Inspiring Women : November 2020

Breaking Stereotypes One
At a Time
YOLLETTE THOMAS-WUNDER
Member: American Women’s Club of
Berlin, Germany
From: Born in Jamaica, grew up in
Springfield, MA
Lives: Berlin, Germany
My Life Journey
I was born and partly raised in Jamaica. I moved to Springfield, MA with my family in the 1970s. There
I quickly learned to speak American English. As children, my siblings and I only spoke Patois at home.
I remember being teased at school many times because my accent was different. The kids would
say, “Go back to Jamaica on your banana boat” and I thought, “What banana boat? We flew to
America on a plane. I’ve never even seen a banana boat.” That motivated me even more, to quickly
learn how to speak American English.
After I graduated from high school in Springfield, I
went to New York City where I attended NYU Tisch
School of the Arts, studying Acting, Theater and
Communications. In the Experimental Theater Wing,
where I studied, we did a lot of rolling on the floor,
singing and finding our voices. We studied the
Meisner Technique which focuses on getting the actor
out of his/her head, by concentrating on their scene
partner. Repetition and listening to your partner are
an important part of the technique.
Me aged 16
pub. Bruce Church, the other manager and I
turned it into a “place to be.” Whenever I had
acting work, the owners were always very
understanding and gave me the time off.
After graduating from NYU, castings were going well,
but I wasn’t making enough money to pay my bills. So,
I got a job managing a restaurant named Pageant
near Cooper Union in the East Village. It was an Irish
While I was at NYU I met film directing major,
Michael Johnson from Berlin, who told me, “I
have a script and you have to do this role.”
And I was like, “Alright, cool, give me your
script.” Two years later I saw him in the
theater district and he said, “I have to call
you tomorrow.” I said “Ok, sure, call me,
here’s my number.” He finally called, we met
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