Embrace Rejection — It’s Part of the Job. Rejection isn’t failure; it’s just part of being an actor and writer. You will hear “no” far more than “yes,” but that doesn’t mean you’re not talented or worthy. Sometimes, it’s just about timing, luck, or things completely out of your control.
As a part of our series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became An Artist” I had the pleasure of interviewing Sarah Cameron.
After attending Durham University on a drama scholarship, Sarah went on to train at the Drama Centre London and graduated in 2021 with a Distinction in her MA Acting. Since graduating, Sarah has set up two production companies, Greenlit Productions and Any Second Now, which both champion new writing by producing shows across London in order to give emerging creatives a foothold into the industry. Sarah debuted KAREN after being selected as a winner for Velvet Smoke’s monologue competition in 2021 at the White Bear Theatre, which after a success reception, she decided to turn into a full-length show. KAREN earned Cameron-West 5 and 4 star reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival dubbing her “the female Peep-Show” and was also selected by the Soho Theatre Labs mentorship programme. Sarah is a keen writer-performer and she is currently pitching her TV shows JAQ AND JILL and VANTAGE POINT (partnered with Lucy Nicholson) as well as KAREN, and TRULY, MADLY, DEADLY. Her acting credits include IT TAKES TWO performed at the Hen and Chickens, the Golden Goose and the Kings Head, Robert Zemeckis’s ALLIED, David Yates FANTASTIC BEASTS 2, Josie Copeland’s WALK HOME (acting and writing credit), and most recently, Amazon Prime’s ANANSI BOYS, based on Neil Gaiman’s fantasy novel.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
Sure! I moved around a lot as a kid so I became very comfortable making new friends at each new school I went to and therefore was never particularly shy! As a family we finally settled in the beautiful city of Chichester which I love as it’s close to the beach and has so many cute artisan shops. I then went away to university in Durham and had the most incredible three years before moving to London in 2019 for my Masters in Acting at The Drama Centre London.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
I think my dad would say it was when, age 3, I ran on stage at the Wiggles concert in Dorking, desperate to join in, that we thought performing might be on the cards.
However, for me, drama was always my favourite lesson at school and I would count down the days for that one hour a week that was always over far too quickly. The tide really turned however when I was 11 and the Head of Drama took me aside and said that I could have a career in acting if I wanted to and I just remember thinking, I could do this?! ALL THE TIME?! It seemed too good to be true. I acted all through school on a drama scholarship then received the Arts Scholarship to Durham University where I did far more acting than studying history. It was the experience of doing 3 plays a term, back to back every year that expanded my skillset and comfort on stage so that when I got into drama school, I felt ready to launch into the next level of craftsmanship and take my acting up a notch — I had a lot to learn and still am still learning with every new experience! Writing however came about more as a necessity and vehicle for me to showcase and explore my acting. I had always loved creative writing and wrote an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that I put on at school when I was 18 but it was at drama school that I started to come into my own as I struggled to find a piece for my final year showcase that I felt really “showcased” me so I thought I would just write what I wanted to perform and that lit the way from there. I kept writing my own things because I was bored of waiting for the phone to ring with an opportunity to act so I just started making them myself which led to founding my own theatre companies that champion new writing. It was at Drama Centre that I discovered my love for comedy. Another teacher encouraged me to go down that path after an audition because I have “a funny face” and I am so glad I did. The first project that tied all these loves together was KAREN and I am so grateful for that.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
That is a great question. An interesting story and one that still makes me laugh is of a terrible audition I did in 2021. It was a Spotlight special opportunity where you could sign up to perform in front of three casting directors. It was just after COVID and everyone was desperate to get back out there and I had just recently graduated and because of the pandemic we didn’t get our industry showcase in front of agents and casting directors so I was very keen to go to this audition and kickstart my career.
They asked us to prepare a 2 minute speech but rather than diving into my arsenal of pre-prepared monologues I thought I might perform a little section of KAREN as it had just had its first outing as a 10 minute monologue after being selected for the Velvet Smoke monologue competition and received a successful reception. I thought that the casting directors might appreciate seeing something new and different and that something that I had written might make me stand out from the crowd so I condensed the piece into a punchy 2 minutes. Now, if you have seen KAREN, you know that some of the language is quite colourful and I just remember walking into the audition room raring to go, seeing the panel of rather stern older casting directors and thinking I had made a dreadful mistake and tried, whilst engaging in the preliminary small talk, to remember any classical monologues I might have up my sleeve. I then admonished myself because you should never judge a book by its cover so I resolved to stick to my guns and perform my 2 minute excerpt of KAREN. It was a car crash. I can still remember the looks on their shocked faces as I screamed “F*CK YOU!” directly at them (because KAREN breaks the fourth wall) and thinking to myself “I can’t believe I’ve just told these famous casting directors to f*ck off”. It seems so clear now that that was an idiotic decision but I felt so emboldened by my own work I just didn’t think it through. Now you may think that after I finished they might have smiled awkwardly and let me leave the room and pretend the whole thing had never happened. Sadly, no. Instead, I was absolutely eviscerated. A particularly painful remark was that they knew I was trying to turn KAREN into a full length show and one of them said: “I wouldn’t pay to watch that even if Victoria Wood had written it”. However, after a 100% sell out rate of KAREN across all of its seasons in Edinburgh, London and Birmingham, glowing 4&5 star reviews and Hat Trick Productions and Yada Yada Productions optioning the script for TV and Radio development, that casting director happily seems to be in the minority and I think I have had the last laugh.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where can people see them?
The project that I am working on now and have been since 2023 is my one woman comedy show KAREN which is heading back to the Other Palace in London from 18th-23rd March. It has been such a fun show to work on and the element of breaking the fourth wall always keeps it fresh and exciting when engaging with the audience. KAREN has now been optioned for TV and radio and we are working on how we can translate the show onto both screen and sound waves which has been so fun to work on. I am loving exploring these new mediums of writing with the story of KAREN and seeing the life it could have past the theatre show. Equally, I have a theatre company with my friend Lucy Nicholson called Any Second Now and we put on scratch nights and plays every few months in order to champion new writing across London — we have really been enjoying promoting and producing our Comedy Extravaganza nights supporting some wonderful up and coming comedians. We are keen to get back to our roots of our theatrical shorts as well so hopefully some exciting developments in 2025. I am also working on some other TV scripts that I am looking forward to pitching throughout the year.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
I love meeting fellow writer-performers and seeing what they are working on at the moment. It was incredibly special to get into the Soho Theatre Labs and meet
like-minded people making incredible and unique pieces, usually as a one man band, and I just found it so inspiring being around that level of creativity, especially people that can just churn out show after show! You also make these fabulous connections with people putting on theatre nights and it’s just so inspiring and fun to stay in the thick of it.
Where do you draw inspiration from? Can you share a story about that?
My absolute idols are Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Michaela Cole and Sharon Horgan. I love the gorgeously complex and brilliant women they write and the sense of humour they bring to everything — I am in complete awe of them. I have one story that I am pinching from a friend of mine but it was to do with Phoebe Waller-Bridge and showing her a script we had written together so I feel I can get away with that? My friend Lucy and I have been working on our TV script for our show JAQ AND JILL and we had just been in touch with Phoebe’s assistant because we thought that perhaps she might be interested in reading it. A few days after we have submitted it, I get a text from Lucy saying that she is at a restaurant and Phoebe Waller-Bridge has just walked in — we couldn’t believe it. Lucy then says she is going to approach her to make sure our script is on her radar — at this point, I’m glad it was Lucy rather than me as I am so hopeless at this part and always get too shy. Lucy apparently walks up to Phoebe’s table where she is enjoying lunch with friends and introduces herself.
Phoebe is absolutely lovely and asks for our details, however, no one has a piece of paper Lucy can write on so instead Lucy digs through her bag and writes our details on a covid mask! This set the whole of Phoebe’s table laughing and has been one of my favourite stories ever since.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I think any success that I have had I always try and pass on. For example, working with the Other Palace and establishing a relationship with them has meant that I can help and be supportive to friends who are looking to also bring their show there.
Further to this, I feel that what I learnt over doing two Edinburgh Fringe Festival runs was a bit of a baptism of fire so I regularly meet up for coffee with actors who are keen to make their own solo shows and flesh out what the journey of that looks like — if I can be helpful in any way whether that is putting people in touch with one another or just being a support to someone who is trying to kick start their own engine, I always like to be.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
Do it yourself.
Up until you leave your educational institution, acting roles are always served to you on a plate — it is easy to audition for the school or university play, drama school you are acting every day! When you graduate and get into the industry you are waiting for a phone call just to give you one line in something, you can’t help but feel like you’re in life’s waiting room. It is like being at a feast and suddenly having a crumb every 6 months. I also feel like it’s akin to gambling because it’s so addictive — you wait months and months for a win with it taking everything you have to keep going and then you get one line in something and you’re sat in you trailer being pampered by makeup artists rehearsing for your moment and you remember why you love it and want to do this and it feeds you through those months of nothing again and it goes around and around until you get your “big break”. So my advice is do it yourself; if you need an agent, if you want to trial a new piece of work, if you want to get seen by a casting director, call up a theatre and put something on and invite them. They might not come the first time but keep doing it because it is a battle of attrition — someone will come eventually! You will also grow as an artist as will your reputation. This is what I did not only with KAREN but my theatre company Any Second Now which champions new writing nights across London theatres.
Not all your friends have to be actors.
Being in this career you will meet many people with similar interests and naturally bond with and want to talk about your careers and that is a wonderful and invigorating space to be in. But it can also be exhausting. When you have had a tape not go your way or it’s been months since your last job, sometimes you can feel filled with anxiety when you meet with creative friends because you feel you aren’t doing enough which actually leads onto point 3. Make sure you keep up your relationships with people outside of this sphere who don’t know what Checkov is — it is important to be able to put that part of life aside when it feels overwhelming and focus on something else so you can come back and feel reinvigorated. I love nothing more than going for dinner with my university girlfriends and talking about anything but acting.
DO NOT COMPARE YOURSELF TO ANYONE.
You will, but try not to. You are on your own journey and it takes as long as it takes. People will get picked up into a major series straight after drama school and some will never make it at all. You have to do what makes YOU happy and YOU feel is the best move for your career and keep chipping away which is what makes point 1 & 2 so important.
Embrace Rejection — It’s Part of the Job
Rejection isn’t failure; it’s just part of being an actor and writer. You will hear “no” far more than “yes,” but that doesn’t mean you’re not talented or worthy. Sometimes, it’s just about timing, luck, or things completely out of your control. The key is to keep going, keep learning, and not let rejection define you. Treat every audition or submission as an opportunity to grow, rather than a judgment of your talent.
Keep Learning
Whether it’s acting, writing, or any creative passion, never stop learning. Watch great performances, read scripts, take classes, and stay open to new experiences. The best artists are lifelong students of human behavior and storytelling. The more you learn — about people, history, psychology, different cultures — the deeper and more authentic your work will be.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
If I could inspire a movement, it would be about revitalizing and protecting theatre, starting in the UK, as theatre has been hit hard by funding cuts. Local government funding for culture in England has decreased by 48% since 2009. Theatre shouldn’t be an exclusive privilege for those in London or those who can afford high ticket prices. It should be a thriving, accessible part of every community.
I’d love to create a movement that brings back repertory theatre, providing actors, writers, and directors with stable work while ensuring that every town has access to high-quality performances. Furthermore, a strong regional theatre scene means more opportunities for emerging talent, more diverse stories being told, and more people — regardless of background — getting to experience the magic of live performance.
Beyond entertainment, theatre has the power to bring people together, start important conversations, and create real social impact. By making theatre more affordable, touring more productions outside of London, and investing in local venues, we can make sure that creativity and culture remain at the heart of communities across the UK. After a successful run in the UK, we could widen this and start reaching out to global communities.
The arts are not a luxury — they are essential. And if we want the next generation of storytellers to thrive, we need to make sure they have stages to stand on.
We have been blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she just might see this.
If I could have lunch with anyone, it would be Jane Fonda. She’s not just an iconic actor but a fearless activist who has spent decades using her platform to fight for change. From civil rights and women’s equality to climate action, she has never hesitated to stand up, speak out, and even put herself on the line for what she believes in. I’d love to ask her how she balances artistry with activism — how storytelling can drive real impact and how we, as creatives, can use our voices to spark meaningful change. I’d also love to hear how she sets her own boundaries and stays true to herself, even when going with the crowd would be the easier path.
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Instagram: @sarahcameronwest @karen.theshow
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@SCameronWest @KarenTheShow1
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Sarah Cameron-West: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became An Artist was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.