Lights! Camera! Action!

Having worked in the film industry, largely here in her native New Iberia, Gail Boudreaux is no stranger to that famous collection of words.

Boudreaux, who with her late husband Aaron, has five children, 11 grandchildren and three great grandchildren. She has worked in film and other broadcast media since the early 1970s. A graduate of New Iberia Senior High School, she later attended the Univer-sity of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette. Formerly the owner of a dance school, she taught dance for 12 years before she decided, around the time of her 30th birthday, to follow her dream of acting.

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“I always knew, as far back as I could remember, that I wanted to entertain,” she said. “I consider it a gift from God, being able to perform for others for their enjoyment.”

While New York and Hollywood are the usual destinations for aspiring actors, Boudreaux made the decision with her family to focus on her new career in the New Iberia vicinity. She did this by taking the initiative and starting in Radio and TV news.

Adjusting her dance school schedule around her media work, she did some amateur coverage of a 1974 tornado that struck the area.

“I wrote those stories, took them around and then got hired by KNIR radio,” she said.

This led to a position with KANE Radio, and then later  with KATC- 3 TV in Lafayette and finally KADV-15. Her first break in the film industry came around 1990 when she learned, after doing some networking and auditioning, she landed a role in “Jailbirds,” a made for TV movie filmed in Vermillion Parish staring Dyan Cannon and Phylicia Rashad, “The Cosby Show” fame.

“I was ecstatic,” Boudreaux said. “I think they could hear me in my husband’s shop when I called to tell him, I was so excited.”

Following this, Bordeaux began focused more heavily on film work, working for herself on an independent basis and doing production and location work in addition to acting. She also sold real estate intermittently, the flexibility of which allowed her to pursue acting.  Recently she was an extra in “Failure to Launch,” the New Orleans filmed comedy staring Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Her resume also includes other films such as “Dirty Rice,” and television shows such as “America’s Most Wanted” and “Dark Angel, ” a New Orleans set police series staring Eric Roberts, as well as many others. Her work has also allowed her to work with famous musicians such as clarinetist Pete Fountain and Aaron Neville.

Like most actors, she has had to persevere at her craft, sometimes working for nothing as an extra, sometimes working for $150 an hour.

Brimming with hometown pride and enthusiasm, Boudreaux would very much like to see more film and television production take place in Iberia Parish and would love to serve as a liaison between the parish and the entertainment industry.

“This area is a shell with a pearl in it,” she said. “I think it’s one of the prettiest areas of the country. Plus, New Iberia is economical for filmmakers to shoot here.”

To Boudreaux, working in film and television is something anyone can do, if they really want to.

“You should go to casting calls, but be prepared to be flexible,” she said. “I would love to travel the world to market New Iberia to filmmakers.”