Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Editor’s Note: This feature was originally a part of the August edition of our Valley Living magazine. If you would like to pick up a copy of the Valley Living magazine, please visit our office at 4002 20th Ave Suite E or if you would like to subscribe to the Valley Living magazine, please call us at 334-644-1101

Acting on stage and on screen has not only made a difference in Alabama native Karla Sanford’s life, it is allowing her to help others in the community express their creativity and talent.

Sanford, who many will remember from last year’s Lifetime network movie, “My Professor’s Guide to Murder,” is putting all that she has learned from this movie and the many other projects she has been involved with to the test on a new short-form movie.

Sanford not only wrote the screenplay for this short-form film titled “Feral,” but she is directing and casting it as well. This production in the suspense and horror genre will be the first where it is all coming from her ideas and also the first for her new company, under her new company Hip Entertainment LLC.

“I’ve had a lot of ideas in my head spinning around and I said, you know what, I’m just going to go ahead and start putting them to paper and get them out,” she said.

She is working with Derek Chatman, owner of Chatmans Media, who is filming the production and acting as executive producer.

This movie has a small cast, she noted, with most of those taking part from the local area.

“It will actually be streaming,” she explained. “So it’ll be worldwide. It’ll be out there.”

Sanford said she is usually doing something at least once a month or, every other month. It can range from acting, casting, singing, helping as an assistant on the set or directing.

Her latest role was in Fried Chicken Day July 20-21 as an extra playing a teacher in the full-length film.

“I don’t know what network that will be on yet,” she explained, adding she knows it will be on one of them.

But to date, Sanford said being in that Lifetime move is “my biggest accomplishment yet.”

Not only did she play a detective in the movie, but she also worked with actor Haylie Duff on casting local folks for roles in it.

Sanford is dedicated to helping local folks find roles on the screen or on stage in hopes it can offer them the same life-changing experiences that she has.

For example, the daughter of a good friend of hers was at a low point after being bullied at school. Sanford told her mother that getting involved in theater helped her and could help the girl.

“I have seen it do wonders for the confidence of children,” she said. “It allows them to be themselves and to express their creativity in very rewarding way.”

Because of the way its changed her life, she wants to help other people who can benefit from the experience.

Sanford said she had a history of depression that was made worse by being involved in an abusive relationship. When she got out of that situation, she had lost everything. Then she lost her father.

“He passed away unexpectedly and it just went downhill. I didn’t even care if I got out of the bed,” she said. “Life didn’t matter. I didn’t think about the future. I didn’t care if I lived. I was just existing.”

Then in 2020, Sanford decided to audition for the musical, “Dracula,” at the New Horizon Theater in West Point.

“I auditioned for that on a whim and I ended up getting one of the lead roles,” she said. “The cast was only like five or six people. I was one of the main people and I mean everything changed. I fell in love with it. It gave me something to live for. It gave me something to enjoy, fulfillment, look forward to. Ever since then I have not looked back.”

Since then she does something almost every month.

“I’m typically not getting paid yet for a lot of the things, you know, community theater obviously. But, the Lifetime production that was a paying job. That was a blessing actually because I had just lost my regular job …  It just worked out so perfectly.”

While she said she can’t explain it, her mindset changed so now she’s happy and doesn’t get depressed.

“I love every moment,” Sanford said. “It just totally changed me and I want to do that for other people.”

She said she is happy to hear from people in the area who are interested in getting involved in performing on stage or in movies that are filming in LaGrange and the region.

The best way to reach out to her or to follow her is through her Facebook page, at facebook.com/karla.sanford.58.

She noted that individuals she helps do not have training.

“As a matter of fact for the movie that I’m in production on, these people that I’ve cast are not actors per se. They are content creators and they do have a lot of followers. But they’re not actors because in my mind, you can coach anybody on how to act. I was not worried about that.”

Sanford said anyone interested in getting involved in this or something new can do it at any point in life.

“It’s never too late to pursue your passion,” she said.

Sanford said people are always reaching out to her to see if she knows someone who might be right for a role.

Building her career

Looking at Sanford’s resume demonstrates her commitment to all aspects of performing and working with movies, films and the stage.

Just since the start of 2024, she has worked with at least seven productions.

In addition to that role in “Fried Chicken Day,” she has played a lawyer in “Bulletproof” by BadBrad; a super senior, while serving as a production assistant and helping with set design, in Zeke Weldon’s short film, “Level Up Arthur;” and as a production assistant on “Crowd Work: A Tae Madden Comedy show.” On the stage this year, she worked in set design and as production assistant on “I Think I Can , I Know I Can,” the 12th annual Kids Stop the Bullying production; playing Cocoa in “I Did What I Had To Do; and portraying Emily in Darlan’s Production Studio’s “The Harvest.”

“The thing is, that gets you out there and it gets your face, your name out there,” she said. “Honestly, a lot of the projects that I’m in, I don’t even seek out, they’re just falling in my lap just because somebody has mentioned my name. I have people approaching me for things and it’s just blows my mind still.”

All of this is on top of continuing to hold down her 8-to-5 job, with all of  the rest filling her evenings and weekends.

Sanford said she didn’t get involved in all of this until she was in her 40s.

“Now, I wish I would have started this in my 20s. Maybe I’d be in Hollywood,” she said. “But, you know it’s never too late to pursue anything that you have a passion for.”

For her, this means that she enjoys working in the industry no matter what the job.

“Like I said, I’ll be a production assistant. I’m totally fine with that,” Sanford explained. “Running batteries to the assistant director or anything like taking tickets, I have done it all just to get out there. So far it has worked. It has helped me to get it as far as I have.”

While some folks in the area look at her and think she’s made it, she said that’s not the case yet. She does find that she is being recognized more because of her performances when she is out in the community.

“That happens all the time and I can’t explain it,” Sanford said. “It is strange. I’ve been in Kroger and somebody has come up to me and wanted a picture. I’m like, oh, man, I look terrible.”

Some of the recognition comes from other types of performances. She has been in a couple of bands and enjoys working with the New Horizon Theater’s annual Christmas concerts.

She does hope that at some point she can make all of this come together as her full-time career.

“I don’t really want to uproot myself and move to California,” she said. “There’s actually a lot of things happening in Georgia in the entertainment industry.”

In the future, she said she would like to do a project involving the paranormal, legends and folklore.

Sanford said she was traveling to Macon and went through the small town of Molina where she saw murals of Bigfoot everywhere.

“I’m so curious, so it turns out the next weekend they were having a festival,” she said. “So I went back — it was called the Bigfoot Stomp.”

She spent the time talking with folks who were sharing their stories.

“I did actually meet the mayor, took my picture with her and talked to her a little bit,” Sanford said. “I’ve got that in my head.

I want to do a series of local folklore legends type stuff.”

She said there’s an author who lives in Molena and works with the museum.

“His name is Lewis Powell and he has written several books on paranormal stuff and all. I really would love to team up with him and do a show.”

While she hasn’t proposed this to him yet, she said she has met him several times where they worked together.

“That’s just a future idea,” she said.

Sanford’s work has landed her on a favorite site of television and film fans. Two of her performances are listed on imdb.com, the Internet Movie Database. It lists her work playing a lawyer in the 2023 production of “Chatt’s Chosen” and for her role as a detective in Lifetime’s “My Professor’s Guide To Murder.”