Meet Nathan Le of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nathan Le.

Hi Nathan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hey VoyageLA! I’m Nathan; I’m a filmmaker, photographer and media artist that was born and raised the Bay Area in Oakland California and recently moved back to LA to continue to pursue my career in the arts!

I grew up as the only Asian house-hold (Vietnamese) in my neighborhood which brought about a lot of struggle for my family and I. Being in that environment brought a lot of hardship and loss even at a young age. My parents had me very young and lived with my grandparents in East Oakland; they sought refuge in the US during the Vietnam war and found themselves starting a very small landscaping business in the Bay Area. Money was tight when I was younger; after preschool I would get picked up by my grandpa in his dingy landscaping truck stacked high with cardboard he and my grandmother would pick throughout the day after their morning shifts and we would continue to pick up recyclables after until we got home. This continued until my parent’s were able to get through school and began career’s for themselves which helped our family build better lives for ourselves. It was a tough environment but I didn’t really realize it until much later in life that it wasn’t the norm. I’m just grateful and lucky to be here at all and that I had a loving family throughout all the hardship. I had a lot of friends and family passed away due to the violence and anger that is easily cultivated in that struggle.

I was fortunate enough to get accepted into college at UCI criminal justice which pushed me into moving down to Orange County; but really my decision was based on the opportunity to be on my own and pursue film and media arts on the side; something I had always had interest in growing up.

I was able to land myself an internship at the Kinjaz Dojo dance studio in Monterey Park. For context The Kinjaz (owners of the studio) are an international dance team that have had members that have been winners in America’s Best Dance Crew and NBC’s World of Dance; so they’re pretty big.

But my internship had nothing to do with film at all since it was an unpaid internship meant for dancers to learn, take class and be in an environment with industry level dancers; as someone not interested in dancing myself on paper I had very little to benefit from the program. Honestly I was desperate to work and try to establish anything at all for myself so I gave it my 100% hoping it wouldn’t go unnoticed; luckily it didn’t. My manager, Ryan Kim, saw how much I wanted it for myself and put me in contact with some of the film team, VIBRVNCY, that worked on all of The Kinjaz media at the time. With this I was able to shadow established media artists and filmmakers like Gerald Nonato, Jonathan Shih and Nick Kim to learn and gain mentorship from in my first few years of learning my craft and became my home base team even now.

While I was studying for midterms I would simultaneously be giving myself homework for film, photo, design, ect. I was really obsessed with growth and getting myself to the same level as my peers. Sometimes I would commute from OC to LA for a 6 am shoot, wrap and go back to OC for school, and go back to Monterrey Park for another shoot until 2 am haha. It got a little intense but I was learning and growing constantly.

So I went about the rest of my time in college kind of living both sides; my head told me I wanted to be in the FBI, but I think my heart really wanted to be a creative. Eventually I got to a point where the “side” quest of learning the arts began to overtake my “main” quest; and after graduating with my BA I went full 180 into film as a career.

Then COVID hit right as my career was really starting to take off and I was forced back home to The Bay Area. It kind of felt like divine intervention in a weird way; because upon reflection, I think if I had continued to go full throttle in my career with the almost relentless growth mentality I had back then I think it would’ve really been a the detriment to my mental health. Kind of like Andrew Niemen in “Whiplash”. So COVID really allowed me the space and time to reflect and be intentional in my next steps moving forward.

As productions started to open back up I began to work in a lot of corporate productions for brands like Amazon, Google and Twitch while also working with my team on VIBRVNCY in entertainment based productions in Los Angeles like commercials with McDonalds and Nike to music videos with Ciara and most recently being on tour with Jackson Wang from GOT7.

I’ve also been fortunate enough to lead my own productions more in the music realm with artist and close friend, Luke Chiang as a music video and media director.

With how I grew up, I’m just always grateful to be here at all. Something I say to myself constantly as a reminder is ” Everything I need, I have. Anything else is extra.” I’ve been truly blessed with the opportunity to create in general and for the people that I have come across to get me where I am. I’m just hopeful that the work I put out is able to reach anyone who might need it in the same way so many artists have done for me. Still so much I can learn and grow from but excited to see how this return and new chapter in LA takes me!

I feel like I just rambled for like 20 mins I hope this was alright haha

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Well for my career COVID was a huge one. At the time I felt like I was just on the cusp of a breakthrough career wise. I was getting booked consistently and growing in my skills and experience really quickly. It felt that all the seeds I had planted when I first started were finally bearing fruit and then it all just kind of came crumbling down.

I’m sure it was the same for a lot of people too. If I’m going to super dramatic about it, it almost felt like divine intervention. Like a true test to see if this path in creative work was right for me or if I should just stick to my original plan in law enforcement.

But like I said, looking back at it now, it all worked out the way it was supposed to. I think had it not been for the forcible shut down and giving me the time to sit and really revel in my feelings and intentions I was able to realign myself with a direction that felt right for me. Before I was moving forward for the sake of going forward; but now it feels like moving with direction if that makes sense.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Sorry I kind of gave my whole life story in the first prompt haha

But I am a filmmaker, photographer and media artist that does a myriad of niches of work.

I started off primarily in the dance community, which was especially difficult for me being a non dancer. It kind of felt like I was learning two different art forms at once. Learning film fundamentals like lighting, composition, ect and also dance at its fundamentals so I could capture it better. My mentor’s at VIBRVNCY are sort of the pioneers in filming dance within the dance community so it did feel like I had big shoes to fill.

But with that background I think I have a solid understanding of motion and energy that dance knowledge really elevates that translates in my work pretty often.

Nowadays I’m more in the music realm working with a few artists on visual media, directing music videos, event capture ect. But I feel like to be successful in the space I’m in you kind of have to be a bit flexible and where multiple hats to fulfill different niches well if that makes sense.

How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I feel like I’m always open to hearing what people have in mind when it comes to creating things; whether it be together or not. But shoot me DM on instagram @notorious.le and let’s chat! haha

I think it’s just an honor to have anybody stop and give my work attention. Whether it a second or minutes or however long. I think as artist’s we have the responsibility to give people something of substance because they pay us with the most valuable currency; time. So grateful for anyone giving me any of their time at all.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notorious.le/

Image Credits
Artists featured: Luke Chiang, Jesse Barrera, Troyboi, Kevin Abstract

Terrible4u Music Video BTS Group Photo : Ryan T, James G, Brittney L, Isabel F, Luke C