Mid-Wilshire Inspiration

The heart of our mission at VoyageLA is to find the amazing souls that breathe life into our city. In the recent weeks we’ve had the privilege to connect with some of Mid-Wilshire’s (and K-Town, WeHo, Mid-City) finest artists, creatives, entrepreneurs and rabble rousers and we can’t begin to express how impressed we are with our city’s incredibly deep talent pool.  Check out Mid-Wilshire’s rising stars below.

Noam Makover

From an early age, I’ve been drawn to the expressive possibilities of music across cultures and eras, gradually developing a distinctive voice under the umbrella of ‘jazz’ that merges classical sensibilities, electronic experimentation, folk roots, and contemporary aesthetics. Having grown up in Rhode Island and studied in Miami, I’m a newcomer to the LA scene. Read more>>

Haze Amor

My creative journey has always been rooted in storytelling. Photography was my first love, and I’ve spent over 15 years building a relationship with the art of capturing moments, people, and the things that make us feel something. Before expanding into videography and creative direction, I explored painting, which has always been another part of how I express myself creatively. Read more>>

Joseph Limbaugh

My love of improv is a direct result of my exposure to the teachings and work of Keith Johnstone. As a new improviser in my 20’s I got the opportunity to travel to Loose Moose theatre in Calgary, Alberta and work with Johnstone at the week long improv intensive he would run yearly. Read more>>

Yuna Jo

I spent my early teenage years taking photos and making iPhone vlogs as a hobby, and staying consistent with that passion naturally led me to the freelance career I have today. I was hungry for creative growth and open to any kind of gig that would push me toward the career I envisioned. Read more>>

D’nae Kingsley-Cronan

When I was four, I became an American citizen and asked my dad when my eyes would get big like his. I was born in Seoul and adopted into a white American family. At four, it seemed perfectly reasonable that citizenship might come with a few physical upgrades. Read more>>

Chrissy Maroon

I love telling people what my first job in the entertainment industry was — working the graveyard shift transcribing interviews for Dr. Phil in a windowless basement on the Paramount lot. To me, I felt like I made it in Hollywood. I remember one night in particular, roaming around the lot at 3AM, during a break, and sneaking onto the set of Glee. Read more>>

Red Claybon

My journey started on the southside of Chicago, where I was born and raised. I can remember moving through my high school years with uncertainty about the career path that I wanted to pursue. I didn’t get clarity on that until I took a class called ‘foundations of entrepreneurship’ my junior year, and that changed everything. Read more>>

Meg Wright

Growing up in Texas, I always loved playing pretend and creating little worlds of my own. It was something I naturally gravitated toward as a kid, but I never really thought about acting as a career. Read more>>

Amber Hernandez

I started doing nails in 2020, during Covid as a hobby. I used to love painting and drawing and keeping up with my maintenance so when I figured out I can do both, I was so extremely happy to be able to be creative and show it off on an everyday basis. Read more>>

Larry Woodland

Cookies and Dream started as a conversation with my husband David in 2008. It has taken 17 years to bring this idea to reality. While we debate who came up with the name, we agree that this business pays homage to our families where food was used to show love and care. Read more>>

Julie Sterk

It all started with me wanting to photograph my new born, while I was on maternity leave from my career of 20 years. So I took to the internet and enrolled in a few photography classes and editing classes. I was not looking for a career shift; I just wanted to take nice portraits of my baby. Read more>>

Julia Alexa Antomonova Perez

It all began in childhood—and, of course, with love. When I was little, I loved listening to vinyl records. One day I told myself: “When you grow up, you will definitely release your own vinyl records with your own songs.” I wanted to pursue music, but my mother said that I would study Chinese. And I did study Chinese. Read more>>

Moses Mitchell

I was blessed to have an amazing father who recognized that I had learning disabilities early. He made sure I saw it as my superhero strength, not a disability; he put a camera in my hand at age three, and by the time I was five, it was something I had to take everywhere. Read more>>

Lou Dorado

My background is from the Railroad industry in operations truth be told how I walked into digital Productions was not intentional ok? It started with a divorce from my ex-husband which we both ran a security systems business which I went to school and worked part time to get the business up and going OK? Read more>>

Catherine Mosier-Mills

I grew up outside of Philadelphia and went to college at Pomona College, where I majored in Media Studies. I spent my summers interning at various production companies before landing a job in post-production for unscripted TV. Read more>>

Diana De Lorenzi

I started my journey as a travel and lifestyle storyteller in 2013, turning my passion for photography, design, and discovering the world into my profession. With a background in Building Engineering and Architecture, I bring a distinctive visual perspective to storytelling. Read more>>

Tyler Jacobson

I am a professional circus artist who has performed around the country on over ten national touring contracts, but my story starts in an unassuming way. I come from Redlands, home of the Great Y Circus, which my parents enrolled me in as an after school program to keep me busy in high school. Read more>>

Macy Ring

Cesar Chavez once said, “The people who give you their food give you their heart.” Being a first-generation Cambodian-American, communicating with my mother was always difficult because my first language is English, not actually Khmer. However, I never questioned if my mother loves me. Her love language has always been acts of service, specifically through food and cooking for others. Read more>>

Mia Dawes

My journey has really been about embracing all the different sides of myself and finding ways to bring them together. I’m originally from Los Angeles, and I’ve always been drawn to creativity, culture, fitness, and building community. That curiosity eventually led me to New York City, where I pursued my master’s in Integrated Marketing at NYU, specializing in brand management. Read more>>

Rohini Walker

I guess I’ll start my story from when my husband and I moved to the California high desert from London, England 13 years ago – because land and place plays a huge part in what I do and who I am today. Read more>>

Jonah Kest

I was born into yoga, quite literally. My father, Jonny Kest, was one of the pioneers of bringing modern vinyasa yoga to the West, so movement, breath, and mindfulness were a big part of my upbringing. But growing up around yoga and finding my own relationship with it were two very different things. Read more>>

Pedro Pablo Cámara Toldos

My journey in music began within my own family. I grew up surrounded by music, as both my grandfather and my uncle were saxophonists, and music was a natural part of our family life. Read more>>

Randal Thurston

I grew up in the south coast of Massachusetts and attended a state university about a half hour from home. Most of the themes I’ve explored and the significant relationships I’ve shared for the last 40 years were developed there. Read more>>

Elizabeth DiAlto Figueroa

I’ve had a pretty unconventional path, although looking back, I can see how everything has been connected. I’m a native New Yorker, and I spent much of my twenties building a career in sales before transitioning into fitness in 2008. Read more>>

Sasinun Kladpetch

asinun Kladpetch Sasinun Kladpetch is a San Francisco based multimedia artist. She was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand. Kladpetch received her Bachelor’s degree in Decorative Art at Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. In 2016 she graduated with a Master’s degree from San Francisco Art Institute, California. Her works reflect the beauty of nature that has been hidden among urban living. Read more>>

Yingying Zhu

My journey in design has been a continuous exploration of how visual language shapes the way we understand the world and connect with one another. I’ve always been fascinated by the ability of graphic design to give form to abstract ideas, bridge different cultures, and make complex concepts accessible through seemingly simple visual expressions. Read more>>

Aash Durg

It is hard for me to pinpoint where exactly my artistic journey began, though I recall being enamored and engulfed with sounds that deeply rooted themselves in my subconscious from a young age. Growing up between Austin, Texas, and Bengaluru, India, I had a decent exposure to both Western and Indian music. Read more>>

melissa santos

My background is in dance and performing, so connecting with an audience has been part of my life for a long time. In 2014, I started ring announcing, which opened the door to a career in professional wrestling and live entertainment. Through my work with Lucha Underground and Impact Wrestling and AEW. Read more>>

Kazuto Shimomura

Both my father and grandfather were craftsmen who carved wood to make wooden boxes and traditional Japanese decorative pieces. Because of that, I always thought I’d like to work in craftsmanship or make things myself. But when I was a teenager, I got really into fashion. Read more>>

Chrome Masugina

From making masks in the back of my car, to now having a safe space to freely create the things that I love, my brand NBN holds a strong testament of perseverance through adversity. Read more>>

Kourtnee Monroe

I’ve never been one to play it small. Back home in Texas, I was the girl everyone called ‘ambitious,’ the one with dreams that seemed too big for a small town, and eventually, Texas simply couldn’t hold them. My start came from a leap of faith. Read more>>

Machiran

I’m Machiran, a Cuban singer, songwriter, and performer, born on July 19, 1998, in Santos Suárez, Havana. For as long as I can remember, I’ve known I wanted to be an artist. As a child I danced and acted, but at eight years old, the first time I stepped onto a stage to sing, I discovered that my voice would be my path. Read more>>

RICHIE PESO

I started making music to impress some of my friends at the time. I also lost my brother so it was my only escape from certain issues I was dealing with my with in real life. My uncle showed me how to make songs and taught me how to promote and I’ve been hooked ever since. Read more>>

Jeremy Fish

I moved to San Francisco in 1994 to attend SFAI, the oldest art school on the west coast. I landed a great job in the skateboard industry, screen printing and designing graphics. From there I was able to build following for my artwork, and have been showing my work in galleries and museums around the world ever since. Read more>>

COVERBOY TTG

NAJEE CHANDLER COVERBOYTTG Artist. Entrepreneur. Executive. Creative Visionary. Najee Chandler, professionally known as COVERBOYTTG, is a multidisciplinary recording artist, entrepreneur, fashion designer, entertainment executive, creative director, and business strategist building at the intersection of music, fashion, film, television, and enterprise. Read more>>

Sasha Kendall

I started dancing as soon as I could walk – there was nothing else I would have rather been doing. Once graduating school I went on to train and study full-time in performing arts before beginning to freelance as an artist. I worked on gigs, music videos, creative direction and in film & TV in Australia before my first contract in the Cabaret world. Read more>>

Adam Sarr

I started creating content because I genuinely enjoyed making videos and entertaining people. In the beginning, I was making skits, relatable videos, and those “DM this to someone” types of videos. I was experimenting with different ideas, figuring out what people connected with, and learning as I went. Over time, I started taking content creation more seriously. Read more>>

Amy Beavington

I’ve been connected to the spirit world for as long as I can remember. As a child, seeing and experiencing spirit was simply part of my everyday life. It wasn’t something I necessarily understood, but it was something I always knew. For much of my life, I kept that part of myself relatively private. Read more>>

Ian Peterman

My story really starts with my family, I grew up completely immersed in a mix of design, engineering, accounting, and entrepreneurship. You could say building things was just in my DNA. By the time I was 12, my brother and I actually started our first business together making greeting cards. Read more>>

Via Li

My path to painting developed while I was studying illustration at SCAD, where I earned my MFA in 2022. I had planned to continue as a freelance illustrator, but working directly with paint, charcoal, and canvas became increasingly important to me. After balancing illustration, teaching, and my studio practice, I shifted my focus to painting full time this year. Read more>>

Heather Wilde

I went to Cornell to study the science of consciousness and what makes us human Neurobiology for nature – and sociology for nurture. I was disillusioned by my fellow premed students’ greed and desire for power, and switched to researching pharmacology and ethnobotany; how native peoples use plants for medicine for innovative drug creation. Read more>>

Manuel Perugini

I am a chemist by training, and for a long time, my life was guided by logic and rational thinking. Over time, however, I discovered a creative side of myself that I had kept hidden for years. Photography and 3D printing became two ways to express that creativity. Read more>>

Coco Perez

Hello, my name is Coco Perez, and this is my story as a singer/model. I was born with a musical ear because of my grandfather. When I was a baby, my grandpa used to sing to me. The song he used to sing was ‘Me Gusta Mucho’ by Rocío Dúrcal. She was one of the greatest mariachi singers in her time. Read more>>

Isaiah Ferguson

Hi! I’m Isaiah Ferguson, and I am an artist, animator and musician from and based in Los Angeles. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always loved to draw – in fact, I often got in trouble for it in grade school! I found doodling in the margins of my classwork pages far more interesting than any math lesson. Read more>>

Erika Brulé

For 20+ years, I worked in experiential marketing, creating live experiences for brands including Apple and Airbnb. I eventually became Vice President of Events + Talent Relations at Hulu. I built that career as a Black woman without a college degree, and I was proud of it. My work was about creating experiences that made people feel something. Read more>>