BOURBON, Mo. — A Bourbon, Missouri native and St. Louis area resident stars in NBC's hit comedy series Kenan. Taylor Louderman is a Tony Award nominated actress who played Regina George in Mean Girls on Broadway along with Kinky Boots, Bring It On! The Musical, and Peter Pan Live! Dana Dean spoke with the talented actress about her role.
Dana: What is it like to be part of this amazing show with this amazing cast and Kenan?
Taylor: Oh my gosh, it’s incredible. This is something I wanted for a long time. To get to do it, a television show, with Kenan Thompson, and everyone in the cast. It’s a dream come true. It’s a joy to go to work every day.
Dana: And your character, comedy is your thing… this has got to be a dream character to play a TV host but make it over the top and outrageous.
Taylor: I’m honored that you would say comedy is my thing. I appreciate that. I remember when I first discovered comedy. I was doing Kinky Boots and I was like, ‘This is amazing.’ So I feel lucky to do it now on another level. Tami is fun because she’s uptight and a perfectionist which I can relate to sometimes and it’s fun to try to crack that. And news reporters, as you can probably attest to, there is so much going on around you or thinking ahead, that is can be really hard to maintain, ‘Everything is fine.’
Dana: Let’s talk about what you’re doing here in Missouri.
Taylor: One thing that I’m passionate about that pertains to Missouri, is Ozark Actor’s Theatre which is now in Rolla, MO. That’s where I started. I did my first show ever there. I serve on the board and I’m really really passionate about bringing theatre education to the rural communities. Beyond that, when I was doing Mean Girls, I was playing Regina George, the mean character. And I had little girls at the stage door saying, ‘I want to be Regina George when I grow up.’ And I thought, ‘OH NO.’ So I wanted to do something that had a positive impact. So I started this nonprofit with some friends. It is to celebrate new musical theatre songwriters. We thought up, where is there need in our industry that coincides with tools we have? We made a Google form, swipe up link on Instagram, to submit songs, we got 500 songs. It was incredible. Few of them have really taken off and it’s been magical to see how empowered these songwriters feel.
You can watch KENAN on Monday's at 7 PM on Five on your side.
For more on Taylor Louderman, follow her on Instagram.