Acting

Joy Kilpatrick is an award-winning actress whose career spans stage, television, and film. An Omicron Delta Kappa recipient, she earned her BFA from the University of Miami’s Theatre Conservatory Program and continued her training through a year-long professional internship with the Burt Reynolds Institute for Theatre & Film, as well as advanced study with the National Theatre in London.

Joy has had the privilege of working alongside some of the industry’s most respected artists, including Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Patrick Stewart, Burt Reynolds, Larry David, Reba McEntire, Tom Arnold, John Corbett, Charles Nelson Reilly and Dom DeLuise. Her most memorable film role includes portraying Patrick Stewart’s daughter in Safe House, and television audiences may recognize her from Star Trek: Voyager as a guest Klingon, Madonna in B.L. Stryker, and the Golden Globe Award–winning series Curb Your Enthusiasm. Most recently, Joy appeared in the television pilot Badwater, cast as Kevin Kilner’s wife, Margaret.

On stage, Joy is a Carbonell Award winner for her performance as Helena in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Some other theater credits include Helen in Trojan Women directed by Sir John Neville, Doll in Rules Of Love directed by Charles Nelson Reilly, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Mrs. Kendall in The Elephant Man, Nickie in Sweet Charity, Joanne in Godspell, and May in Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love. A company member of Merely Players, she has portrayed Donna in Mamma Mia, Mrs. Hubbard in Murder on the Orient Express—earning a BroadwayWorld Award for Best Supporting Performer in a Play—and most recently, Joan in Small Mouth Sounds.

Alongside her performing career, Joy has devoted over 15 years to teaching and mentoring young people and college students through the arts. As a longtime educator and teaching artist, she brings the discipline, empathy, and storytelling tools of professional acting into the classroom, helping students build confidence, emotional intelligence, communication skills, and self-expression. Her work is grounded in the belief that the skills actors train—presence, listening, empathy, communication, play, adaptability, vulnerability, and courage – are essential life skills for people of all ages.