January 23, 2019
When Bella Badding was in second grade,
she went to a friend’s birthday party at Serendipity Acting Studio
in Carroll.
She played a game similar to Charades
and was instantly mesmerized.
She loved acting, performing and being
in the spotlight.
From there, Bella, now 11, began taking
acting classes at Serendipity and found a hobby she was not only good
at but wanted to pursue.
In October, Bella and her mom, Kelsey
Badding, took a day trip to Des Moines, where Bella spent hours in a
makeup chair prepping for her first TV commercial.
After only a few years of acting
classes, the Carroll sixth-grader already was being cast for roles
outside of Carroll plays.
It all started months prior, when Sonia
Walsh, owner of Serendipity Acting Studio, sat down with Bella and
Kelsey and talked about the possibilities for Bella’s acting
career.
“She basically sat us down and asked
how we felt about getting Bella involved in commercials and print
ads, and I started crying, because it is pretty cool,” Kelsey said.
“I wasn’t expecting it. She was like, ‘I feel Bella has what it
takes. It’s a special kind of kid to sit during long photo shoots.’
”
So the Baddings found an agent in Des
Moines and got started.
Bella’s first TV commercial was for
Mediacom. During the commercial, she sits with her “Dad” and
talks with him. None of the sound is played in the edited version of
the commercial, and even though Bella was on air for only a few
seconds, it was a start, Kelsey said.
Bella said that when she first arrived
on set in Des Moines, she was overwhelmed by everything going on
around her.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is
really happening,’ ” she said. “I was nervous.”
After that experience, she was hooked.
“I think I want to do more acting
when I grow up because I really love it, and I think it’s a good
opportunity,” she said.
Ever since Kelsey can remember, Bella
has loved performing.
“She was always doing her own music
videos,” Kelsey said. “She loves to perform and has a lot of
personality.”
These traits were what helped Walsh
pick Bella out from other students in her acting classes, she said.
“She has a lot of charisma on stage,”
Walsh said. “She’s a really smart kid, which makes her a better
actor because she has great natural instincts for character, and is a
really fast memorizer, which is a nice skill to have in your back
pocket when you do this work.”
For Bella, memorizing lines of her
scripts from a script is simple. She’s interested in almost any
roles — as long as they’re the lead ones, she said.
“They’re all my favorites because
they’re all different, and they’re unique in their own way,”
she said.
What’s next? Well, maybe more
commercials, or meeting with other talent organizations outside of
Iowa. There are a lot of possibilities. Kelsey said she is just
excited and proud of where her daughter is today.
“She has a big
personality. She is smart, and she’s very beautiful,” she said.
“It’s always cool to see your kid succeed in something they
enjoy.”