- Nickname
- KC
- Height5′ 9″ (1.75 m)
- Karen Cole was born in Columbus, OH, USA, where her father worked in the Air Force. Two years later, he accepted a job as a plumber in Milwaukee, WI, and the family moved. After high school, she worked a few various jobs before heading to Florida to study zookeeping at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, but dropped out after 3 months. She worked at the Wild Animal Retirement Home in Waldo, Florida for about a year before coming back to Wisconsin to work at a health food store, but remained restless whilst also thirsty for knowledge on all things about nutrition. A good customer who got to know her, suggested she study improvisation at The Second City in Chicago, so she packed up everything that would fit in her car and went to Chicago. While training there for a year, she also performed with various improv groups and in addition met David Shepherd of David Shepherd: A Lifetime of Improvisational Theatre (2010), (co-founder of the Compass Players), who was seeking students for internships. Cole was accepted and studied with Shepherd--helping with some improv concepts he was forming for the film industry. In 1996, she gave college a second try, and attended Northwestern University. While there, Karen wrote the screenplay Silent Bark , of which she entered into and made quarter-finalist in the Chicago CineStory screenplay writing competition (1997). Also while in college, she was cast as a science teacher for the children's play 'See The Light' at the Museum of Science and Industry, directed by David Cromer and Bernard Sahlins (co-founder of The Second City). Karen graduated from NU in 2000 with a Bachelors Degree--Philosophy in Communication, and went on to work at a TV station in Chicago, where she helped different departments with various tasks, and also appeared in a few comedy sketches on the morning news show. In 2007 her screenplay Silent Bark was entered into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition, and made the top 15%. From 2007 to 2011, Cole took time off her artistic pursuits and devoted her time to fostering a child. In 2012, she was cast as an actor in her first opera at the Civic Opera House in Chicago, playing one of Klytamnestra's retinue in Richard Strauss's 'Elektra', directed by Sir David McVicar. Cole moved to New York City in 2013.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- Botticelli-like figure
- Large green eyes
- Took 1st place in the middle school science fair. She studied the growth patterns of feeding one group of plants beer, and the other group of plants H2O. Results: the beer-fed plants grew faster and taller than the H2O-fed plants, but died quicker. She went on to enter the beer vs. H20 plant experiment in the Wisconsin Statewide Science Fair competition. Karen received an Environmental Conservation award, "in recognition of creative scientific endeavor in environmental conservation", by the National Park Service, Dept. of Interior.
- She was accepted into the School of The Art Institute of Chicago, but her then boyfriend convinced her to go to Northwestern University instead. He said it would make her more "well rounded." So she switched paths. In retrospect, Karen said it would have been cooler to be surrounded by artists all day.
- For the childrens play "See The Light", (Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago) in which Cole played a science teacher, director Bernie Sahlins allowed the actors to improvise in addition to following the script.
- She was a hair model for Charles Ifergan Salon (Chicago), L'Oreal Academy (NYC), and Oribe (NYC).
- For the middle school talent show she played the back-end of a dancing horse. Her best friend played the front end. They danced to one of their parents albums, "Whipped Cream" by Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass.
- If I could emulate anybody's quote, it would be Bernie Sahlins, 'we were committed to mischief'.
- It would've been heaven to have crossed paths with poet Walt Whitman.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content