Actress
RECENT PROJECTS
Principal Role in HBO limited series, “DTF St. Louis” (2026).
Narrator of The Rise of Issa Igwe for Brilliance Audio (2024). Available now!
Dr. Leona Turner on Nat Geo’s “Genius: MLK/X” (2024). Series awarded a 2025 Television Academy Honor and 7 NAACP Nominations.
Ericka in the Musical Theatre Opener for the Beloved Benefit—a star-studded fundraiser for charity headlined by Grammy Award winner John Legend (2023). Article Trailer
Narrator of “Deluge” by Charmaine Wilkerson for Amazon Original’s Good Intentions (2023). Nominated for a Society of Voice Arts and Sciences Award. Available now!
Kristyl Dawn Tift has performed professionally since 2007. Her New York and Atlanta theatre credits include Little Shop of Horrors (Theatre Barn), Native Son (Azana Theatre Company), Violet (Theatre Barn), Just Another Day at the Old Café…(Theatre for the New City), Earthly Delights (Emerging Artists), The Wiz (Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company), Buy My House, Please! (Aurora Theatre), Gut Bucket Blues: Concert Reading (True Colors), The Unexpected Showcase (Alliance Theatre), Brave New Works (Theatre Emory), and Rumors (Renaissance Project).
Her film credits include the African diasporic sci-fi short Clean Slate, the holiday animated short Elf Pets: A Reindeer Rescue, the sci-fi thriller Looper, and the comedy, Hall Pass. Tift has performed on such nationally-syndicated series as “Genius: MLK/X”, “Greenleaf,” “The Oval,” “Black Lightning,” “House of Payne,” and “One Tree Hill.”
She has narrated 13 audiobooks and short stories for Harper Audio, Hachette Audio, Brilliance Audio, and Hachette Audio. In 2021, she won an Earphones Award for Black Birds in the Sky. This book was favorably-reviewed on the Literary Hub Podcast. In 2023, she was nominated as a co-narrator for Best Narration by the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences (SOVAS) for Good Intentions: Unforgettable Stories of Motherly Love.
“Tift’s sensitive but straightforward narration reveals how linked events led to a complicated web of violence.”
“Narrator Kristyl Dawn Tift projects Wells-Barnett’s professional manner through a direct, informative tone. With few pauses, Tift enumerates the occurrences leading up to countless deaths. There is a calm urgency in her voice as she retells this action-oriented, gruesome story. When quoting certain voices, Tift provides a colloquial representation of the person being embodied.”
“...Tift relays all these details and more with an air of grounded calm, her voice maintaining a gentle cadence, even as tensions escalate. ”
“The smooth tones and rich acting of Kristyl Dawn Tift are a delight, and perfectly capture the drama and intrigue of the story. ”