about
Kim has worked as an actor, director, teacher, producer and writer. She grew up in Houston, Texas and got her degree at the University of Houston, graduating Summa Cum Laude with a BA in Acting and Directing. Part of her education and training there included working with Jose' Quintero, Edward Albee and Sidney Berger (Shakespeare). While studying in Texas she won an "Actress Excellence" award at the annual Texas College Play Festival in 1992 for her portrayal of Sarah in Children of a Lesser God. In her early years in Texas she also appeared in productions of, Whose Life is it Anyway, Shadowbox, Steel Magnolias, Blind Date, Cabaret, Midsummer Night's Dream and children's theater productions.
Currently, Kim is Resident Artist and Co-Founder at 4th Wall Theatre Company in Houston. During her tenure as Co-Artistic Director, which began in 2010, she established herself as a Houston treasure for her work as both a director and an actor. Under her visionary leadership, 4th Wall received many awards and accolades, including the Houston Press's "Mastermind Award", as well as the company’s four “Best Production” awards in the annual Houston Press Theater Awards: GOD OF CARNAGE in 2013 (actor), TRUE WEST in 2017 (Director), LOBBY HERO in 2017 (Director), JESUS HOPPED THE ‘A’ TRAIN in 2019 (Director), THE REALISTIC JONESES in 2020 (actor). As Co-Artistic Directors, Tobin-Lehl and Philip Lehl were also nominated several times for the “Best Artistic Director” award, winning once. As an individual artist, Kim has been nominated numerous times by both the Houston Press and Broadway World for her work as an actor and director, winning awards in both categories. Here extensive list of acting and directing credits at 4th Wall Theatre is available upon request.
She moved to New York in the summer of 1993. In New York she had the privilege of studying and/or working with Gene Frankel, Stella Adler, Seth Barrish, Lee Brock, Kevin Klein, F. Murray Abraham, George C. Wolfe, James Earl Jones, Marian Seldes, and Mike Nichols. She is a trained instructor in the acting techniques of Konstantin Stanislavski, Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, and The Barrow Group. Kim was an officer of the New Mercury Theatre Company from 1994 to 1996 where she produced and acted (Sally) in the 1995 revival of Sam Shepard's, A Lie of the Mind. She was also Artistic Director of the New York theatre company: Blue Sphere East, the sister company to the award-winning Los Angeles theatre company; Blue Sphere Alliance.
Other favorite Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway credits include; Talk to me Like the Rain...; A Streetcar Named Desire; The Fifth of July; Fool For Love; Savage In Limbo; The Smell of the Crowd; Bed, Bawd & Beyond; Impassioned Embraces (Emotional Recall); Ctrl, Alt, Delete; Trust; and The Barrow Group’s production, Short Stuff Two, as well as their production of her original one woman show, Inside Out (written and performed by Kim.) She also spent three and a half years in Los Angeles where she studied with Sandy Marshall and Larry Moss. Credits during her stay in LA include: the world premieres of Children of Shame, The Interrogation, Masseur, Baby with the Bathwater, Check to Check, and The Foreigner. Kim can be seen in the films; The Alarmist, The Big Lebowski, and Sex Maniac, as well as on Sunset Beach.
She currently teaches adult Meisner classes for all levels and has taught improvisation, script analysis, audition technique, cold copy, film technique and scene study classes from beginning to advanced levels over the last 30 years. She has taught all ages of students including summer camps (ages 7 through 18) including at AD Players, Unity Summer Camp, and The Stages, Young Actors Conservatory Program (ages 12 through 18).
