Cameron Radice
Kat Conner Sterling
Memphis native Kat Conner Sterling is set to make her Netflix debut in the teen movie-musical, One Week Away. The film, set at a summer camp, explores the struggle to find acceptance and belonging, a message that initially attracted Sterling to her role of Presley, whom she describes as “super sweet and super awkward and super quirky.”
“I related to the character a lot,” Sterling says, “but I think what’s so cool is that even though she is a quirky character, she is seen in a positive light … No one is trying to change her.” Sterling adds, “When I was younger, I was the quirky girl, and I would’ve loved to have a character [like Presley] to look up to.”
Even so, at a young age, Sterling discovered her passion for acting. She performed at Germantown Community Theatre, Playhouse on the Square, and Theatre Memphis. “I really like that I was raised in Memphis theater,” Sterling says. “We have a great performing arts scene here, and I’m really excited and proud to be from here.”
Her favorite roles, however, were her performances at Evangelical Christian School, where she starred as Fiona in Shrek the Musical, Little Red in Into the Woods, and Anne in Anne of Green Gables. Much like her most recent character Presley, Sterling says, “Those roles are very unique and quirky characters,” and through these roles, she was able to explore herself and her abilities as a performer.
At Samford College in Birmingham, Alabama, Sterling continued performing and even majored in theater. During this time, Sterling says, “I started to fall in love with film and television.” In fact, while still in college, she landed her first professional role in television on Marvel’s The Gifted. She had to balance her acting with her schoolwork, “which was difficult,” Sterling admits, “but I made it happen, and my college was really accommodating with that.” Soon after, Sterling booked roles on Travel Channel’s Famously Afraid and Fox’s 9-1-1 before landing the role of Presley in Netflix’s One Week Away.
“I had sent in a self-tape from right here in Memphis,” Sterling says about her audition for the movie. She didn’t get a call back afterward and assumed that she didn’t get the role. “I had moved on from it,” she says. “I was actually on a cruise with my parents in the middle of the ocean when I got the phone call that I got the role.”
“It was a miracle,” she says, to have landed a lead role with only a self-tape audition. “It never happens like that, but they said that they really liked the way I took the character, that they hadn’t been able to find anyone else who did it like I did.”
One Week Away premieres on Netflix on Friday, March 26. The film also stars Kevin Quinn, Bailee Madison, Jahbril Cook, Iain Tucker, David Koechner, and Sherri Shepherd. “We’re super excited for everyone to hear the music,” Sterling says. “Our music is from the same music producers [that produced the music for] Camp Rock and High School Musical.” She hopes that one day people will be able to sing along to the soundtrack, just as they did for these teen movie predecessors.
“We are being compared to High School Musical and Camp Rock, which I love,” Sterling says. “I grew up with that, and that was my dream when I was little — to be in a movie musical. I’m fulfilling that, and I’m so excited to take this spin on it and bring an even more positive message to kids, tweens, teens, and adults.”
Even with a Netflix movie under her belt, Sterling hasn’t forgotten Memphis’ impact on her career. “Memphis theater gave me the environment to learn, grow, and explore, and build the skills I needed to work professionally, so now I’m able to take on a Netflix musical, which is insane,” she says. “It’s a blessing.”