Member Chilton

MIX OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS--BIOGRAPHY, HISTORICAL FICTION, JAZZ, ART, AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY, & POETRY.

KAREN CHILTON is a New York-based Actor & Writer. A native of Chicago’s South Side, Ms. Chilton received her Business degree from Bradley University. She has extensive musical training from The Chicago Conservatory of Music in classical piano and has studied abroad as an America Field Service (AFS) international exchange student in the Dominican Republic. Other areas of intensive study include jazz history and dramatic writing.

Ms. Chilton is the author of the recently released biography HAZEL SCOTT: THE PIONEERING JOURNEY OF A JAZZ PIANIST FROM CAFÉ SOCIETY TO HOLLYWOOD TO HUAC (University of Michigan Press). She was awarded a month-long writer’s residency at the Millay Colony for the Arts to support her work on the book. She is also the co-author of I WISH YOU LOVE, the jazz memoir of legendary vocalist, Gloria Lynne (St. Martin’s Press). The autobiography was a critical success, receiving an outstanding review from the industry journal, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, which stated: “Full of gossip, exclamation and vernacular, it’s a book that demands to be read out loud. This is a moving tribute to the crucible of Harlem jazz.”

Ms. Chilton’s acting credits include the New York stage as well as featured roles in numerous independent films. Most recently, she had a principal role in the upcoming feature, INSIDE A CHANGE, directed by Rik Cordero (FADERfilms). She had a supporting role in the award-winning independent film, HALF NELSON, directed by Ryan Fleck and starring Ryan Gosling. Her performance garnered outstanding reviews in the U.S. and abroad. “Karen Chilton projects limitless compassion and depth…” wrote INDIEwire. Critic Andrew Sarris wrote in The New York Observer: “The key to the direction of all the performances is tactful restraint and nuanced modulation. This applies to…Karen Chilton.” She was also a principal in the short film version of that feature, GOWANUS, BROOKLYN, winner of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Prize. For her lead role in the film short, STRUGGLE, she received New York Magazine’s “First Run Film Festival” Craft Award for Acting. The film is based on the 1970s police interrogation of black civil rights activist, Assata Shakur; it was also screened at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and has won numerous awards. During 2003, Ms. Chilton was selected as an Actor-in-Residence at New River Dramatists (formerly The Playwright Project) in North Carolina.

Her dramatic works for the stage include a solo performance piece for the stage, SAYING GRACE, directed by director/choreographer Ken Roberson (Avenue Q), which was performed in the 2003 Women of Color Theater Festival at New York’s landmark theater, Henry Street Settlement. Her latest full-length play, CONVERGENCE is the winner of the 2004 New Professional Theatre Writers Festival; a public reading of the play was staged at The Duke Theater 42nd Street Studios.

She is also an accomplished voiceover artist and narrator. Her voice can be heard on numerous national network television, radio and internet advertising campaigns. She has narrated dozens of audiobooks, including STANDING TALL by C. Vivian Stringer, listed as one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Audiobooks of 2008, and I’VE GOT A HOME IN GLORY LAND for which she received the Audiofile Golden Earphones Awards.

Ms. Chilton’s affiliations include membership in the Screen Actors Guild, Actors Equity Association, the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists, The Toni Morrison Society, and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.