By Kelsea O'Brien

TORONTO, Ont. - To speak to Kate Drummond is to immediately feel at home. Taking time out of her ever busy schedule, this day off from acting was spent renovating her home, and her voice radiates like the warmth of sunlight felt on fresh sheets. There is not even a hint of an actress annoyed at having to do more media in her limited downtime, especially for this conversation. McMaster University will always hold a special place in Kate's heart. It gave her the tools to become everything she wanted to be, even if who she thought she would be feels like yet another role she had to prepare for.

Kate Drummond was not always the confident actress you see on screen. Born in Woodstock and raised in Sarnia, Drummond originally had her eyes set on Lakehead University, with aspirations of studying medicine and playing volleyball. Though her career has taken her all across the country and back again, at the time while newly graduated from St. Patrick's High School, the idea of moving so far away from home was not one that sat well with Kate. When she visited McMaster, she fell in love with the campus and the atmosphere. She committed to the Marauders, and registered to try out for the volleyball team.

An athlete her whole life, Drummond found solace in the notion that she could play volleyball to balance the throws of her new life, a familiarity in a land of unknown. When the day for tryouts arrived, Kate headed towards the gym, ready to become the newest member of the McMaster Marauders Women's Volleyball team, or, at the very least, to get in a good workout and make some new friends. Through a few laughs, Kate describes she "got psyched out!" when another student approached her and told her that she wouldn't have a chance of making the team, if she didn't already know someone close to it. Already overwhelmed by being away from home for the first time, "I chickened out" says Drummond.

"I was living in residence for the first time, away from home for the first time, everything was scary for me."

Kate skipped the volleyball tryout completely, instead heading to where badminton tryouts were in progress. Unbeknownst to her at the time, Lakehead's volleyball coach had already approached McMaster's coach regarding Kate, to let him know she was coming to McMaster.  When confronted by a McMaster volleyball representative about why she missed tryouts, Kate meekly asked "Can I play both?!" but was informed she had to choose between the two. Forever a woman of her word, Kate chose badminton. Admittedly, she didn't play very much her first year, but by fourth year she was captaining the team. She sees thousands of fans, agents, directors and fellow actors, but it is the faces of her badminton coaches that are forever etched in her memory. Her most prized possession at the time, she says, was her McMaster Marauders athletic jacket. She wore it with pride every time she put it on; proud to be an athlete, and proud to be a Marauder.

Fourth year was the same time Kate had the opportunity to attend a quadruple bypass surgery as part of her cardiology specialization with Dr. Neil McCartney and decided that she was too sensitive for medicine. She entered McMaster with a vision of medicine and volleyball, and left with a degree in Kinesiology and Psychology, and a badminton jacket full of memories, and she wouldn't have it any other way. 

Having worked as a camp counselor and sports coach, Kate decided that rather than medicine, her career path would be teaching. Following her graduation from Mac, she attended the University of Ottawa to earn her teaching degree, and remained in Ottawa teaching for the next several years. Feeling like something was missing in her life, Kate, at the age of 30, signed up for an acting class. She was hooked - and loved being a studying actress by night and a teacher by day. But by 35, it was clear, as she started to book more and more roles, that she had been bitten by the acting bug.

The same way she tried to juggle volleyball and badminton, Kate attempted to stretch herself between teaching and acting before making the decision to take a year off from teaching to pursue her dreams. She took every acting class available, broke herself down and built herself back up through characters, learning more and more about who she was with every one of them. For every role she was cast in, there were hundreds of rejections, each one bringing up the same shadowy feeling she felt on the day of volleyball tryouts. The weeks bled into each other, becoming months, and finally, the year was up. The same week she was to inform her school board that she was returning to her classroom,  Kate received a call from her agent. She had been cast as Grim in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist.

Foregoing Lakehead to attend McMaster was a leap of faith that paid off, and now, giving up teaching to become an actress had, too. 

Since her career took off, Kate has proudly only taken roles in Canadian-based film. She has filmed at the First Ontario Centre in Hamilton, which she, like all Hamilton residents, will forever refer to as 'Copps Coliseum', and recalled on set with excitement, all of her memories of concerts and events she attended at Copps while studying at McMaster. Though she has yet to film at McMaster University, she is a fan of The Handmaid's Tale, the HBO adaptation of the classic Margaret Atwood novel by the same name, with many scenes filmed in Hamilton and at McMaster. Prior to the first season of The Handmaid's Tale, Kate was offered a role in the series, an opportunity for her worlds to collide. Unfortunately, she was already filming a movie at the time, and just like committing to the badminton team years ago, Kate remained a woman of her word, finishing the movie instead of taking the role.

Kate Drummond recognizes that her career arch is not typical, but she wouldn't have it any other way. The doubt she felt before volleyball tryouts prepared her for rejection, while teaching her never to doubt herself. Four years of badminton and wearing that maroon Marauders jacket with pride were crucial in developing her confidence. Realizing that she was too sensitive for a career in medicine allowed her to tap into the vulnerability needed to succeed as an actress.

Four years at McMaster helped Kate Drummond become, well, Kate Drummond.

You can catch Kate in Utopia Falls on CBC and Hulu.