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Wilmette native Seana Kofoed’s writing, acting career reaching new heights

Life is great these days for Wilmette native Seana Kofoed — she’s living in Hawaii with her husband and two children, performing in the cast of the hit CBS TV series “NCIS Hawaii,” with her husband Jason Antoon, and ClearMind, a movie that she wrote, produced, and appeared in, is set for release on Jan. 11.

“Happy day after Thanksgiving,” the actor, writer and producer cheerfully greeted me during a Zoom interview. She then clarified her roots saying she was born in Highland Park Hospital but raised in Wilmette.

While she was growing up in Wilmette, she did perform in high school productions but downplayed her roles there.

“I was not the rising star at New Trier,” she said. “I was always in the ensemble.”

When it came time to choose a course of study, Kofoed said that she had to decide between theater or anthropology. Theater won and she went on to Northwestern University after convincing her parents.

“Somehow I convinced my parents that it would be good — and they believed me,” Kofoed said. “I think they figured I would switch over at some point to English or something. They were hoping for law school for a long time.”

Kofoed took off one semester from Northwestern to study at the Royal National Theatre in London, an experience she remembers fondly.

“I loved it. I learned so much,” she said. “We can do Mamet here but they win at Shakespeare.”

Following graduation, Kofoed began her career in Chicago, starting as an understudy for a production at the Goodman Theatre. She then earned roles at a number of Chicago theaters, including Goodman, Court and Victory Gardens.

“I feel like I was also trained by Chicago theater,” she said. “It has such a great theater community. It is the best combination of talent and work ethic of anywhere I’ve ever worked.”

Despite her love of Chicago theater, Kofoed moved to New York after a few years. “It felt like there was a ceiling,” she explained. “There was only a handful of roles each year that were in my age range at that time.”

In New York, Kofoed appeared on Broadway in “Proof” with Jennifer Jason Leigh and “Night Must Fall” with Matthew Broderick. She also had a number of off-Broadway credits but after a decade or so moved on to Los Angeles.

“It was a little bit back-and-forth,” Kofoed said.

In Los Angeles, Kofoed appeared on a number of television shows and was a series regular on Jenny Bicks’ “Men in Trees” and the Jamie Denbo/Jenji Kohan “American Princess.”

In 2021, Kofoed and her husband both landed roles in “NCIS Hawaii.” That’s why they became Honolulu residents with their two children, ages 9 and 12. Kofoed has a recurring role on the show as medical examiner Carla Chase. Her husband is a series regular as Ernie Malik, a cyber intelligence specialist.

Kofoed wasn’t able to reveal any details about the coming season on “NCIS Hawaii” because she didn’t know what was going to happen.

“They tell us nothing,” she revealed, adding, “They’re amazing. We feel we’re in great hands. They let their supporting characters shine.”

In addition to performing, Kofoed is a busy writer. Her writing credits include the feature film, “30 Miles from Nowhere”; the short film, “Together Apart”; and the comedy “Donna’s Revenge: Confessions of an ex-Contestant.”

Her latest project “ClearMind” is about virtual reality therapy gone wrong, Kofoed explained.

“There’s this woman grieving over the loss of her daughter and she decides to do this virtual reality therapy program and she uses it to exact revenge on her former friends,” she said.

The author described the movie as darkly comedic and plays one of the woman’s friends in the movie.

“ClearMind” will be released on Jan. 11 on all of the digital platforms. “We’ll probably do a DVD release but we haven’t set a time for that yet,” Kofoed said. She is also hoping to get the movie on airlines.

Kofoed revealed that she has two writing projects in the planning stages.

“I’m trying to set one here in Hawaii because we’re here and we have this great crew,” she said. “I’ll do one in Chicago because I still have family and super close friends in Chicago.”

It’s a great time for Kofoed and her husband who, like most performers, have gone through periods of unemployment.

“We feel incredibly lucky,” Kofoed declared. “We’re enjoying it for sure.”

Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.