Brady Wolchansky

Brady Melinda Wolchansky was born on September 19, 1989, in Dallas, Texas to Melinda "Mindy" Farris, an English major and a real estate agent, and Greg Wolchansky, a psychology major and carpenter. Her father was born in Dallas, Texas and is of Russian, German, Luxembourgian, and Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Brady's mother grew up in Lawton, Oklahoma and is of English, Welsh, Irish, Scottish, and German descent. Brady didn't start acting until age 19, when she took a beginning acting class in community college at Brookhaven College in Dallas, Texas while studying painting. At the time she didn't think much of it, as she had plans on transferring to a fine art institution. However, her teacher at the time had told her she saw a "spark" and had encouraged her to continue acting if it was something she was serious about. A few years later Brady was attending college at Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where she was majoring in a multi-disciplinary fine art curriculum called "Integrated Studio Arts". At this point Brady discovered her love of the moving image and more performance-based art. Through experimental filmmaking and conceptual art making, theatre slowly crept back into Brady's life. In 2013 Brady graduated college and decided to move back to Dallas, a place where she instinctively felt she needed to be. At this point Brady felt unsure about "starting over" and taking another acting class. She had taken some workshops here and there over the years, but the looming insecurity of "not being good enough" held her back. Ironically it was another actor's biography that motivated her to take the next step, that of Kristen Wiig. Brady read that Wiig had also gone to school for fine art and didn't start seriously acting until after college, and if Kristen Wiig could do it then so could she! Long story short, Brady took some theatre classes, acted in a few plays and several short films, and got an agent! More recently, Brady has been exploring the intersection of stand-up comedy, improv comedy and mockumentary by creating what she refers to as her "Faux How-To" video series. This series came about by accident. She was initially trying to show her friends how to make soldered jewelry, but she kept getting the filming angles wrong and couldn't take it seriously. This got her thinking, "why do I need to take it seriously?" So, she just started having fun with it and used her improv comedy experience to create these absurd, outlandish videos that end up amusing more than actually teaching a process someone can repeat themselves. "I thought a lot about Andy Kaufman and how he never referred to himself as a "comedian," but rather an "entertainer." People often ask me if I'm a comedian, but I usually respond with, "I'm really more of an artist because I could never just do stand-up comedy." Kaufman was known for putting his viewers on edge and challenging them to be present and think critically." Brady strives to further her writing, producing and filmmaking skills, while also incorporating her visual art. She hopes to achieve this during her time in graduate school at Pacific Northwest College of Art, where she is currently pursuing her MFA in Visual Studies. Brady's ultimate goal is to make films that challenge the viewer to think critically about what exactly it is they are watching.