Kimberly Atkinson

Kimberly Shannon Atkinson was raised in the small college town of Clemson, SC. She walked the line of basketball playing tomboy, beauty pageant queen, and poet, yet never had the acting bug until she was well into her college years. She enrolled in a small liberal arts school in Charleston, SC as an English major and it was there that she started acting. Almost immediately she was landing commercials and began auditioning for major films that rolled through town. After finishing two BAs, in journalism and in theater, she was accepted into the University of Washington’s Professional Actor Training Program—ranked top 5 in the country along side Yale, NYU, and Juilliard. While completing her MFA, she continued to work as an actress in independent film, television, and commercials, and spent her summers performing outdoor Shakespeare in Seattle, WA.

In 2001, Kimberly relocated to Los Angeles to continue her acting career and has resided there ever since. She is a highly passionate and active entertainment professional with 20 years and counting of stage, film, TV, commercial, and voice over acting experience whose many television credits include numerous commercials and roles on Shondaland’s For The People, Criminal Minds, True Blood, and NCIS. Also a voice over artist, Kimberly has voiced major projects with FOX, TNT, and the NFL and multiple national campaigns including Temper-pedic and HTC. Unique film and MOW credits include Scream of the Bikini (Best Supporting Actress Nominee—Maverick Movie Awards), The Hunt for the Labyrinth Killer for Lifetime directed by Hanelle Culpepper, and popular indie horror shorts, Dollface and The Sound of Fear. Kimberly, an avid theater actress, joined the award winning Hollywood theater company, Sacred Fools, in 2006. Favorite ‘Foolish’ roles include Masha in A Gulag Mouse, Rachael/Pris in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and Gertrude in Hamlet Shut Up, for which she earned LA Weekly Award nominations.

In addition to her work as an actor, Kimberly also produces for the stage, is a private coach and teacher, and is the founder/co-administrator of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee of Sacred Fools Theatre Co., committed to creating an artistic environment where the greater community's diverse ethnicities and cultures, backgrounds and identities, struggles and strengths are respected, represented, honored, and celebrated. Kimberly co-created and currently co-produces and co-directs, with actor Amir Levi, an ongoing theatre action, We The People, that specifically illuminates the experiences of LA’s diverse community in today’s social and political turmoil while raising funds for related non- profits.

When not working or volunteering her time to theatre arts, Kimberly is enjoying life with her talented actor/writer/coach husband, Gregory Sims, and their amazing super hero daughter.