Katy Harney-Johnson

Born in San Mateo, CA, Katy Harney started dance lessons at age five and drama at age eleven. Katy also had an eye for photography and writing as a child. She won her first gold award for photography at age ten at the San Mateo County Fair where she would continue to win awards throughout her childhood and early adult years. Her talent granted her a variety of opportunities including showing her work in several galleries. Katy's love of the arts, both on stage and behind the scenes, continued throughout her teen years where she began working backstage as a stagehand and lighting effects assistant for such names as Carol Channing, Lou Rawls, The Jets, Hi-Five and many others. Katy went on to study Film at San Francisco State University. However, after surviving a Traumatic Brain Injury and receiving a diagnosis of a lifelong spinal condition, Katy decided to change career paths and go into emergency medicine. She worked many years on ambulance, air ambulance and in the hospital, as well as, teaching others life saving skills. With Katy's spinal condition worsening and her love for teaching increasing she decided to go into teaching full-time where she became an American Heart Association approved training center, teaching thousands of adults and children life saving information each year. Katy was still involved in the arts in her free time, teaching children drama for many years and writing articles and scripts. Despite being disabled, at the age of 42, Katy moved to Southern CA to pursue her childhood dreams of acting and filmmaking. Katy has a wide range of skills as both a comedic and dramatic actress. Katy has worked on many documentary projects such as, Lexi and Tal, Two Journeys of Autism (2020), Inside Incurable Lives, Painkillers (2017), Becoming Incurable, Episode Five (2018), Becoming Incurable (2020), Becoming Incurable, Covid-19 stories of High Risk (2020), and Being High Risk for Coronavirus (2020). Katy has been able to show her comedic skills in various mockumentaries such as, Meet the Biz-Staying Connected Quarantine Style with Betsy Chasse (2020), and The Pauleon Farm Murder Tapes (2021). Katy has also appeared in a variety of other projects including short films such as, Stanly's World (2019), reoccurring background for such shows as Speechless (2019) , the movie trailer, Untamed (2019) and as an interviewer for Meet the Biz, Burt Ward (2021) and Meet the Biz, Ali Stroker (2021). Katy is also a published writer with a love for script writing, as well as, writing articles that inspire and educate people regarding chronic illness, mental health and disability. Katy draws on her challenging life experiences to create powerful artistic interpretations both on screen, behind the screen and in her writing. Katy continues to inspire others with her talents showing that it is never too late to go after your dreams.