Annie Hamilton graduated from Fieldston in 2011. Hamilton began her time as a part of the Fieldston community when she was just four years old as a pre-k student at Ethical Culture and, looking back, Hamilton is very thankful for all of the pleasant memories that she made at Fieldston from that moment on. She’s every bit a New Yorker improvising, bluffing and inventing her way across the universe. In fact, she’s very hard to classify. Hamilton is an actor, a comedian, a comedy writer, a stager of impromptu events and an inventor of characters. Her “stage” has been the theater, the club, the internet as well as the street corner.
Hamilton lived in the Financial District in lower Manhattan until her home was damaged by the 9/11 terrorist attacks when she was in third grade. From then on, Hamilton spent her childhood on the Upper West Side. She now resides in Chinatown.
During her time at Fieldston Upper School, Hamilton danced in the Fieldston Dance Company, starred in various musical productions, wrote for the Fieldston News and ran the Literary Magazine. Hamilton thoroughly enjoyed engaging in all of these activities and continues to fondly remember how she spent her precious time at Fieldston. “I loved Fieldston. My best friends in the world are still from Fieldston. I especially loved assemblies on Thursday mornings. They were the time of my life. I’ll never forget when Ishmael Beah–the author of A Long Way Gone–came to speak at one of them. I remember that he said that you can never belittle someone else’s pain. Pain comes from the same place. Sadness is the same feeling for everyone, even though different things may make someone sad. That really stuck with me.”
Hamilton was given the honor of dressing up as the Eagle mascot one year during Pep Rally. Another year, Hamilton had the opportunity to walk in the iconic Fieldston Fashion Show. Hamilton also produced many student films while she was at Fieldston. Moreover, Hamilton absolutely loved being an STS leader, especially the creative freedom that the experience brought her.
Hamilton’s all-time favorite Fieldston class was Mr. Montera’s journalism course. Hamilton said, “The class taught me a lot. I loved Mr. Montera’s general curiosity for the world. He knows so much about so many different things and he always really inspired me.” Hamilton is proud of the work that she produced under Montera’s guidance. Specifically, Hamilton enjoyed writing an article on Julius and Ethel Rosenberg which re-examined their execution in 1953 and its place in American culture and politics. English class was also always a positive experience for Hamilton, but she was truly terrified of math and science. Additionally, Hamilton was taught by current physics teacher Mr. Lambert and former English teacher Ms. Stokes who was Hamilton’s all-around favorite teacher. Hamilton’s grade dean was Mr. Reyes, who is now the dean of the Class of 2023.
While she was at Fieldston, Hamilton wanted to become an actress and was unsure whether she wanted to go off to college after high school. With some pressure from her mother, Hamilton ended up attending the University of Southern California (USC). After graduating from USC, Hamilton lived in Los Angeles for ten years and just moved back to New York City last year.
During her first year living in LA, Hamilton had four acting jobs. Unfortunately, after that initial grace period, she found that booking acting gigs was a real challenge. Hamilton managed to stay afloat working as a telemarketer, a babysitter, a restaurant hostess and a body oil salesman while she went through the auditioning process. In a sense all of these jobs allowed her to explore voices, personalities and careers that would become material for her comedy.
Everything started to come together for Hamilton when she moved back to NYC in 2021. Hamilton said, “I love what I do now and I’m having a great time doing it.” Currently, Hamilton is putting on monthly shows at the Jane Hotel in lower Manhattan, writing a television show and attending many callbacks.
In early January, Hamilton was even interviewed by The New York Times. For a young actor, it was a pretty extensive spread. When asked about her experience of being interviewed for such a major newspaper, Hamilton said, “This opportunity was extremely unexpected but I am very grateful. I now have many auditions and meetings because of the article. I’m aware that I’m getting a lot of attention for social media stuff, but truthfully I take my acting and writing really seriously. I hope that I fully take advantage of this time and that something comes out of the next three weeks of busy meetings.”
Hamilton has a few scenes with actress Laverne Cox in the recently released series Inventing Anna. In the future, expect to see Hamilton in a new horror movie. Hamilton also has aspirations of creating various original works. “I used to just want to be seen as an elegant, beautiful, polite actress but now I want to write my own movies and make my own fleabag,” Hamilton said.
Even after blossoming in the NYC acting scene, Hamilton still expresses much love and appreciation for the Ethical Culture Fieldston School. “I still keep in touch with all of my Fieldston friends and my closest friend is from Fieldston. At my ten-year reunion last year, I was one of 15 people to show up. I really do love Fieldston,” said Hamilton.
