An Atlanta-based actor, director, writer, poet, and performance artist, Emma St. Kathryn has forever found her nourishment and spark from the theatre: whether entrancing a live audience or drawing in the camera lens, Emma lives and breathes the communal act of storytelling and social reflection. As an equally physical and text-based actor and theatre artist, Emma thrives on curating stories that uplift the heart and mind through stimulating and challenging language paired with engaging and visceral movement. Through her art, Emma seeks to radiate Beauty through expressive Joy.

Emma received her childhood training in and around the beautiful (if sometimes chilly) Windy City. Emma lived on the stage, studying and performing with Simonetta L. Pacek’s Little Flower’s Dance and Theatre
Troupe and Julianna Rubio Slager and Amy Kozol Sanderson’s Ballet 5:8. Emma received her BA in Theatre: Acting/Directing at DeSales University before going on to achieve her MFA in Acting (International) at the East 15 Acting School (an affiliate of the University of Essex) in London.

Emma debuted on London stages with performances of her self-penned monologue Sins of the Father, the company-devised WWI memory play Make the Dead Man Stand (directed by Sonia Ritter), and twice appearing on
West-End venues first co-starring as Penelope in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad: the Play (directed by Gaël le Cornec) and as Gower in Shakespeare’s Pericles (directed by Simon Usher).

Returning home to Chicago, Emma partnered with Chicagoland’s Ballet 5:8 and the School of Ballet 5:8 to build a drama program and act as an in-house drama consultant. She also partnered with Shalom World TV to
produce two children’s series: Exalt and 7Tears. At the persistence of the Covid-19 pandemic, Emma decided to go nomadic, traveling first to Tennessee (there taking respite in local community theatre) before placing roots in Atlanta where she lives and breathes art creation, both onstage and off.

Emma is thrilled to be returning to her childhood home for Athenaeum Center’s 2025 debut production of Ionéu: a Retelling by J. D. A. Groth. Through pulsating poetry and visceral movement, Ionéu’s themes of isolating hatred, non-discriminatory mercy, and unrelenting Godly pursuit enwrap the heart and mind in a soul-searching 90 minutes. Emma hopes this journey proves fruitful to your own pursuit of Truth.