You can follow this podcast on:

Apple Podcasts | Google Play | iHeartRadio | Spotify | Stitcher

Improviser Katie Ozog sits down with podcast hosts Puss and Kooch to talk about what it feels like to be a veteran member of the DC improv community, constant failure, and the possibility of getting Botox.

Katie Ozog on Heavy Flo with Puss and Kooch

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. To hear everything Katie has to say, listen to her podcast episode.

A middle child and her need for attention

Now that I’ve excavated my childhood through the beauty of being able to change VHS tapes to DVDs and streaming, I’ve realized I craved attention at all times. I was a middle child, and I was desperate for attention. So looking back, that might have been my first entrance into the world of performance, just being a human child in the middle of a bigger family. 

We have a weird layout in my family. My brother and I are very close in age: we’re 16 months apart. And then my parents took a four-year break, then had my brother. Then four years after that, they had my sister. So it’s almost two separate families with the same biological parents because there’s a younger generation and an older generation. 

How do you think that impacted you? 

I think when my younger brother was born, I was like, “What the eff is this?” I had been an only younger baby for four years, and I was not cool with it. Then when my sister was born, I became one of two middle children. And I’ll tell ya, it shows. Both of us are really always fighting to be heard. And we’re heard! My family’s like, “Shut up! We get it! You’re here!” to both of us. 

Katie’s reaction when she’s not getting attention (Photo credit: Jeff Salmore)

If you’re ever on my Instagram, there’s a video of me as a baby clown. It’s bananas that I was not immediately put into commercials. I had so much energy. My parents should have thrown me into something, but they never put me into any sort of acting classes. 

I actually didn’t start doing any sort of acting until high school, and I was not a theater kid. People often think I scream theater kid, but I was a cross country and track kid. That, to me, was a very formative comedy experience because it was a group of young women who were all so hilarious and were just ourselves around each other. It was wonderful. It was such a gift to have in high school, to be able to be goofy. We would go on long runs by ourselves and just be absolutely bananas with each other.