Katrina Nelson prepares to inject liquid into toilet paper for a hand-model gigCourtesy of Katrina Nelson Behind every pair of hands holding a juicy burger in a TV commercial is a working actor who auditioned to be there. “For years, I was the Bounty and the Charmin hands,” says Katrina Nelson, one of Atlanta’s hand actors. A member of SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), Nelson has regular acting credits that include Tyler Perry’s film Straw and the television series Criminal Minds. But with the film industry on perilous footing after the pandemic and dual writer and actor strikes in 2023, Nelson says she’s grateful for the side hustle. “Hand modeling was a godsend,” she says. “It [has] kept me in health insurance.” Her many “tabletop” credits—as hand gigs are called—include commercials for Taco Bell, KFC, and Burger King. These are lucrative jobs: The SAG-AFTRA minimum daily rate for a hand model session is $711.80, but Nelson’s experience means she is often paid more. Her feet make her money, too, having appeared in print ads for Birkenstock and Crocs, as well as the Neiman Marcus accessories catalog. Nelson’s foray into the industry began when a hand model with whom she was shooting a commercial noticed Nelson’s hands and encouraged her to connect with her body-parts agent (yes, those exist). She says the agent signed her after declaring her “the whole package: hands, feet, and other parts.” Reaching for a glass in an olive juice adPhotograph by Spencer Vandenhouton Nelson found hand modeling to be an odd but welcoming world. At early auditions, she noticed other women standing with elbows bent, hands sticking up in the air; she learned they were draining the blood from their hands so their veins wouldn’t show. She met a woman who referred to herself as having “girl-next-door hands.” She worked on set with an adult woman whose tiny hands were often cast as a child’s. Beyond simply having long, slender fingers and blemish-free skin, hand modeling demands precision. “If the Bounty script says to wipe up the spill within a specific distance in a certain amount of time, we have to prove it on camera,” Nelson says. To be ready for any opportunity, she constantly learns new hand skills, such as sign language, crocheting, and knife work. The latter came in handy at a recent shoot for Arby’s, which required brisket cutting. She’s even mastered the “cheese pull”: creating the shot of melty cheese stretching, mouthwateringly, in TV commercials. “Too fast or too slow means the sandwich has to be rebuilt while the crew stands waiting,” she says. “You don’t want to be the cause of that.” Her hands have appeared in technology ad campaignsPhotograph by Yu Tsai Nelson takes extra care of her moneymaking attributes. Before a shoot, she applies Aquaphor lotion, sleeps in gloves, and even bathes her hands in a paraffin wax machine for a moisturizing boost. She tries to avoid marring her hands, but accidents happen. “One time, I burned my hand on a curling iron days before a shoot,” Nelson says. She booked a professional makeup artist to cover it up, and luckily the director never noticed. That said, she hasn’t gone as far as to insure her hands, as some other body-part models do. “I still have a life,” she laughs. “I can’t keep my hands in jars like [the ‘world’s best hand model’ does] in Zoolander.” This article appears in our June 2026 issue. The post Katrina Nelson’s acting career is literally in her “hands” appeared first on Atlanta Magazine. ...read more read less