Biography
Netta Walker is an actor, writer, producer, and poet, known for her portrayal of Keisha McCalla on The CW's smash-hit series, "All American: Homecoming," while also crossing over the mainstay series "All American". Both series claimed weeks in the top 10 on Netflix. She began her career onstage in Chicago 10 years ago as an understudy at The Gift Theater for "The Grapes of Wrath" - a show that taught her that Chicago was going to be her forever artistic home. In 2019, she won a Jeff Award for "Best Supporting Performance in a Play" ("Yen", Raven Theater) and was quickly named one of the Chicago Tribune's "Hot New Faces" by lauded theater critic Chris Jones. Her credits include: Lion in Winter (Court Theater), How to Defend Yourself (Victory Gardens); Yen (Raven Theatre, Jeff Award for Best Supporting Actor); Hamlet, Grapes of Wrath (The Gift); No Child (Definition Theatre); Continuity (Goodman); truth and reconciliation (Sideshow Theatre Company); Great Expectations (Silk Road Rising/Remy Bumppo); The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley (Northlight) and in workshops and reading series with companies like Steppenwolf Theater, Jackalope Theater, and Pride Films and Plays. Regional: Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley (Milwaukee Rep). Film: Come As You Are (SXSW/Cannes; starring opposite Academy Award nominee Gabourey Sidibe, Janeane Garofalo, and Ravi Pate)l. Whole (Holly Shorts Festival Oscar Contender). TV: 3 seasons on All American and All American: Homecoming on the CW, The Big Leap (FOX) and Chicago Fire (NBC).
After studying Musical Theater with a focus in Voice at the Chicago College of Performing Arts for 3 years, she dropped out - returning to school at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts later to study acting. While at RADA she also studied play writing with The LIR at Trinity College for a year, as well as doing writing workshops with The Goodman Theater and Remy Bumppo theater in the same time frame. Her play keerah was chosen as a finalist for Definition Theaters 2024 AMPLIFY New Play Festival, where it will be work shopped for the next two years; Her feminist military pilot House of Dixie was selected as a finalist for the Proof Film Festival: Pitch Deck Show and Tell at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles, where she presented her pitch for a panel of producers and a live audience; Her pilot Hayward received an honorable mention at The Big Apple Film Festival (Series/Episodic Script); Her short film Balik won the Horror/Thriller short script category at Hollywood Just4Shorts Film and Screenplay competition - swiftly followed by her short script Baby Gay being selected as a Finalist for the Cambridge Script Festival (LGBTQ Screenplay), and for the Chicago Script Awards (LGBTQ Screenplay). Both shorts were selected for the Best Script Awards screenplay competition in London in the same year.
Born and raised on the vibrant Westside of Jacksonville, Florida, her unique background-a blend of Filipina and African-American heritage-fuels her passion for creating multicultural, multi-layered and nuanced representation of the human condition in the arts. Drawing from her experiences as the youngest of four children in a mixed-race military family in the south, she seamlessly weaves stories of family, culture, love and courage into all of her work - and as of late, particularly her writing. Walker is a passionate activist, leveraging her platform to champion causes ranging from social justice to diversification, and the pressing issue of climate change. The day after she won her Jeff Award in 2019 she used her platform of celebration to call out the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at Roosevelt University - leading to hundreds of students sharing their personal stories of abuse and upending the institution as it was completely. She hopes to forever showcase that veracity in her art.
Walker currently splits her time between her residence in Chicago and Los Angeles.
