Meet Marissa Fennell-Hardy | Actor & Stand Up Comic

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marissa Fennell-Hardy and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marissa, why did you pursue a creative career?
Pursuing a creative career was inevitable for me. Creating art is when I’m happiest and the most fulfilled. I feel like each day I understand a new facet about my creativity that helps me identify my path even more. I have realized that the spotlight is less important to me as the impact my art makes on the people around me. I believe what I have always wanted for my art is to effect people, I want to help people feel seen and included and not alone in their world. Stand Up comedy has given me that satisfaction for sure. Watching people relate to what I’m saying and feel seen from my experiences fills me up with such light. At the end of the day that’s what I have always wanted in any career. To reflect society into inclusion.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am an actor and stand up comic based in North Hollywood California but originally from Oceanside. I have a BFA in Acting from AMDA College and Conservative of the Performing Arts. I have been acting and performing stand up around LA since I graduated college in 2014. the hardest thing coming out of college as an actor/artist in finding your community. After coming from an intense 3 years in an acting school where you are with a group of people who were all eating, sleeping, breathing performing its hard to walk away from that. My goal was to try and find another community of artists who had each others backs and wanted to grow with you. I immediately joined a theatre company. That experience was the best thing I could have done for my young lost self. To be in the “real world” and to be with “real” artists all ages figuring it out with you was so helpful.

From there I would bounce between stand up comedy and acting gigs. For a while I was the resident comic for a burlesque troupe who would do shows in the back of Ethiopian restaurants. Doing stand up is was grounds me. It’s what keeps me sane because at least I’m on stage and getting to relate to people in such a healing and reflective way. Comedy is always how I processed my life and it felt like such an AHA! moment to realize that I could actually perform it. I have done shows at the Ice House, The HaHa, Flappers Comedy club, The Federal Bar and many more. Recently I was one of 100 people chosen to perform in Las Vegas for The World Series of Comedy and was chosen as best of the fest at the Burbank Comedy Festival.

My relationship with Acting feels a bit more fickle. It was hard figuring out how I wanted to present myself. The first agent I got out of college was a large agency who didn’t care about the new people on their roster, they just wanted us to conform to how they saw us. It was more about how thankful I should be that someone picked me up. I realized they weren’t the place for me when they made me take headshots as a mechanic. I thought, “shit if this is how you see me then we have a problem.” That whole experience was huge in understanding how I actually want to represent myself as a creative person. I moved on from them and went into producing my first play, All New People by Zach Braff. I pulled together a couple of my close creative friends, Kenneth Billington and Liz Izzo and we found ourselves deep in a project that none of us understood the impact of. We ended up getting multiple nominations from the Valley Theatre Awards where I also won Best Actress in a Play for my role in All New People.

On top of the many very strange but hilarious sketches (Daddy Issues: A Day in the Park. Still makes me laugh when I watch it) I have written as well as the few award winning plays I have produced I’m just now starting to understand who I am as a creative. I have to do it all myself. I can’t wait for someone to put me in a box and expect me to be thankful that they even took a chance. Especially between the stand up and acting world there is a stigma that you can only do one or the other. You are either funny or a serious actor and honestly I am damn good at both. I feel like currently trying to balance and merge both those identities is a task that I am still working on but also loving so much.

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.
First off the best Mexican food you will find in the Valley (North Hollywood) is Salsa and Beer. That is the first place I take/mention to anyone who’s looking for a big meal at a reasonable price. One of the things I love doing with people visiting is hit some museums, one of my favorites is the Car Museum across the street from LACMA. The architecture is incredible and it’s just so cool walking around and learning about the history of cars that defined the movie industry and us as a society. It’s just something different and fun. And since we are already in the area I would defiantly hit Canter’s Deli for some cheese cake and if it’s late at night, some comedy. I’m basically just going to list all my favorite places to take someone to eat. Portos Bakery, The Grand Central Market, Bludso’s Bar & Que, Gracias Madre, Stout Burger and too many more to count. After we have filled our bodies with the most delicious food we would have to roll our selves to Malibu because its a pretty spectacular place to just sit on the beach and relax. At night we’d get dressed up and go to Cliftons Republic where you would have four stories of dancing options with different themes to choose from. Then we’d come back up to NoHo and eat pie at the Republic of Pie because we clearly aren’t full yet. Before the pandemic I would hang out at this great Jazz club in Little Tokyo called the Bluewhale. A good friend of mine was the bar manager and I always felt like it was the coolest places to meet people and hear some seriously great music. Now besides what some might call “basic” LA things, I would honestly just take friends on the metro to downtown where we would walk around for hours. That’s where you would discover the best parts of LA.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Both of my parents deserve credit in my story, as well as a few key teachers. My Mom supports the hell out of everything I do. She sees my capabilities before I know they even exist. She has taught me persistence and how to make mistakes and grow from them. Because of her I see the world beautifully and how anything I want, I can get. I appreciate her guidance and love every day. It wasn’t until I was older that I understood the impact my Dad had on me when it comes to the comedy and the movie world. I learned so much from him and his knowledge of the movie industry and what makes things funny. I didn’t know how embedded into my brain it was. He taught me timing, how to hold a room to attention and the love of getting lost in a film. I don’t know if he understands how much I cherish his opinion and his very funny brilliant brain.
Mrs. Jones was my High school theatre teacher and I feel like she was the first person who actually saw me larger than myself when I was on stage. Because of her guidance I really saw the possibility of this career.
Also I must mention Ms. Cauthen, she was my fourth grade teacher and a close family friend and she pushed me into new levels of myself. She never settled for less than she knew I was capable of and because of her I learned how to be bold in my actions.

Website: https://www.marissafennell.com

Instagram: @funny_fennell

Twitter: @MarissaFennell

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marissa.fennell/

Image Credits
Cassandra Isbell Doren Sorell Sam Serro