WCSU Alumna's Web Series Receives Acclaim

WCSU alumna’s web series receives acclaim in festival and award circuit

DANBURY —Western Connecticut State University alumna Kayla Conroy and her production company Three Bright Lights recently released their new web series, “Human Telegraphs.” The series was released in November 2021 to international acclaim at several major awards ceremonies and festivals. Episodes two through eight of the show’s first season are currently available to watch on YouTube.

Conroy received their B.A. in Theatre Arts Performance from WCSU, where they graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2010. During their time in the WCSU Department of Theatre Arts, she contributed to many productions, including “Cabaret” at Berkshire Theatre and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Ives Concert Park, as well as a performance of “Romeo and Juliet” at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

She notes her experience performing in WCSU’s New York City production of “Songs for a New World” had a profound impact on her future career as an actor and producer. “My directors and teachers, including Frank Herbert, Pam McDaniel and Sal Trapani, helped make my time at WCSU an amazing experience,” Conroy recalled.

After their studies at WCSU, Conroy trained for two years at the William Esper Studio’s Meisner Acting Conservatory, after which she acted in several stage productions, television shows and films. Most recently, Conroy co-starred in “Crashing” a series on HBO.

In 2016, Conroy began writing “Human Telegraphs” with her friends and fellow actors Rachel Kay Barclay and Fern Lim. “Human Telegraphs is a quirky female-driven web series capturing the magic of strangers caught in unexpected intimate collisions in the big city,” reads the show description on its website.

To produce the series, they formed Three Bright Lights Productions in 2017 and began working on the first episode. The trio took to crowdfunding website Seed & Spark the next year, once they completed the pilot, in order to fund the production of the remaining seven episodes of the first season.

On their website, Three Bright Lights describes its mission as being “committed to giving a platform to women in the film and television industry by incorporating them into leading roles and defying the traditional female character tropes often portrayed on screen.”

Conroy, Barclay and Lim spent the next few years producing the web series and released it in mid-November 2021. In the months since its release, “Human Telegraphs” has garnered numerous awards and nominations from several prominent festivals and outlets. Among the awards, the show was declared Best Web Series at both the New York International Film Awards and Falcon International Film Festival.

Individually, Conroy won both “best actress” and “best director” at the British Web Awards. On the show’s success, Conroy stated that she and her partners are “really grateful and excited” about the reception after several years of hard work on the project.