Did you realize that Tasha from the new Geico commercial is actually Nicci Carr from Georgia State?

Nicci Carr (B.A. '21) had almost given up acting by the time she moved to Atlanta from Los Angeles in 2017. Carr's profession wasn't making ends meet, and it didn't appear to be on the cusp of taking off, despite the fact that it had started out promisingly.

As she watched a production film in Woodruff Park, right outside her Georgia State office window, she had no idea the acting bug would hit her again.

Carr is featured in the latest Geico commercial, which incorporates a humorous version of Tag Team's smash "Whoomp! (There it is)," three years after resuming acting.

Carr says of her performance in the commercial, which was released online on Christmas Day and has over 13 million views on YouTube. “It was the best Christmas gift I've ever received.”

When Carr is not working as the undergraduate coordinator at the College of Arts & Sciences' Biology Department, he acts in TV shows and commercials. She is also a Georgia State University student obtaining a bachelor's degree in film with the goal of pursuing a master's degree in acting. She hopes to teach acting when she quits from the profession.

Carr says she's earned more acting work in her short time in Atlanta than she did in more than a dozen years in L.A., where her first job was as an extra on "The West Wing." With credits on shows like "Atlanta," "Good Girls," and "P-Valley," Carr says she's earned more acting work in her short time in Atlanta than she did in more than a dozen years in L.A.

Carr worked as an elementary school teacher in the Washington, D.C., area before opting to seek a career in Hollywood in 2004. She had been performing in community theater and church performances, but she desired to do more.

Carr adds, "I left stability for the unknown." “It was terrifying, but I wanted to realize my dream.”

Carr worked as an administrative assistant at the University of California, Los Angeles, between acting jobs, and eventually earned the master's degree she'd started years before in Washington, D.C. but hadn't finished. She began working as an advisor at the University of Southern California in 2010 after earning her counseling degree.

Though she continued to dabble in acting on the side for the next few years, the grind of auditions not leading to jobs, pilots not being picked up, and ad campaigns being canceled before the ads were shot had worn her down. Early in 2017, she and her then-husband relocated to Atlanta, where Carr accepted a position at Georgia State University.

“We relocated,” she explains. “I had left the business. When I arrived at Georgia State, I was assigned to Langdale Hall. We moved our offices to Park Place in the summer of 2017, and they were filming something outside my window, which fronted Woodruff Park. I heard the director and the assistant director, and I saw the boom. ‘Is it beckoning me back?' I wondered as I looked at the lighting and rigging.

“I felt as though the industry was saying to me, ‘Nicci, give it another chance.'”

She joined with an Atlanta talent agent later that summer, and within two months she had auditioned for and earned a guest-star role on the sitcom "Atlanta."

She's since worked on a number of other shows, including "The Gifted," "Good Girls," and "Dynasty."

Carr — and her dance moves — are now in millions of living rooms around the country thanks to the Geico commercial, which was shot in November. She also claims that she has no intention of retiring from acting anytime soon.

“I’m overwhelmed with gratitude,” says Carr, who will turn 50 this year. “I feel like I’m segueing into the second part of my life. I want to tell people: ‘It’s never too late for you to live out loud.’ I’m living proof. If you still have breath in your body, it’s not too late to live your dream.”