For the next two years, Marathon actress Kelly Vaughn Williams will be on the front lines of negotiations for South Florida actors’ rights.
On Aug. 15, Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) announced that Williams was elected as its Miami Local president, effective Sept. 12.
Created by a 2012 merger between the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the national union negotiates contracts, working conditions and protections for more than 160,000 actors, broadcast journalists, recording artists and other media professionals. Williams will now serve more than 3,000 members in her region, composed of Florida, Puerto Rico and Alabama.
“I’ve been a proud member of this guild for over 32 years, and it truly feels like family,” she wrote in a social media post announcing the election. “I promise to work hard, listen, and do my very best for all of us.”
Williams’ career in acting and production spans dozens of movies and TV shows, from four years on “Baywatch” to “Batman Forever” and stints on “The Office,” “Friends,” “Las Vegas” and “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody,” among many others.
“If there was a TV show in the ’90s, I probably worked on it,” she said. “I’ve stood in, I’ve worked production, I’ve been an extra.”
As president, she said her priorities are to advocate for better health insurance protections for retired union members as well as explore avenues to bring film production back to Florida, which was once a top-three film production state in the country before removing its production tax incentives in 2016.
“You have to think of production as a free commercial for your state,” she said. “When ‘Bloodline’ filmed in Islamorada, it brought so much tourism to the Florida Keys. But when they filmed the ‘Road House’ (remake), they shot it in the Dominican Republic. My main focus is really trying to bring production back to the state – that’s one of the things I would really love to see happen.”
