Katy has Boundless ambition
A former Bannockburn High pupil could be on the cusp of creating TV’s next big thing.
Katy Jordan is starring in selfpenned mystery drama Boundless, which has roots in Scottish history and centres on two pals who cross paths with a serial killer.
The 23-year-old and her friend Kirsty Peacock play the two main characters. They have financed the 12-episode production out of their own pockets and with help of close family including Katy’s parents, Lesley and Philip Jordan, who live in Bannockburn.
Katy works as a manager at Lidl in Balmore Road, Bishopbriggs, but spends her spare time working on the production and pursuing her acting dream.
Boundless started as a sixminute play but, as Katy explained, it has “grown arms and legs”. Thirty-seven people now work on the series including Mamie Lang, who wrote for Take the High Road and starred in River City, John Paul McGilvray, seen in River City and Taggart, and Sean Higgs, a Death Race 2 veteran who has worked alongside Meg Ryan and Patrick Swayze.
Cast and crew have filmed four episodes and Katy has been “calling in favours” and relying on support from friends and family to bring the project to reality.
Her gran, Ina Wright, let them film in her Alloa home. And friends Susan Meldrum, from Cowie, and her daughter Melissa helped the production – by posing as victims of the serial killer. Susan also allowed her house to be used for location shots.
Other filming has taken place in Bannockburn, as Katy explained: “My mum is one of the community councillors and I did the banners and flyers for the Longest Day celebration in Bannockburn last year. I didn’t charge them anything, and the secretary Tommy Cattigan has let me use the centre.”
Now Katy, Kirsty and two members of the crew working on Boundless have set up their own production company, Blue Cloth, and are engaged in the uphill task of getting the series on to our screens.
“We are at the stage now where we are looking for a platform for distribution and STV Local are at the top of the list,” she added. “Once we get a trailer or promotion finalised we will take that up with a distributor, but if that doesn’t work we will go down the Amazon Prime or Netflix route.”
And to achieve that goal would cap an astonishing few years for Katy, who attended Bannockburn Primary and Bannockburn High and did not decide to embark on an acting career until two years ago.
“I wanted to act since I was seven or eight but didn’t have the confidence,” she said. “When I got to high school, I got into computers and design and I went on to study graphic design at Forth Valley College and graduated in 2012 after a two-year course.”
Katy was set to use her qualification to set up a company but the plans fell through.
“The world was chucking a few things at me and I came to conclusion that a career in graphic design was not for me. So I decided to do what I always wanted to do and try and get into acting, and it is the best decision I have ever made.
Katy enrolled at stage school Acting Coach Scotland, in Glasgow, and has been mentored by Catriona Evans of Take the High Road fame. She has starred in a short film, ‘Just Gemma’ which won her and co-star/writer George Carson an award at the New Cinema Film Festival in Los Angeles. “It was my acting debut and it wasn’t as though we just filmed it and then it won – it took a lot of hard work to get it there and so the work paid off.”
And that’s the message Katy wants to get across to young people, especially young women, in Stirling eying a career in acting or the arts field.
“Any form of career in the creative industries is hard to come by whether you do art design, music, dance, acting or any other department,” said Katy.
“Nothing meaningful is ever easy but if you want it and believe in it enough, it could happen. I am not for one second suggesting that Boundless is a success – it has not found a platform yet but I will stop at nothing to make sure it does have a platform because I believe in it and I have not come this far to watch it dissolve into nothing.”
And she added: “For me, success as an actress is being able to pay your bills and I know that it will take a lot of hard work to get to that position but I am going to do whatever it takes.”