’m so blessed to have people like Kat in PR who makes lar diet and I need certain types of food, so that wasn’t really hard career-wise.

What was hard was being in the South! I live in Atlanta and It’s a big city and luckily, things are changing, but sometimes when you tell someone you’re vegan, they suggest green beans and

But the other cool thing I’ve seen in Atlanta particularly is that there is this big cross-section between soul food and veganism that is exploding right now. There are many incredible restaurants that are opening up and are black-owned vegan businesses! Two big restaurants in particular that recently opened up, “Slutty Vegan”, which is well-known, and this adorable family-owned taco shop called Chi Chi’s Vegan Taco Shop. It’s Egg and that’s been a really good transition meal.

Do you ever talk to your co-stars about being vegan or eating vegan?

Yes! Judy Greer is also vegan and she’s on the board of directors of Project Chimps with me as well. That was the thing that pushed her over the edge too because she’s really new to it and she was basically a meat-eater before! It’s not like she wasn’t kinda heading in that direction.

Sometimes people poke fun at us vegans, but the crew is really good about when we all go out to dinner to make sure that there are options for us! Unfortunately, the men are really heavy meat-eaters.

What would you say is your goal for helping people go vegan?

I think the biggest misconception is that people think vegan food is rabbit food and that it doesn’t taste good, or that it’s weird. What’s weird is eating an animal. We as vegans are just eating things that grow out of the ground, and there’s nothing weird about that. People are so surprised when they try something vegan and it’s delicious, things like the Impossible Burger have come a long way and its convincing people that vegan food is possibly delicious!

My husband is a full-on meat-eater. He eats anything I cook though, so luckily, he’s not picky at all. During the pandemic, it’s just my husband and me so if we make something and there are leftovers, we have been doing food swaps with our friends and they’ll say the food is delicious!

We also do food swaps with another friend that I don’t get to see due to the pandemic. He’s a meat-eater as well and also a home cook, he’s been excited to cook vegan to give to me to try, so that’s been fun. It’s really all about getting in front of people and changing their minds.

One meal can change someone’s mind about whether vegan food is good or not.

With your work with Project Chimps, what is something that you are always trying to educate people about?

The thing that most people don’t realize is that putting animals in entertainment is so bad, and we shouldn’t be putting them in those situations.

Across the board, I don’t think people realize how much damage dressing up chimps and parading them around does and that the chimps shouldn’t be living like people. They aren’t people, and they should be living in their natural habitat, and that’s what we enforce at Project Chimps.

Another thing I have learned being a part of Project Chimps, that a lot of people don’t know, is that when you see a chimpanzee on a greeting card it looks like they are smiling, that’s actually what they call a ‘fear grimace’ and that’s actually because they’re in distress. When they are actually smiling, they have a really slack jaw and their bottom lip hangs down and that’s a happy face, and you never really see that.

I just hint to people that they’re not pets, they’re actually big strong dangerous animals and should be living in the wild. So much research has been done on chimps and now it is illegal to do research on chimps, so I’m glad that the new law has been passed. Every other nation had passed that law except America, so when it happened, a lot of the chimps in laboratories needed homes. They’re now in animal sanctuaries, as a lot of them can’t go to the zoo’s because they’re not well adjusted. They had a horrible life from being experimented on. A sanctuary is an amazing place for chimps. It’s not for people to go there and look at the chimps. There are so many chimps in laboratories that we need to get out, so that’s all about money and having enough to build out sanctuaries and habitats to get the chimps to a place where they’re happy.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I think that it’s all about exploring and using movements like ‘Meatless Mondays’ to start the path to veganism. I would be happy with people consuming less meat, people don’t have to become 100% vegan and that’s okay. We don’t have to eat so much meat; it’s so bad for us, the planet, and the animals. Any way you can find yourself on the spectrum that is less than where you’re at now, I think is a good start because you never know where that will lead you. I ate fish for 3 years before I became fully vegan, so the little steps you take are impactful in making a change. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing or 0-100, you can take baby steps on making the world a better place and have less suffering for every being.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Courtney Garza is a passionate vegan who brings her love for journalism, creativity, helping local businesses, and animals together with her compassionate social media agency, Sprinkles Creative, which she co-founded with her business partner Christina Bluford to aid businesses with their branding strategy. Courtney also owns and operates VEGWORLD Magazine, an international vegan lifestyle publication, as the Editor-in-Chief to curate and promote plant-based stories about vegan products, services, and individuals from all walks of life.