Karenssa LeGear

Karenssa LeGear is an American actress, filmmaker and SAG/AFTRA member who appeared in musical theatre plays including Les Misérables (2014) as Cosette and Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream (2007). She has Best Actress nominations at Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema for Carving a Life (2017) and at GI Film Festival San Diego for Refuge (2017).

Karenssa LeGear
LeGear in 2019
Alma mater	Vista High School University of California, Los Angeles
Occupations	Actress filmmaker
Years active	2001–present
Known for	Musical theatre performances throughout California, Arkansas, Arizona and film roles for television network Lifetime
Notable credits	Carving a Life Cosette in Les Misérables Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream Man of La Mancha The House of Yes Veronica Mars

Early life

LeGear grew up in Oceanside, California, starting her career as a singer at age 13. She graduated from Vista High School and holds a bachelor of arts degree in music-voice at University of California, Los Angeles. In 2015, LeGear graduated from Ruskin School of Acting where she studied Meisner technique. She is a member of SAG-AFTRA and Actors' Equity Association and has dual citizenship in the United States and Australia.^[1]

Career

In 2004, LeGear portrayed Margarita Fischer for a recreation of the historical past at Rancho Buena Vista Adobe.^[2] She has performed in several musicals and plays including The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Les Misérables^[1] and has conducted interviews with Geena Davis, Adrien Brody and John Boyega for That's My Entertainment at the San Diego International Film Festival.^[1] In 2017, LeGear starred as Lauren in Carving a Life. The film was not well received but Adam Keller at Film Threat said her performance was "solid"^[3] and Katie Walsh at Los Angeles Times called her presence "empathetic".^[4] LeGear has supporting roles in the Lifetime films Killer Caregiver and Killer Contractor, guest starred in Veronica Mars^[5] and co-directed a short film called Capture.^[6]

Stage credits

Year	Title	Role	Location	Notes
2001	The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling	—	Vista High School, Vista, California	High school performance[7]
	The Legend of Sleepy Hollow	Woman in White	Encore Youth Theater, Vista, California	[1]
2003	Annie	Lily	Moonlight Youth Theatre, Vista, California	[8]
2007	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Puck	Schoenberg Hall, Los Angeles, California	[9]
2008	The Medium	Mrs. Nolan	Schoenberg Hall, Los Angeles, California
	The Legend of Sleepy Hollow		Encore Youth Theater, Vista, California	Director[10]
	The Threepenny Opera	Lucy (matinee) / Whore	Los Angeles Theater Center, Los Angeles, California	[11]
2009	Music and Memories	Angel	Welk Resorts Theatre, Escondido, California	[12]
2010	The Pirates of Penzance	Mabel	Welk Resorts Theatre, Escondido, California	[13]
	The House of Yes	Lesly	Compass Theatre, San Diego, California	[14]
	Into the Woods	Rapunzel	New Village Arts Theatre, Carlsbad, California	[15]
2011	The Phantom of the Opera	Christine Daaé	McKinney Theatre, Mission Viejo, California
	Phantom	Carlotta	Candlelight Pavilion, Claremont, California
	Man of La Mancha	Antonia	Welk Resorts Theatre, Escondido, California	[16]
2012	Man of La Mancha	Antonia	Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Long Beach, California	Musical Theatre West[17]
2014	Les Misérables	Cosette	Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Little Rock, Arkansas	[1][18][19]
	Les Misérables	Cosette	The Phoenix Theatre, Phoenix, Arizona	[1]
2015	Gianni Schicchi	Nella	Cowell Theater, San Francisco, California	Merola Opera Program
2016	On The Twentieth Century	Imelda Thornton	Los Angeles Theatre, Los Angeles, California

Filmography

Feature films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2012	The Kult	Natasha Snow
2017	Carving a Life	Lauren	[20]
2018	Killer Caregiver	Patty	Lifetime TV Movie
	The Calling	Holly Jensen
	Christmas Harmony	Pamela	Lifetime TV Movie
2019	Killer Contractor	Claire	Lifetime TV Movie
2022	Starf*cker	Karen

Short films

Year	Title	Role	Actor	Director	Producer
2015	The Recency Effect	Trixy	Yes	No	Yes
2016	Remember Me	Leslie	Yes	No	Co-producer
	Valhalla	Naomi King	Yes	No	No
2017	Refuge	Diane	Yes	No	No
	Jordan Hates the Writing	Marilyn Monroe	Yes	No	No
	One Good Day	Diana	Yes	No	No
2019	Capture	Dana	Co-director	Yes	Co-producer
	In the Absence of Eden	Kalissa 'Lissy'	Co-director	Yes	Yes
2021	Moving Out[21]	Joanne	Yes	No	Executive

Accolades

Event	Year	Award	Title	Result	Ref.
GI Film Festival San Diego	2017	Best Actress	Refuge	Nominated	[22]
Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema	2018	Best Actress Feature Film	Carving a Life	Nominated
		Best Ensemble Cast Feature Film	Carving a Life	Nominated
Horrible Imaginings Film Festival	2020	Best Home Grown Local Film	Capture	Won