Portraits of the Valley

It’s more important to understand someone than to judge them. We think the first step to understanding someone is asking them the fundamental questions about who they are and how they became the person they are today. Understanding and empathy are essential building blocks for a better, more compassionate world. We’re incredibly fortunate to be able to ask these questions each week through our interview series. Below you’ll find inspiring interviews from in and around the Valley.

Vero Sanchez

My name is Veronica (Vero) Sanchez Gomez. I am a Mexican graphic illustrator and studio artist based in sunny Santa Barbara, CA. I matriculated from the University of California, Riverside with a B.A. in anthropology with emphasis in cultural anthropology. The work I make is primarily centered in artivismo (art-activism) and aims to highlight and celebrate cultural and socio-political identities. Read more>>

Christine Xiang

Twinkle Land really began with two of my lifelong passions: design and pets, shaped by my time at Art Center College of Design and Babson College. The idea didn’t come to me all at once, though. Read more>>

Jane Kim

I was always glued to the TV as a kid and my fondness for drawing grew from trying to replicate my favorite characters. My interest for art really anchored in during middle school because of my art teachers who shared their enthusiasm and encouraged me. Read more>>

Alex Polydoroff

I grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Berkeley, California — two cities that gave me an early education in the joy of connecting with people whose lives and backgrounds looked different from mine. After high school I spent a year competing in NCAA tennis before something in me needed to move differently. Read more>>

War on Betty

War on Betty is the brain child of Nate Novarro “Cobra Starship” and Kenton Remmey “Silence of You.” Nate Novarro and I met in 2021. My old band was touring with Armor for sleep and Nate was filing in on drums for them. A couple of years later we teamed up to do something different with heavy music…well not different but our way. Read more>>

Christian Osegueda

My official journey began in middle school. It’s a performing arts school that has filmmaking as one of their programs. I’ve always loved movies & photography, so I chose it as my elective. I quickly became one of the top students in the program. My teachers always praised me of my skills, talent, passion, and hard work. Read more>>

Neil Nayyar

My journey into music began even before I was born. While I was still in my mother’s womb, I was constantly surrounded by music, which created a deep and natural connection to sound from the very beginning. As a child, that connection quickly turned into curiosity and passion. Read more>>

Sarah Scott

I’ve always been into makeup and horror movies. I honestly never knew I could do sfx and cosplay makeup until I found my community online and I just ran with it from there. I absolutely love creating characters and turning myself into something you wouldn’t typically see. Read more>>

John Beatty

My name is John Beatty and I am a Director of Photography/cinematographer based in Glendale, CA. Growing up in Kearney, Nebraska, I was given my first camera at the age of six by my parents. It was a cute little Crayola branded 110 film camera that I used to point at our pets, my brother, and my parents, and snap their photos with. Read more>>

Rebeca Dourado

Telling stories with images became my interest while in college, and for my final thesis, I filmed and edited a short documentary about street vendors in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. My journey as a professional photographer had begun, and since 2013 I’ve had the opportunity to work in different photography niches, either as the photographer or photographer assistant on a variety of projects. Read more>>

Megan Blomqvist

I’ve always been a creative human. While I didn’t know exactly where I’d land, I knew I wanted to build a career in a creative field. I studied graphic design, but I’ve always loved photography, drawing, painting, and music. They’ve all shaped how I see the world. Read more>>

Muryem Quadri

I’ve always been creative, but had succumbed to the capitalist pull of “playing the game” in 2021 when I left nonprofit to join a private equity consulting firm. To try and keep my creative spirit alive, I partnered with a friend to open a selfie museum pop-up in Chicago. We’d visited one a few months earlier and set out to create truly immersive art installations. Read more>>

Heather Lemus

I never had an ultimate plan for my life, career-wise. I’ve just surrounded myself with really good-hearted people, and embraced opportunities as they have come my way. I look for the heart in every person and situation, try to be the best I know how to be, and trust that the universe will bring it back around. Read more>>

Tayva Martinez

My first camera fell into my hands in the mid-1980s as a child— it was a 110 film camera. My subjects were childhood playmates, pets, and paused Nintendo games— I always had to prove to my friends that I made it to certain levels. It wasn’t until 1992 that it became a serious thing. Read more>>

Moon Pyinyar

I’ve started in my room as a teenager, making silly YouTube videos and my passion for creations grew from there. I then wanted to learn how to do it professionally so I went to film school in Chicago and that’s where I fell in love with the whole process of productions. Read more>>

Marco Infante

I was raised a little after the ‘latchkey’ generation where both of my parents worked tirelessly to build a better life for our family. And, as an immigrant, I often found myself searching for a sense of belonging. Read more>>

Nishit

Cali Blinds LA started from a simple but powerful realization—I wanted to change the way people experienced the window treatment industry. For years, I noticed a frustrating trend: companies charging premium prices but cutting corners on quality and service. Homeowners were left feeling disappointed, and businesses were stuck with products that didn’t live up to their promise. Read more>>

Caleb Quashen

Well, it is quite a story so lets see how I can best paint the picture in a summed up version! Being in gems and jewelry is such a unique industry, there are a lot of layers to it and growing in such an industry can be a complicated, confusing process that my company and I traverse daily. Read more>>

Danny Zeitlin Gold

It started with a single slide. As a sophomore in college, I enrolled in a course taught by Dan Kammen, a nationally acclaimed clean energy professor. He pulled up an image of a wind turbine with one simple caption: 4 cents/kWh. At the time, I was splitting a PG&E bill with five roommates in Oakland — we were paying nearly 15 cents/kWh. Read more>>

Evangeline Gonzalez

Infinity Circle 360 was born during a time in our lives when everything felt uncertain. I was working as a nurse in a hospital during the 2020 COVID pandemic, feeling physically and emotionally exhausted, while my husband-like so many others during that time-had been laid off. We were both trying to figure out what was next and searching for something that felt meaningful. Read more>>

Narek (Nick) Harutyunyan

Ever since I can remember, I’ve loved driving. By the age of 12, I was already in the driver’s seat, enjoying quiet city drives through suburban neighborhoods with my father as my passenger. My father has been a chauffeur for many years, so you could say driving is in my blood. Read more>>

Joel Sugarman

Joel Sugarman is the creator of What’s New SFV, a growing social media platform dedicated to spotlighting newly opened businesses across the San Fernando Valley. A graduate of California State University, Northridge, where he studied Urban Planning, Joel developed a deep understanding of how local economies evolve and how small businesses shape community identity. Read more>>

Esmeralda Archer

My name is Esmeralda Archer, and I am the founder of StudyPage, an academic support center dedicated to helping students take control of their learning. I am an advocate for the learning process and a disruptor of traditional education, with over 20 years of teaching experience and a mission centered on teaching students how to learn, not just what to learn. Read more>>

Ani YumchadzhyanA

Five years ago, I began my journey in aesthetic medicine—a path that came with a steep learning curve but also immense growth. Balancing work as a new provider with my commitment to continuing education, I pursued my Nurse Practitioner degree, determined to deepen my knowledge and refine my skills in patient care and aesthetics. Read more>>

Al Soulman

My background is in live sound engineering, where I spent years working with musicians and focusing on how tone translates in real performance environments. At the same time, I’ve always been a guitar player myself, which kept my interest not just in sound as a technical result, but in the tools that shape it. Over time, I became increasingly interested in vintage guitar effects. Read more>>

Michele Gruska

I began my journey at 16, spending time in the recording studio and learning the craft of singing from the ground up. From there, I went on the road with various artists, performing background vocals, and later expanded into recording commercials, jingles, and contributing background vocals to albums for a range of performers. Read more>>

Tina Damadyan

How I started in real estate was very much so meant to be yet completely accidental. My father whom I always looked up to went from smaller business owner to fix and flipper to developer prior to the 2008 crash. Read more>>

Precious Enaohwo

Expressing myself through style has always felt natural to me. It wasn’t until graduating from Spelman College where I made the decision to take this natural love seriously. I studied psychology which ended up shaping how I approach fashion today. After graduating, I moved to Los Angeles and began working at the flagship Louis Vuitton store on Rodeo Drive. Read more>>

Natalie Klein

My journey in the child development field spans over a decade, beginning as a preschool teacher and evolving into my work as a behavioral and developmental interventionist. Along the way, I was consistently drawn to the impact of sensory play as a meaningful and engaging way for children to learn and grow. Read more>>

Lindsley Allen

I was born in Miami but raised in small-town Hanover, PA. Read more>>

Pretty Brandao

It all started with me getting sober after struggling with addiction for over 10 years, with the last 4 years being fentanyl. I’m originally from Boston, Massachusetts, and I moved to Los Angeles in 2020, which is where I finally got sober. That was the lowest point of my life, but it became the turning point. Read more>>

Dushaun Thompson

Resilience and a strong work ethic have always been central to my journey. I am deeply grateful for the unwavering support of my family, who have continually encouraged me, shown me love, and instilled in me the value of hard work in achieving meaningful results. Read more>>

Nate Lyles

Blessed to be fully supported by my family from a young age, I was drawn to both storytelling and physical discipline. I found myself magnetically drawn to creativity early on thanks to Mrs. Cora Turlish’s school theater, Mr. Tony Mento’s spoken word class, and Dr. Steven Loy’s comedy class, where I began connecting to character and performance. I appreciate y’all. Read more>>

Viktoriya Skachkova

My journey into photography didn’t start as a business — it started very naturally, almost by accident. A few years ago, while working at a daycare, I began taking photos of the children just for fun, for their parents. Read more>>

Ronnie Marmo

Early 2001, I was new in LA, I literally got the dream job! Duces wild, produced by Martin Scorsese. I got one of the leads! After working at Paramount for a few months, I was feeling how I was feeling before. I needed a community in LA. Read more>>

Christian Ramone

Hi, My name is Christian. Our community recently lost something that meant a lot to us—Weddington Golf and Tennis, which was the only public golf course serving Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Toluca Lake, and North Hollywood. It wasn’t just a place to play. It was where people brought their kids, where friends met up, and where many of us first learned the game. Read more>>

Mym Perry

I started my Photo Booth business when my son was 17 because he wanted to see how a business is actually built from the ground up. He watched me figure it out in real time, learning the equipment, teaching myself new software, and navigating all the behind-the-scenes pieces. He ended up building my website, and from there, he got really into AI. Read more>>

Cat Rodriguez

I grew up in Seal Beach and Long Beach as a naive church camp kid who was curious, then rebellious. At 15, I started getting into a lot of trouble by running in friend groups that liked to party, destroy, rinse and repeat. Read more>>

Bryan Rasmussen

I grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado and moved to California to attend college in San Francisco in 1977. After college at Long Beach State, I attended the American Conservatory Theatre for training. I came back down and started working in theater in Los Angeles. I began at South Coast repertory and did nine seasons there. Read more>>

melody nabati

I started working at 17, right after graduating high school, at a children’s clothing boutique in Encino. What was meant to be a short summer job quickly turned into a three-year experience, and it really gave me my first exposure to retail and the kids’ industry. Read more>>

Darrius Carter

I didn’t stumble into mental health—I grew into it. Long before I had a title, I was the person people came to when they needed to be heard. That naturally led me to El Camino College in 2004, where I took my first psychology course—Black Psychology. That class shifted everything. Read more>>

Anna Miduryan

My journey has been shaped by reinvention and resilience. I originally trained as a pharmacist overseas, which gave me a strong foundation in health and science, but when I came to the United States I had to rethink how I would build my career. Like many immigrants, I learned quickly that sometimes you have to pivot and create new opportunities for yourself. Read more>>

Stefanie Michaela

My path into real estate definitely wasn’t traditional and honestly I think that’s been my advantage. I grew up around storytelling. My grandfather was a pioneer in Bollywood, so creativity and performance were always part of my world. That eventually brought me to Los Angeles, where I built a career in television and film. Read more>>

Jessica Prince

I’ve always known I had a deep passion for working with others—guiding, supporting, and helping people move toward healing. That sense of connection has been a constant throughout my life. I attended UCLA for my undergraduate studies, where I focused on communications across diverse communities and populations, which really shaped my understanding of how people relate, express, and experience the world differently. Read more>>