Actor & Founder, The Youth Code
| Topics: Arts & Entertainment, Charity |
| Interview Date: March-12-2013 |
| Extraordinary Insights: Don’t accept anything less than you can achieve. Keep toughening it out and doing it again and again until you get there. |
Audio-only version:
Kalista Zackhariyas is an actor, writer and founding Director of The Youth Code, a non-profit organization aimed at giving child survivors of abuse a creative space to heal through art and movement therapy based programs. She was born in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, but spent a large part of her childhood and adolescent years living in Southern Africa and Europe. She currently resides Mississauga, Ontario. As a newcomer to the film industry, she has filmed over a dozen commercials, several short films, has been a print model and recently finished her first lead role in the feature film Snow. The film had a theatrical release early this year in select theatres throughout Canada. Coming from a tumultuous home environment, Kalista became a ward of The Children’s Aid. When she eventually received guardianship of herself, with little education and no money, Kalista became homeless. Her adventures took her to Europe for a few years where she was discovered and started her screen career by co-hosting a morning talk show and working as a cover model for the Slovenian magazine. (www.theyouthcode.com)