SV native produces fourth season of web series

Twenty years ago, Kristina Harris graduated from Scotts Valley Middle School as student body president. These days she produces, stars in and directs a web video series titled “Math Warriors” that premiered its fourth season on November 5.
Harris’s career path is an interesting one.
After graduating from Harbor High School, Harris moved to New York City to pursue her acting career.
She attended New York University for her bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts. She studied pre-med and eventually earned her doctorate in philosophy. It was then she began auditioning for plays and movies.
The scripts she was auditioning for weren’t that great, Harris said, so she began to write her own material.
“I realized I could produce my own stuff and then put it online. I could get it out to a lot of people that way,” Harris said during a visit to Scotts Valley last week.
The first season of “Math Warriors” premiered in 2012 and began with a character Harris created in her head who was obsessed with prime numbers.
This character evolved into Felicia, the main subject of the web-series — a Yale University student who lives at home with her single mother. The plot thickens when her mother is sent to prison, Felicia is left with the option to either quit school or pay her own way through college. She decides to start competing in pageants, like her mother did, to pay for her tuition.
Mathematical chaos ensues.
“We’ve got prisoners learning math and we’ve got pageant girls juxtaposed with nerds,” Harris said.
Despite the name, the web-series is not intended as an instructional video and viewers do not have to be good at math to enjoy the comedic episodes. With multiple layers of humor, the show can be enjoyed by families and adults, Harris said.
“I think it’s important that students feel like math and science are accessible,” she said. “It started as something that I thought was funny but has now morphed into a way to help students not be as intimidated by math. And maybe make it just a little bit cooler.”
With more than 1,000 likes on Facebook, Harris’ web series is quickly gaining recognition and she encourages other aspiring film-makers to pursue their dreams.
“Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it,” she said. “There are going to be a lot of people that are going to question whether or not you can do it. If it’s something you feel passionate about and you want to make a story about, you should do it.”
To view episodes from Season 1 to 4, visit www.mathwarriroswebseries.com.
Also, those interested in helping fund the production of this web series may visit Harris’s fundraising website at www.kickstarter.com/projects/2116354588/math-warriors-season-4-post-production-webseries