@OlderMomEnergy Jessica HardyKado

Founder of Older Mom Energy

Jessica Kado is a writer, performer, educator, and indie filmmaker whose career spans comedy training, national commercial campaigns, and film festival production — all before becoming an “older mom” with a second act.

A graduate of The Second City Chicago Conservatory, Jessica trained in improvisation and sketch comedy at one of the most respected comedy institutions in the country. She later studied at Lesly Kahn & Co. Studios in Los Angeles, sharpening her on-camera technique and comedic timing for television and commercial work.

Her performance career includes national commercial campaigns for brands such as Dove, Belvita, and Proactiv, along with independent film and digital projects. In a moment that feels on-brand for the energy she now brings to her platform, she also won the Showcase Showdown on The Price Is Right — proving she’s never been afraid to bet on herself.

Beyond performing, Jessica is an award-winning film festival founder (co-founder of the Chicago Comedy Film Festival), a producer, and a graduate-level English scholar focused on storytelling and cultural analysis. She has spent over a decade helping creatives develop their voice — from improvisers to filmmakers to young artists navigating the industry.

Older Mom Energy was born from that same place: voice, humor, perspective, and lived experience. It’s a space where midlife creativity meets unfiltered honesty — about ambition, hormones, parenting, reinvention, and the wild recalibration that happens when you realize your second act might be your most powerful one.

Jessica currently lives in Indiana with her husband and son, building creative community from the Midwest while staying deeply connected to the industry she’s worked in for over 15 years.

Projects in Development

CARRIED AWAY

Feature Film | Drama | 100 minutes
Written by Jessica Hardy Kado

Logline

When a woman sober and settled into middle age unexpectedly reconnects with a man from her past, she must confront the life she left behind — and decide whether redemption means returning, or finally choosing herself.

Synopsis

Nicole works at a senior center, where she is known for her warmth, steadiness, and quiet strength. Years into sobriety and marriage, she appears stable — grounded. But beneath that stability is unfinished history.

When she reluctantly agrees to attend a wedding with a friend, she unexpectedly comes face-to-face with Robert — a man from her past whose presence reopens old wounds and unanswered questions. Their history is complicated: love, betrayal, addiction, and a daughter Nicole once left behind during her darkest years.

As Nicole navigates the emotional fallout of seeing him again, she must confront the story she has told herself about who she was — and who she is allowed to become. Meanwhile, Robert’s life has moved forward, his wife is not the villain Nicole imagined, and the possibility of disrupting multiple lives hangs in the balance.

Carried Away is a character-driven drama about sobriety, aging, female agency, and the seductive pull of nostalgia. It explores the difference between longing for the past and reclaiming your future.

Tone & Themes

  • Feminist character study

  • Addiction & recovery

  • Aging & motherhood

  • The myth of “the one who got away”

  • Emotional accountability

Comparable Films

  • Blue Valentine

  • Manchester by the Sea

  • Marriage Story

FAITH NO MORE

Feature Film | Thriller / Drama | 110 minutes
Written by Jessica Hardy Kado

Logline

In 1980s Indiana, a young journalist investigating a charismatic church leader uncovers a pattern of abuse that forces her to choose between protecting her faith — or exposing the truth.

Synopsis

Set between small-town Indiana and New York City in the 1980s, Faith No More follows Mary, a journalist drawn back into the orbit of a church she once trusted. What begins as a quiet investigation into financial irregularities slowly reveals something darker: manipulation, spiritual coercion, and systemic abuse protected by silence.

As Mary digs deeper, she confronts not only the institution but her own history within it — including relationships shaped by shame, loyalty, and suppressed desire. The church’s influence extends into politics, media, and family systems, making exposure dangerous and deeply personal.

Through shifting timelines and water imagery as a recurring motif, the film examines faith as both refuge and control — and asks whether truth can truly set someone free when it destabilizes everything they believed.

Faith No More is a psychological and emotional thriller about belief, power, and the cost of breaking silence.

Tone & Themes

  • Cult psychology

  • Religious manipulation

  • Investigative drama

  • Feminine shame & autonomy

  • Faith vs. truth

Comparable Films

  • Spotlight

  • Martha Marcy May Marlene

  • Doubt