Katie Underwood

Artist, Atheist, Change Agent, Writer/Editor

My career trajectory always raises an eyebrow; having spent 6 years as a professional actress, heading back to university to study for a Masters in Gender, and now working for a tech startup, I’m interested in what makes people tick; I’ve just shifted my perspective! I’ve moved from dressing up as a whole bunch of characters to see the world from different perspectives, to taking a more rigorous and academic lens to drill down into the personal nature of gender identity. I’ve spent the last 5 years volunteering for Samaritans, offering emotional support as a listener on our 24 hour phone lines. This too, is bound up in a profound conviction that people, particularly in a country which is still battling the ‘stiff upper lip’, must be given space and permission to speak about the difficulties of just getting through the day. I’ve written two one-woman shows (because despite no longer being an actress, I still need a creative outlet!), ‘No Make-Up Selfie’ and ‘No Weddings nor a Funeral’, about my generation’s need to feel special and unique, and my experience of not quite getting married in 2015, respectively. I like sharing stories, I occasionally like shocking people, and I particularly enjoy starting difficult but necessary conversations, whether it be around suicide (Samaritans - one of our last social taboos) or whether you can legitimately call yourself a feminist and still get married (No Weddings…) I sporadically feel the overwhelming urge to run a half marathon or, on a bad day, a full marathon, just to make sure that my relatively young body still works. I’m a non-fiction rather than fiction follower, and am guilty of starting far too many conversations with ‘So I watched this documentary the other night…’

Things I don't know: I walk into bookstores and mourn the fact that I will never have the capacity to read them all. Camping: it's a profoundly therapeutic experience, and if you can do it in England, it makes you a stronger human being. Theatre: when it's bad, it's awful, when it's good, it can spark fundamental change. Culinary experiences (more specifically involving cheese, wine and/or gin): if I'm not eating it, I'm fantasising about what to eat next or watching a programme about it. I do not wish to live in a world without Cheddar.

Reclaim the phrase "how are you?" Only ask it if you generally want to know, and be prepared for a truthful and candid answer. In terms of looking out for each other and preventing the people who do a great job of appearing 'alright' from slipping through the net, this question is one of the most overused and undervalued in the English language.

Gender, diversity, theatre, the works of Henrik Ibsen (!)

There are very few forums where it’s possible to spend an evening or a day and see the world through the prism of science, technology, education, or socioeconomics. It’s the breadth of scope which sets TEDx apart as a space to explore ideas. In the light of a politically and socially turbulent idea, I’ve been reflecting on the fact that we worryingly surround ourselves with people who see the world in the same way, and that we have an obligation (those of us with the means by which to facilitate such events) to find ways of bringing a different set of people into the room, to challenge our deeply held views and spark contentious conversations.

Cooking a really decent steak, medium rare; taking up a disproportionate amount of space on a dance floor, given the relatively small space I occupy in the world; and remembering a back catalogue of songs from musicals.