If you go to the website for the Animal Planet television show “Monsters Inside Me,” you will find clips from various episodes and some of the show’s best moments. If you watch the clip titled, “Creepy, exorcist-like spider walk horrifies one mother,” you will see the first television performance of 15-year-old Siobhan Kiernan, who is currently a sophomore at Cazenovia High School.
In the show, titled, “My daughter is going crazy,” Kiernan played a 13-year-old girl suffering from a teratoma — a tumor with tissue or organ components — in her ovary. Her body’s attempts to fight the tumor also caused the girl’s brain to swell (encephalitis) which caused her to exhibit abnormal and erratic behaviors.
“It was pretty crazy, but fun,” Kiernan said. “It wasn’t too difficult because I think it’s easy to play a dark and weird character, considering it’s so different from my personality and lifestyle. I was very excited for the crab walking scene because it was supposed to be really creepy, and I felt I could/did do it justice.”
Kiernan started ballet at age 2 and began acting at age 11. During the past few years, she has actively pursued her acting craft, taken classes, performed in about a dozen stage plays and musicals. Last summer, she went to New York City, found an acting agency and broke onto both the small and large screen.
“I started doing theater at age 11 and after my first show I knew I liked being on stage,” Kiernan said. “But I realized that I like to do film more; I like to tell stories.”
And already, at only age 15, Kiernan has some interesting stories to tell.
She has taken acting, voice and dance classes and done summer stage performances locally with Syracuse Children’s Theatre, Red House Arts Center and Cazenovia College.
“I learned a lot of weird things in acting classes,” she said. “I do get embarrassed easily, but for acting, if you are surrounded by other actors who are committed to their roles, it’s easy. It’s really exhilarating, but the most important thing is letting go and letting yourself be free, and not worrying about it.”
Last year, Kiernan decided to attempt to break into a larger acting world and went to New York City for the summer. She signed up with three online acting agencies, where actors create a profile with their resume and professional headshots and the agency sends them potential jobs.
Her first job came from one of the first two audition submissions she sent out, when she was hired for the “Monsters Inside Me” episode. After that, she signed on with a professional casting agency that focuses on signing child actors to bigger projects.
“My first time filming was very weird but in a wonderful way. All of the ‘glamorous’ aspects like getting hair, makeup and wardrobe were very fun and made me feel special,” she said. “The acting however was very natural for me, and I loved the feeling of being on camera and knowing that I’ll be able to share this performance with more people than who were just in the room with me.”
Kiernan quickly received a casting call to be an extra for the movie, “The Family Fang,” starring Nicole Kidman, Jason Bateman and Christopher Walken, and directed by Jason Bateman. The movie is about a brother and sister return to their family home in search of their world famous parents who have disappeared.
Kiernan’s role was as a passenger on a bus during one scene. “I’m not sure if I’ll even be in the movie [or be left on the cutting room floor], but it was really cool to be on a movie set,” she said.
Her next role was her favorite to date: A true crime investigation show on Investigation Discovery channel in which she played the daughter of a man who died in a car crash while his wife was driving.
In the episode, “Accident on Banyan Street” from the show “A Crime to Remember,” the investigation of the 1964 car “accident” leads police to suspect the man’s wife actually was guilty of his murder.
For the audition, Kiernan dressed in 1960s-era clothing and had to improvise a scene — something she had never before done in an audition. She received a callback, audition again for the show director and executives and the next day received the part.
The show shot for four days, during which Kiernan received a call sheet detailing when and where each actor was scheduled to perform. She had about 25 minutes of screen time on the show.
“I’d sit in hair and make-up to get ready, and they’d come to get me and say, ‘Siobhan it’s time to film,’” she said. “That felt really legit.”
The show first aired on the ID Channel on Dec. 16.
By the end of the summer, Kiernan had gotten a toe-hold into the professional acting world, and, even though she was only an extra in the movie “The Family Fang,” the performance still counted as professional screen time — so she is now one-third of the way towards getting her professional Screen Actors Guild membership card, she said.
During the school year, Kiernan is a regular teenage student who enjoys singing and dancing, playing the ukulele, hanging out with friends and she loves vintage/retro fashion. In school her favorite classes are English and women’s choir.
“Siobhan is a bright and talented young lady. She was a dancer in last year’s High School Drama Club production of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and this year will be in the cast of ‘Singin’ in the Rain,’” said Teresa Campbell, CHS drama club advisor and director of the women’s choir. “The students and faculty are very enthused about seeing Siobhan on television. She is a pleasure to work with and her acting success is well deserved.”
Although she already is preparing for this year’s Cazenovia High School performances of Shakespeare’s play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and “Singin’ in the Rain,” Kiernan also hopes to audition for upcoming Cazenovia College shows, and plans to perform at Red House Arts Center this year as well.
For the coming summer, Kiernan plans to return to New York City and audition for more television and film roles. If that goes well, her goal is to continue acting and auditioning during her junior and senior years in high school – underage actors who work enough days of the school year receive tutoring on set.
“That’s what I want to do,” she said. “I’m talking to my mom about it right now.”
Kiernan, the youngest of four siblings, said her family supports her acting career completely. “They always encourage me to dream big and to never give up on my acting because I love it,” she said.
While Kiernan’s successes by only age 15 may sound as if they came quickly or easily, she has put in a lot of work to get to where she is, she said.
“I try to do anything that helps contribute to my experience,” she said. “I do everything I can to enlighten myself as much as possible: I read scripts, watch old movies.” She said that as a craftsman she is not a “hard-core method actor,” although she does learn to understand the characters she plays, she will create a backstory if there is not one available for her and just “become the character.”
Her favorite actors and role models are Audrey Hepburn, Jennifer Lawrence and Emily Blunt, and she loves all of their movies.
When asked for advice for other young actors who want to achieve what she has already achieved, Kiernan said, “Follow your dreams and don’t get upset about rejection. That’s a big part of it. Don’t be afraid and just go for it. If you’re that passionate about something, I believe it will work out.”
Kiernan’s performances on “Monsters Inside Me” and “A Crime to Remember” can be seen in whole or part on animalplanet.com or by searching on Youtube.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia Republican. He can be reached at [email protected].
