Natasha Mayet

Natasha Mayet (she/her/hers) is an actor, award winning producer, film festival director, and acting coach. She was born in Pakistan and has lived and worked as a fulltime actor in both the US for 7 years and South Africa since 2020. In her late twenties while working in her corporate job, she decided to follow an impulse to fly to LA and enroll in an acting workshop. She saw for the first time that it was possible to pursue this as a career and decided to change her career path. After taking whatever classes she could in Cape town, she was inspired to move to Los Angeles to pursue acting training. After trying a number of studios she found she was looking for something more and a way to get out of her head and just be. She audited a class at AMAW LA and was inspired by the freedom of the students working off their scripts and how they really listened. After three years in LA, she moved to Atlanta and found the AMAW studio there and enrolled in classes with Katelin Chesna. At the AMAW studio, she soon began to see a powerful shift in her acting and also in herself, and was able to access her emotion in story in a way she had never been able to before. Seeing the transformative nature of this work and the way it empowered the actor, she felt a calling to share what she had learnt with others and to bring this community to Cape Town. She saw a need for an inclusive, co-creative space, where professional actors could continue to grow and challenge themselves to take risks, as well as a space where actors could get the same level of training as they would in a studio in LA or anywhere else. After spending 3 years at AMAW Atlanta, in 2020 she completed her training as a coach for AMAW in Los Angeles and moved to Cape Town to start coaching actors and AMAW Cape Town was started. AMAW Cape Town started online and now the studio in Cape Town has grown to offer in person classes as well, while still offering online classes to students in other cities in South Africa and around the world. While coaching, Natasha is also in the arena as a working actor and this allows her to connect with the actors she coaches as well as share what she learns in the ever changing industry. Over the course of her ten year acting career, Natasha has appeared in commercials, films, on television, as well as in theater productions. She recently appeared in UNSEEN on Netflix. She is also an experienced voice over artist and audio book reader. Her passion is sci-fi films. Pony, which she acted in and produced, received nominations at the Bronz Lens, Berlin Sci-Fi and the Atlanta Sci-fi film festivals. She was recently nominated as Female Filmmaker of the Year in Los Angeles in the 48 Hour Film Project for her film Last Laughter Guru. Due to her multicultural and multilingual upbringing, she is passionate about diversity in storytelling, as well as empowering filmmakers and actors to create their own opportunities. She also started an annual film festival in Cape Town with fellow actor and AMAW acting coach Jacques Adriaanse (The Cape Town Squad International Film Festival) that aims to showcase stories from filmmakers around the world, especially female filmmakers. Natasha’s IMDB is www.imdb.me/natashamayet. Why did you become an Actor? I was inspired to be an actor nearly ten years ago when I took an acting class in LA and realized this could be a regular "day job." When I took my first acting class, it was my first time feeling truly alive. I didnt want the clas to end. I act because it allows me to be human and bring all parts of me, the light and the shadow, messy parts, to tell story. It allows me to open my heart and stand in the shows of different characters, shedding light on those parts in me, and has enabled me to grow as a human being and share more human experiences with others. Film and TV are so powerful becasue they take us on a journey and can invoke change in our hearts and minds. We are feeling the feels of the character and going long for the ride with them, they might even be an alien but when we watch the movie we feel we are standing in their shoes. Ultimately being an actor has enabled me to feel more connected to the stories of others and that feeling of connection is a beautiful thing. Also, it allows us connect to that kid inside us again, and play and have fun, and be in the moment. To let go of control and surrender to what is, reminding us that it will be ok. Ultimately, isn't that what life is about?