As ‘True Detective’ costar Kali Reis’ fame grows, she continues to fight for Indigenous communities

One glance at Kali Reis’ resumé shows that she’s had a lot of success in her career.

Boxing world champion in two weight classes, check. Emmy-nominated actor, check. Starting her own boxing promotion, check.

But that success didn’t come without struggle and hope.

As a proud Indigenous woman, Reis felt the odds were always against her. She never felt seen or represented growing up, and now uses her platform to bring awareness to problems plaguing Indian Country.

Reis, who’s based in South Philadelphia, hasn’t forgotten her past. In fact, that past has shaped her into the woman she is today.

“You can’t really know where you’re going unless you understand where you’ve been,” Reis told The Inquirer. “And for everything that I’ve been through, good, bad and different. I cherish every moment of it. I’ve had low-lows, I’ve had high-highs.

“Having to go through these experiences and to really look back and see how far I’ve come, it’s given me a lot of appreciation for where I am. Everything I’ve been through. These life things, I wouldn’t change a damn thing.”

Reis lost her brother to brain cancer and experienced homelessness. She says she was raped at 12 years old and later turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism.

It wasn’t until she was 13 that she found a new coping mechanism, one that would change her life forever: boxing.

» READ MORE: ‘I’m still me’: Get to know Kali Reis, a pro boxer from South Philly who starred in ‘True Detective’

Growing up in Rhode Island as a member of Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe, Reis attended powwows — traditional Native American gatherings full of dancing, feasting, and singing — where she would bother Domingo “Talldog” Monroe of the Narragansett Indian Tribe.

Monroe was a fighter in the ’90s and sold handmade Wampum jewelry at powwows. After bothering him enough, Monroe hung up a punching bag in her house and taught her a few things. “I thought I was hot [expletive]. I saw the movie Girlfight, and I wanted to be Michelle Rodriguez,” Reis said jokingly.

That moment gave birth to “KO Mequinonoag.” From then on, boxing served as an outlet for Reis.

“You don’t have time to think about ‘Why did that happen to me when I was 12?’” Reis said. “Or why did my dad leave? Why does it feel like I don’t fit in anywhere? All these whys and thinking things are my fault. That all left when I was in the gym. So I wanted to be there more. I wanted to be in that space more.”

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Being of Cape Verdean descent as well as Seaconke Wampanoag, Reis felt as if she “was never fill-in-the-blank enough.”

“As a human being we struggle with that anyway, but when it comes to identity it’s been a real big struggle, since I was a kid,” Reis said. “I would get made fun at school when I had my braid wraps or had something representing my culture. I didn’t really know where to fit in, and then boxing found me.”

Now, though, Reis is proud of where she comes from and even includes her Native roots in her boxing walkouts. Reis, the first Indigenous woman to be world champion, became the WBC female middleweight champion in 2016 and the WBA, WBO and IBO female light welterweight champion between 2020 and 2022.

“As I got more and more momentum I started focusing on the issues people don’t get to see,” Reis said. “Why don’t people know about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women? Why don’t people know about these pipelines getting drilled to these sacred lands and these treaties being broken?

“So I got this mic in my hand; I have all eyes on me. It’s not about me. It’s about we. Instead of talking about how great I am, let’s talk about issues in Indian Country that we need to highlight more.”

Being an advocate for the Indigenous community led Reis to her first acting role in Catch the Fair One. The director, Josef Kubota Wladyka, wanted to tell the story of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). A boxing fan, he was struck by Reis’ story and messaged her.

“He was like, ‘You ever think about acting?’” Reis said. “And I did. But I never knew where to start. But it really started picking at me when we lost one of my brothers to brain cancer. Boxing, for the first time, wasn’t my outlet, because that was our thing. So it wasn’t giving me what I needed to grieve through it. [Wladyka] wanted to tell the story of MMIW, but he knew it wasn’t his story to tell. He’s, number one, not a Native woman, and he’s not from the community.”

Reis played Kaylee, a Native American boxer who is searching for her missing sister. She said the similarities to her real life helped in the transition from boxing to acting. After her first acting role, she was nominated for Best Female Lead at the 37th Independent Spirit Awards.

Earlier this year, Reis was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a limited or anthology series in True Detective: Night Country, in which she starred alongside Jodie Foster. Reis made history as one of the first two women of Native American descent to ever be nominated for an Emmy. (Lily Gladstone, who identifies as Indigenous, also was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a limited or anthology series for her role in Under the Bridge.)

Reis’ Emmy nomination is just the beginning for her. She has a few projects coming out next year, such as sci-fi thriller Mercy, in which she’ll appear alongside Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, and Annabelle Wallis.

“That is crazy that I’m Emmy-nominated,” Reis said. “That will stick with me forever. But this gives me motivation to work harder and get better. It’s awesome that I get to check a lot of boxes as far as being a face that we can see more often and that people like me can feel seen. I just want to tell authentic stories.”

Reis is happy to represent Indigenous people on the big screen, something she didn’t often see when she was younger.

“The first time I really saw any representation was in the movie Pocahontas,” Reis said.

“Savages, savages,” Reis sang along to the song from the movie. “I was like, ‘That’s not who we are. I don’t get it.’ And then, of course, Thanksgiving, you would see all the surface, very wrong depictions of what it means to be a Native person.”

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As Reis continues her acting career, she has stayed true to her boxing roots by forming her own boxing promotion, KOhen Promotions. They held their first card on Sept. 28 at South Phily’s 2300 Arena and featured three female bouts and a title fight.

And if you thought she was too busy acting and being a promoter to go back into the ring, think again. Reis plans to return to boxing. Her last fight was in November 2021, a win over Jessica Camara.

“I’m not done fighting,” Reis said. “I will be in that ring again. I don’t know when. It doesn’t matter if it’s the next six months or the next six years. I will definitely be in that ring again. And who knows, maybe we’ll see a production company at some point too to start producing my own stuff.

“Stay tuned, because I’m not going anywhere, y’all. I’ll be here for a long time.”