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.

Flip Sarta

This current chapter of my path started in 2025. I, like many artists, felt disconnected from digital art in the wake of AI. The desire to make something tangible with my hands was stronger than ever, and I was determined to make a graphic novel. This didn’t happen though. During this time, I was working full-time as a Story Development Executive at FredFilms. Read more>>

Kai M.F.S.

I was born in LA and grew up in Riverside, California. When I was little, I wrote short, illustrated stories and stapled them together, calling them books. I spent most of my time drawing, so writing wasn’t really at the forefront of my mind. In fact, in high school, a number of the books we were given to read made me disillusioned with literature. Read more>>

Michael Sandahl

I grew up in Camarillo in Ventura County, surrounded by a mix of music, nature, and the outdoors. Guitar, surfing, backpacking, and family dinners were all big parts of my life, and looking back, those things shaped a lot of how I see wine today — as something that brings people together and makes you slow down for a moment. Read more>>

Alex Olarte

My name is Alex Olarte and I am the owner of Savage Performance. I’m an in-person & online coach. I started Savage Performance in 2018 and have had the opportunity to transform hundreds of lives through health and fitness. Our mission is to educate, help our athletes succeed and reach their goals. Read more>>

Hadar Shalom

I started dancing at 13 years old, which felt late compared to many dancers around me. What began as a hobby quickly became my passion. I joined a professional dance company and spent years training intensively in ballet, contemporary, hip-hop, and other styles, often dancing every day of the week. As I got older, I became fully committed to pursuing dance professionally. Read more>>

Madeline Hansen

It all started with a college cat, a broken laptop, and the worst breakup of my life. Intrigued? Well the story really does start with my college cat knocking my laptop off my nightstand and breaking it beyond any repair only a few weeks shy of graduating college. I was pursuing a degree in Animal Science with a focus in beef cattle management. Read more>>

Jessica Rodríguez Castañón

Our music career initially began in some of the choirs of the parishes we attended growing up. Our dad had a vision, similar to that of Selena Quintanilla’s dad. One day the Nintendo Wii became popular amongst the kids our age and we really wanted to own one. Dad saw an opportunity and took advantage of it. Read more>>

Gia Shaw

I have lived many chapters. As a former special education teacher, exotic animal trainer, and massage therapist, I have always been fascinated by human potential and transformation. Read more>>

Heather DeAngelis

I’m a psychotherapist specializing in ADHD and anxiety, but my path here was deeply personal long before it became professional. Read more>>

Amy Konheim

I have always been drawn to helping others. That instinct eventually led me to cofound The Boost Method™, a wellness brand I’ve spent the last four years building and will launch within the next year. I created the first products around something simple that had always helped me reset, a bath. Read more>>

Alison Plessinger

I started Effortless Iceland to help share the beauty of Iceland with as many people as possible. While the country is breathtaking, many of its most popular attractions can be difficult to access, particularly for older travelers or those with mobility challenges. Read more>>

John Wallis

I’ve been creating art for as long as I can remember! From stapling together scrappy looking stories with far from eligible dialogue, sketching portraits of the people and environments around me to drawing the characters I saw on TV or video games. Read more>>

Kenneth Mosley

I’ll start with my college career in Dallas at Southern Methodist University. I was a broadcast journalism major and at the time a Spanish double major. I started interning at two nonprofits during school: one was Saint Judes Children’s Research Hospital and the other was a church, The Potter’s House of Dallas. Read more>>

Sharmaine Johnson

My name is Sharmaine ‘Nuenuee’ Johnson, and I am a Los Angeles-based multimedia journalist who is passionate about pop culture, music, wellness, and storytelling that inspires and unites people. Read more>>

Michaela Arabia

I have been a classroom teacher for fifteen years but the entrepreneur story really starts about three to four years ago when I got serious about building something on social media. I was posting here and there for years but it was not until I leaned into a very specific niche that things started to move. Read more>>

Basirat Tobi Badmus

I have always loved fashion, even since my high school days. Even though we had a specific uniform, I would always match my shoes and bags. That continued into university, and honestly, that’s where it all officially began. Read more>>

Albina (@albinasveganfood)

I started sharing my vegan recipes in 2018 after someone asked me a question I couldn’t stop thinking about: “Can vegan food actually be tasty and diverse?” That question really stayed with me. It made me want to show people that vegan food can be incredibly delicious, comforting, beautiful, and far from limiting. Read more>>

Shawntanette Morgan

My name is Shawntanette Morgan, and my journey has never been traditional — it’s been built on faith, resilience, creativity, and learning how to turn pain into purpose. I started out as a young woman with big dreams but very little direction. I worked in customer service, retail, hospitality, and bridal sales while trying to figure out where I truly belonged. Read more>>

T-Bob Bodin

I joke about it being like a country western song! After I’d gone through a break up, moving to a new part of town, the dissolving of a dance company I was in, and having my best friend and roommate move in with her new beau, I felt like I had lost everything and everyone that mattered. Read more>>

Elizabeth Burke

I’ve always been drawn to the transformative power of style and the way it shapes confidence, presence, and identity. My background in Ballet and film is rooted in creativity and visual storytelling. My training as a ballerina gave me an early understanding of movement, proportion, and elegance. Read more>>

Cora Wagoner

I got my start in concert photography back in 2016 shooting local bands and tiny venues just because I genuinely loved the energy and storytelling of live music. From there, word-of-mouth really carried me. One artist led to another, then venues and promoters started reaching out, and by 2017 I had worked my way into shooting music festivals. Read more>>

Leon Farmer

My path into the entertainment industry wasn’t exactly traditional. Growing up, I was heavily involved in sports and eventually felt drawn to the structure and challenge of military service. At 18, I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps as a Communications Specialist. Read more>>

Ren Wright

RenRiot started originally as my solo project and developed into a collaboration, becoming more of a band than a solo artist’s project. Songs evolved and so did our goals as we felt ourselves building something very special. Since then, the local communities seems to really see themselves in us and has really pushed us forward which we are immensely grateful for. Read more>>

Bell Littell

My name is Bell Littell and I’m a songwriter and music artist from Houston, Texas. I’ve been in love with music, dancing, creativity and girlhood since the Disney Princess days. My dream job as a kid was to be a rockstar cowgirl and so I’ve just been headed in that direction ever since. Read more>>

Jennifer Lara

I started my journey as a teen mom and high school dropout who was trying to figure life out while living paycheck to paycheck. I worked in corporate America for a period of time, but after being fired, I knew I had to create something for myself instead of depending on someone else to determine my future. Read more>>

crystal velazquez

Hello my name is Crystal and Ive always been drawn to being in front of the camera it’s something that felt natural to me early on. I love makeup, expressing myself, and connecting with people through content. I actually started back in 2012 on YouTube creating makeup tutorials just for fun. Read more>>

Deborah Ewing

I began Rosehip Ramble in the fall of 2023. I was working full-time and we had just moved to a new home near a meadow preserve where I took my dog for walks every weekend. I loved how the things growing there dried and kept their natural structure. Read more>>

Vlade Guigni

I was born and raised in the Dominican Republic. I started showing interest in music since I was 3 years old. There was a lot of music being played at my house. My father took me to many concerts growing up. Music was something I always enjoyed. Read more>>

David Cohen

Growing up my dream was to be a plastic surgeon. Restoring people’s self confidence through the power of altering their appearance. Going through school I realized that I still had the same goal but I could do it through dentistry. To me dentistry was not just teeth it was a hyper speciality when it came to the face. Read more>>

Lindsey Glass

I have always had a very strong connection to the natural world. Out of high school, I attended Hawaii Pacific University where I graduated with a degree in Biology and then went on to pursue a career as a microbiologist. Read more>>