What's in a name?

Kal was born in a tree house in the Philippines to hippie parents who named her "Kalimba" after the African thumb piano that her Brazilian father loved to play. After six months of tree-dwelling her family jumped across the ocean, landing in Houston, TX where Kal spent her formative years training as a ballerina, performing in community theatre and coming to terms with the fact that almost no one would pronounce her name right the first time.

Kal quickly headed westward after graduating with a BA from the Speech and Drama department at Trinity University. Since moving to Los Angeles she has been blessed to cultivate amazing creative relationships which have led to her co-founding both The Filly Film Cult and The Unspoken Theatre Group.

The Filly Film Cult is a collective of brilliant women that produce short film festivals with wild and unexpected themes each year. Some of these films have gone on to premiere at The Cannes Film Festival and Slamdance.

During the four years she ran The Unspoken Theatre Group she produced and starred in such critically praised shows as My Thing of Love, An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein, All in the Timing and Grown-ups on the Playground to name a few.

In 2009 and 2010 Kal has been seen on the stages of Los Angeles in 7 productions. She had the great honor of being cast as on of the leads in LA's longest running comedy It's Just Sex, and has also worked with Tony award nominated director Kristin Hanggi, Emmy Award winner Ben Decter, Ovation award nominated writer/director Earnest Kearney and Academy award nominated writer T.S. Cook just this year.

Although theatre is her greatest love, Kal has been seen on both the big and small screens as well, including two feature-length films and several co-starring roles on ABC, HBO, and NICK. Check out her resume page for a full listing of credits.

Kalimba attributes her love of acting to long afternoons spent playing hookie, watching The Carol Burnett Show. She hopes some day Bob Mackey will design a sparkly number just for her to wear when she is nominated for an Oscar.