In 2015, Stephanie has begun with a bang, getting a recurring role in a TV show,Web Atlas. She starred in 3 episodes dealing with disability discrimination, asexuality and homosexuality and a daughter struggling in knowing where she fits into the world in which she lives. Stephanie participated in the Inland Empire's submissions to the 48 Hour Film Project. She had a supporting role in the entry entitled Oops! (2013) by the Palm Springs Desert Rats team. Before that, she was in the film The Pretenders (2013) where she had a supporting role. She feels this has been her most challenging role emotionally because the film was about people who pretended to have disabilities and she was the only one on set with a true disability and many times they were mocking the various disabilities. Her first film after moving to Los Angeles was Lost Time (2014) where she worked with a star-studded cast including Derek Mears, Luke Goss, Rochelle Vallese and Robert Davi. This was selected at the London 2014 SciFi Festival as the Opening Film. She is most proud of this role because she was hired to be a production assistant and ended the filming with a featured role instead. It also proved to her that Hollywood accepts people with disabilities and she knew then that it was the right decision to move to Los Angeles.
Stephanie began her professional training in Palm Springs, California where she met actor/director Wendy Girard. She worked with Wendy for a year in Palm Springs and then transferred to her Los Angeles class for almost another year. Stephanie then began taking other courses and finding other mentors and teachers and started to develop her own style. In everything she does, she dives in completely and embraces the character, and she's also trying to learn as much as she can about every aspect of the business. Stephanie has always realized the true importance of understanding sound, lighting, and all other parts of the production.
Stephanie always values experience, whether it be behind the scenes as a production assistant, such as her initial position in Lost Time (2014) or in front of the camera as an actress. She is also getting ready for a theatre production in 2014 where she's also an editor and working with the casting team. She has also been auditioning for her current focus of VoiceOver roles. She is also is embarking on the challenge of writing her own script.
Stephanie developed a love of the stage at a young age. At the age of nine months, she won the Miss Peanut baby beauty contest. At four years old, she was Central Illinois Easter Seals Poster Child (now called Ambassador). She loved getting on stage and was mesmerized by the cameras, lights and all the developments around. She then was part of the cast of Black Buffalo's Pow Wow at her church as a series regular role from age 4-12 where Black Buffalo, a Native American missionary followed her successes and challenges of living with a disability and how she overcame her issues and broadcast it on the church television station. During high school she became interested in speech. She went to multiple camps and classes to better her speaking and performing. She also took elective classes at a local community college in acting while she was in middle and high school since they weren't offered to her at her school. For college, she continued to excel in speech competitions and started becoming more interested in the arts.
After her maternal grandma died in 2010, Stephanie just wanted to get away. She moved to Palm Springs soon after and began to search for her dream once again. In honor of the bond she shared with her grandma, Stephanie developed a stage name to represent the person most important to her and took her grandma's first name, Katie, and Stephanie's middle name, Marie, and combined them to make the name Kamari.
