KaDee Strickland

Early life and education

Strickland is the third and youngest child of Susan Strickland, a nurse and nursing instructor, and Dee Strickland, a former high school football coach and superintendent. She was raised in Patterson, Georgia, and had a job picking tobacco on a local farm for eight years. She took part in many extracurricular activities during high school, including the student council (which she was elected president of) and the cheerleading squad, and was also crowned Homecoming Queen three times through elementary, middle and high school. When she was a young child, Strickland had once watched the film Annie Hall, and recalled "wanting to be in that place, and being completely taken with the energy of those people. I wanted to be in it." However, a career in the performing arts had never been seriously considered by Strickland until her participation in a one-act play performed by students of her high school: "...the minute I set foot on stage, that was it. Destiny took over. There were no other options. I felt like I fit my skin, I knew what I was here to do", Strickland said.

Related Topics:
Nurse - Superintendent - Patterson, Georgia - Homecoming Queen - Annie Hall - Performing arts

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After graduating from high school, Strickland successfully applied to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and during her studies there, she took a part-time job as a waitress at a local restaurant. She also interned at a casting agency, and one of the tasks she was given was to reading the lines at auditions for people looking for small roles in film and television projects in the area (a job that would land Strickland her first film role). After graduating with a Fine Arts degree from the University of the Arts, she was schooled in New York City for a time under the tutelage of Maggie Flanagan (who Strickland refers to as her "Jedi Knight"), who would instruct her students to watch films with the sound turned off, to gauge a good acting performance by how much one could understand the story. In late 2003, Strickland moved to Los Angeles, California, where she currently resides as of 2005.

Related Topics:
University of the Arts - Philadelphia - Interned - New York City - Jedi Knight - Los Angeles, California - As of 2005

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