Meet Hanna Shykind | Actress

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hanna Shykind and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hanna, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
I like to think about risk taking as doing something that pushes you out of your comfort zone and into a place of growth and exploration! Recently, I wrote and performed a one woman cabaret called “How To Be Yourself”, about chasing personal authenticity where ever you go. This felt like a huge risk for me – I had written a one cabaret before in college, but it was shorter and in a much smaller setting. “How To Be Yourself” felt so much bigger and more personal because the show is all about me and my struggles to find personal authenticity in audition rooms, and I was going to perform it out in the real world, in New York City! Turns out, it was a huge success and six months later, I am about to perform the next version at a larger and more prestigious venue! Which again, feels like a risk, but I think in order to grow and level up, you have to take risks. It can be so scary, but it is so worth it, and nine times out of ten, it works out better than you think it will! It’s just about being brave enough to take the leap.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a true cross over artist in the sense that I can play the lead in contemporary musicals, like Little Shop of Horrors, as well as be cast in operas. My voice has the ability to shift from contemporary singing to operatic styles. My true talents lie in singing very high and very clearly, and I am proud of that ability as well as the hours and hours I put in to continue to train my voice. I love training my voice as much as I love performing, and this is in large part to my incredible voice teacher and mentor, Lisa Tamagini (shout out). While I have had some successes, such as playing Pam for half a year in the off-broadway musical hit, The Office! A Musical Parody, I am still in the developmental phase of my career where I am learning so much about myself – both my strengths and what I need to work on to reach that next level. A career in the theater/film and entertainment industry is not easy, there is a lot of rejection that you have to face in every level, but there are two things that keep me pushing forward: my wonderful family and friends who inspire me with their work and support, and the fact that I just really love performing and telling stories. I love giving my audience the chance to escape from their every day lives, or to live in someone else’s shoes for a few hours, or to just laugh. When I studied at the Moscow Art Theater School in college, I came across the motto “Higher, lighter, simpler, and more joyful” – that is what my brand is, and what I want everyone to feel after they see me perform.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I live in New York City so I would want to take them to wonderful theater, great restaurants, and to the awesome park and waterfront spots. We would definitely go see a Broadway show, or check out the amazing Off-Broadway scene which often has more unusual and thought provoking performances. We would explore chinatown for dumplings, and get New York City pizza, and go to Little Ruby’s in the West Village for something a little more bougie. We would explore the little shops in the East Village and around Tompkins Square park, where we would, of course, get bagels. We would walk through all of Central Park and have a picnic on the Great Lawn or Sheep’s Meadow, and take the ferry from the East Side to Greenpoint to explore Brooklyn. Maybe we’d even bike from FiDi to the Upper West Side on the Hudson River Water Front. We could go to the Central Park Zoo and the Bronx Zoo, and the beaches at Coney Island and Far Rockaway! We could go to the MoMA and have a drink at The Modern. It’s New York City – you can do anything here!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to dedicate my shout out to my husband, Wout Stienaers, who is running his own small business called Homey NYC, where he is making the NYC affordable housing lottery accessible to all with the click of a button. He also deserve this shout out because he is such a wonderful support system – he applies his business mindset to help me elevate and specify my brand, and gives me great feedback on my auditions. I couldn’t be doing this without him.

Website: https://www.hannashykind.com

Instagram: @hanna_shykind

Facebook: Hanna Shykind

Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm14886368/

Image Credits
Jessica Osber