Vicki Kim – ACTRA Toronto Diversity Showcase

About Vicki Kim

Vicki Kim is an actor, writer and comedienne based in Toronto. Vicki holds an Honours Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Toronto with minors in Drama and East Asian Studies. She wrote and performed stand-up comedy in Toronto for two years to prove to herself that she was, in fact, funny and could write for herself, but also in hopes to be understood and seen. Recently she played Umma in the award-winning play Kim’s Convenience, opposite creator Ins Choi, making her debut at The Grand Theatre in London, Ontario.

Select screen credits include starring in the web series Band Ladies (Highball TV) and recurring on The Expanse (Amazon Prime) and Robyn Hood (Global/StackTV). She was also recently featured in the television shows Accused (Fox), Orphan Black: Echoes (AMC/BBC) and SkyMed (Paramount+/CBC) and in the films Out of My Mind (Disney+), Work It (Netflix) and more.

Watch Showcase Reel

What Inspired you to pursue acting?

Growing up in a community where I didn’t see people who looked like me, I was so shy, but it was through performance I found borrowed voices to find my own and a confidence I yearned to have. I always knew I was a performer and it’s in my genes: my mother was a pop star in Korea in the ‘70s and my father had a natural knack for comedy and performance. But I had only seen two female East-Asian faces in the media: Connie Chung and Margaret Cho. I never considered that I could have a career as an actor (Hollywood seemed so far away) until high school when I found out a friend of mine was doing background work on Canadian shows, like Ready or Not, and decided to take my first drama class. I was also very inspired by Megan Follow’s Anne in the CBC Anne of Green Gables series! But my parents were strongly opposed to me having a career in the arts and I didn’t actually have the guts to pursue acting until after completing a Life Sciences degree and having a corporate career first.

What is your dream role?

Playing Yoko Ono in a bio-pic would be a dream. So would playing a character I created and wrote myself like Mindy Kaling did in The Mindy Project. Also, any role that would come with special training to master a new skill would be so much fun, like sign language or learning how to play an instrument or activity/sport.