Sheila Jenkins
Today is an incredible day - Our very good friend Sheila Jenkins is with us for this week’s Dreamos Round Table. Sheila’s an improviser, actress, podcast host, and activist. Living in Los Angeles, she’s found a successful niche in commercial acting, including multiple national commercials and courses at UCB.
Sheila’s influence and passion for people is also felt through her powerful podcast, The Red Letters. There, she focuses on the varied ways of overcoming and healing through abuse.
Whether it’s through a podcast episode or her latest commercial, Sheila’s humorous take on life is the filter which she uses to approach all she does. We know you’ll be encouraged and inspired as you hear more from her heart, story, and pursuit.
What dream are you currently turning into reality?
I’m currently, and have been for the past 6 years, pursuing my dream of being a positive and bold voice of change in the acting and entertainment industry.
When did you first realize you discovered your dream?
My dream of being an actor and a positive voice in the industry was a slow burn to be honest. I can’t pinpoint a single cataclysmic event — It was more so a burning feeling from within that grew and grew. It solidified as I began to see my natural abilities for being unafraid of confrontation, and a desire to make everyone feel loved and seen, intersect with the joy I found in storytelling through acting.
How does your faith go hand in hand with pursuing your dream?
In pursuit of this particular vision I need God intertwined in every fiber of it. From my pursuit into the acting industry itself being so stacked against me by sheer numbers — Any audition, good impression, or opportunity feels divine to have gained. But from the long-term vision perspective, I am holding a desire to walk into a space that requires assertive action, hard conversations, and standing up to long-standing systematic bullying and darkness.
That alone causes me to pause and turn to God in faith and say, “I need you to pave the way before me and help me check my base responses, so the loudest voice that comes out of this experience for everyone is one of LOVING challenge and not attack.” In short, letting God lead first THROUGH me, not myself first, and trusting every opportunity He will provide with intention.
What encouragement would you give someone who’s going after their dream?
I would encourage someone to be open-handed with their dream — To learn to be comfortable with the thought that their dream might not have the end goal that they initially set out with. That it’s okay, and it can in fact lead to greater fulfillment than a rigid goal one sets at the beginning of a journey.
We ought to be changing and growing as dreamers, visionaries and humans throughout our lives — And with that will come tweaks to the visions of our youth. If you can trust in your own growth, you can trust in the growth of your dream.