You’ve seen her on TV shows like ‘Mad About You’ ‘Hawaii 5-O’,
‘Supergirl’ ‘Drop Dead Diva’ and ‘Criminal Minds’, but Kinna McInroe is best
known for her role as Nina in the film Office Space. She has guest-starred in
episodes of several other television series, has appeared in a number of
feature and direct-to-video films, has worked extensively in short films, and
has been narrating a series of online videos released under the pseudonym
Squirrel-Monkey since 2012.
Kinna studied improvisational theatre with Gary Austin, the
founder of The Groundlings. From her first appearance as Nina in the 1999 film ‘Office
Space’, through to her appearance in 'Mad About You.'
Working with Dutch comedy video artist Jo Luijten, Kinna
provides the narration on several web videos they have released under the
pseudonym Squirrel-Monkey. Most of the Squirrel-Monkey videos show what social
networking sites and video games might have looked like if created on the
computers of the 1980s or 1990s. Since their introduction in March 2012, the
videos have received positive press from a number of news and technology
websites, including Mashable, Wired, and The Huffington Post.
Alan Mercer: When did you get started in show business?
Kinna McInroe: I was
born ready to start in show business. I remember putting on shows for my next-door
neighbors. I would recreate Sheer Energy commercials. I would walk around the neighborhood
putting flyers on the cars and knocking on doors asking if they were coming to
my show. I wish I had that tenacity now. I would get people to come and watch
me do tricks on the trampoline or sing a song. We had these big rocks in front
of our house, and I would stand on them with a tennis racquet and sing ‘Blue
Bayou’ in a made-up language. I was
always a kid who knew what I wanted to do very early in life. I never wanted to
be a doctor. I always wanted to be an actress and an entertainer.
AM: You are a singer
as well?
KM: Yes, I used to be
in a group called Big Daddy and the Butter Biscuits twenty some years ago. We
did a lot of shows around North Texas.
AM: What were some of
the first steps you took to make your dreams come true?
KM: Well, it all started
with the minute I could be in choir, the minute I could be in theater in
school, I would join and be in it the rest of the time. Then I went to college for
it and then conservatory for it and then I did a showcase night at KD Studios in
Dallas where industry people come and check you out. I signed up with the Kim
Dawson agency. I tried to get into Julliard but got turned down. That was a
letdown because I wanted to do Broadway more than anything and I still do. Then
I went to Austin and auditioned for ‘Office Space'.
AM: Did you know who
Mike Judge was?
KM: Not really. I was familiar with ‘Beavis & Butthead’ but it wasn't my favorite show.(Laughter) Seriously however, my husband swears he learned to speak English from watching 'Beavis & Butthead' and 'South Park'. Anyway, I did the audition and then forgot about it. Three months later I was doing the Big Stinking Comedy Festival and I got a call back.
AM: How did you do on the call back audition?
KM: I felt so good
about it. Everyone was there from Mike Judge to the casting director. I called
my agent right after and told her I felt real good about it. She warned me not
to get my hopes up, because this was my very first audition with the agency.
The next day was my birthday and she called at 7:30 in the morning and told me
I got the part! So, that started me getting some more parts in productions in
Dallas and Austin. I did a lot of improv comedy in Dallas, too. I saved up for
3 years and then I moved to Los Angeles.
AM: What was Los
Angeles like when you first got there?
KM: It was totally
overwhelming and scary. I never wanted to got to Los Angeles because I thought
it would be a bunch of skinny girls in thongs rollerblading on the Santa Monica
pier, and there were. It was strange because I met a man named Gary Austin at
the Big Stinking Comedy Festival and I literally held on to his phone number
for three years. This was the late 90s. There was email but it wasn’t a big
deal yet. We still had pagers and our phones were big. Anyway, I called Gary,
and he told me they were having a show that very night and that I should come,
so I did, and I loved it. He asked if I wanted to be his assistant. I said, “Sure."
He was the founder and started the Groundlings, but left within the first decade because he didn't like the direction that it was going with the school. I was his assistant, after he left the Groundlings and I did all
the exercises so people could learn them, for the next 15 years. I made a bunch
of my core friends through him. One of those people was Robert Watzke and we
started doing an improv show called Shplotz. We improvised
with people like Helen Hunt, Helen Slater, Jason Alexander, and James Corden.
AM: On a personal
level, you met someone and got married.
KM: Yes, I got
married late in life and had a child late in life. My child has special needs
do to his autism and ADHD.
AM: Is that why you
decided to relocate back to Texas?
KM: Yes, after the
pandemic hit, all auditions were on tape anyway. We could stay in Los Angeles
and pay exorbitant rent on a one-bedroom apartment or get a three-bedroom house
in Texas. It just made sense. Also, in a full circle moment, I went back to KD
Studios and worked as a teacher. I have that on my resume now so I can use that
while living in Lubbock. I can teach there, and I can do auditions from there.
I have everything I need, with a bunch of family to help me out.
AM: I love that ‘Office
Space’ was your first foray into everything you ended up doing.
KM: That was my first
anything. That movie was instrumental in my career. I have played Nina three
times now. One was in a Folgers commercial and this past Christmas I played her
in a Walmart commercial with the ‘Office Space’ cast.
AM: What a blessing
to have a part that has carried you through these many years.
KM: It has been a
blessing. Anytime I need some money, suddenly I get a residual check for ‘Office
Space’ after all these years. It always shows up and helps. Also, I met my
husband because of ‘Office Space’ and he lived in the Netherlands.
AM: How did that
happen?
KM: He was a fan of
the movie, and he wrote to me on my public Facebook page. I wondered who this
cute Dutch guy was, and we started communicating on the phone and suddenly he
was coming to the United States to meet me. It took five years of this back and
forth, but finally we got married and had a kid.
AM: You stay very
active even if you aren’t on the front line.
KM: Yes, this is who
I am. If I’m not doing it, I want to teach somebody else how to do it. That
brings me a lot of joy. I especially love teaching young people and leading
them in the right direction. I will always be positive, but I am giving them the
real story too. The first thing I tell any class is to look around because these
people are all going to drop away. Probably only 2 percent of you will stay at
it because it’s so hard to make a living, no matter how talented you are.
AM: It almost has nothing
to do with talent.
KM: It doesn’t. It has to do with who’s your daddy, is it
nepotism or is it that you have a hot look this week? Are you 18 and looking
ripped? There are so many people who don’t have half the talent and they are on
every single show. Then you discover they are the Godson of so and so. Now it
all makes sense.
AM: Do you have a special
project you want to work on now?
KM: I do and it’s one about me moving back to Texas. It will deal with the culture differences with my husband and what we are going through with our kid. There is humor in all of it
