Meet Jessica Chaves of Inland Empire

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Chaves.

Hi Jessica, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My journey took so many turns. Let’s start with the fact that I was born and raised in a small town in Brazil, loved music and was always playing with Barbies, singing and dancing to my favorite music, and creating random stories with my cousins at my grandmother’s house.
I remember growing up and changing my mind about what I wanted to do at least 10 times. At first, I wanted to be a vet because I love animals, until I understood what the job required of me, and I simply couldn’t go through with it.
So I decided to become a model (I know, very different). But I heard so many times that I had great features and was super charismatic, so I would do great in the business… until I had to hear that I was not skinny enough, or tall enough, or white enough… and that can mess with a kid’s mindset, you know! So I left that and decided that I wanted to be an astronaut, because I was so into Astronomy. Well, you need to do a lot of math and learn a lot of physics for that. Scratch NASA from future job sites.
Until I had this one Literature teacher who wanted to do plays about Brazilian books in our school, and it was a requirement for her class. Somehow, I always ended up getting the lead part or a big supporting part, and she was the one who told me I should pursue acting. So I joined the local theater, worked on my craft, improved my singing a little bit, and we did plays such as “Pride & Prejudice”, “Harry Potter Back to Hogwarts: The Musical”, “The Huntchback of Notre Dame”, and lots of comedy skits. I just kept doing that and planning to become an actress.
At 15, I visited Los Angeles for the first time, and as soon as I saw the Hollywood sign, I decided that one day I would live here. But that was until I reached the age of 17 and was applying to acting schools in Brazil, but I couldn’t afford to live in the big city, and my dad wasn’t very supportive of the idea of me pursuing acting, because it isn’t a concrete career.
So then I am 18 and rethinking my whole life. Watched Grey’s Anatomy and fell in love with the idea of being a doctor. Okay, so let’s study to be a doctor. Spent a whole year studying and applying to schools. Got into a couple of public schools on my first try, which was very impressive. Both schools are in different states, and I would have to move all by myself. We find out that my sister has epilepsy, and all I hear is “What if you have it too? What if something happens to you and there’s no one close to help?”. Okay, let’s check the local private school that’s only 40 minutes away. Too expensive. Scratch medicine from future career.
At this point, I was already thinking that I was not meant to do anything that I enjoyed or even had some interest in. But I chose to go into Nursing at the private school because it’s still medicine, but in a different way. And it was cheaper. I actually enjoyed it and graduated as a nurse in 2020 (yes, during the pandemic, I was at the hospital during my final practice year, and it was quite the experience to close the chapter).
Start applying to jobs in 2021. I sit one day with my roommate/best friend, and we are both like, “Okay, we graduated, we should celebrate. We should go on a trip together”. So we start searching for options, and everything is so expensive for two recent graduates with no job prospects. We had a budget, and we had to work with that.
After a lot of searching, we found a program called Au Pair, which is basically a cultural exchange program where you live with a family in the United States, take care of their kids, and you are paid for that. You can study in your free time, travel, etc. It can be a 1-year program, but you can also extend it to 2 years. It was a cheap option; we would live in the USA for up to 2 years and be paid for it. Okay, let’s do it.
So, in October of 2021, I arrived in the US for the second time, intending to make as much money as I could, traveling a lot, and then come back to Brazil and start working as a nurse. I lived for a year with a wonderful family in Orinda, California.
While I was living with them, I met a wonderful man, and we started dating. He had to move to Missouri for med school (very ironic, right?), but we decided to stay long-distance.
In October 2022, I extended to an extra year in the Au Pair program with a family in Long Island, NY. And it was after watching a Broadway show (Aladdin, to be more specific), that my passion for acting reignited, and I decided that I was gonna stay here and become an actress. I started searching for schools and ways to do that.
Unfortunately, I got super depressed in the process, because everything started to feel unachievable. With the support of my boyfriend (because we were still strong, even long-distance), I dropped out of the Au Pair program in March 2023, moved back to California to live at his parents’ house, and started applying to schools. I started practicing auditions, so I was sending out auditions for fun.
In January 2024, I moved to Los Angeles to study at the New York Film Academy (again, the irony, because I got depressed in NY, lol). I had a great time at the school, learned a lot, and had amazing teachers. I graduated from their One Year Acting for Film program. After that, I applied for my OPT and started working. I got a lot of vertical and background opportunities.
Fast forward to June 2025, and I move in with my boyfriend (yes, still the same one I met in 2022). He’s out in Riverside for his school rotations, and I’m still sending auditions and being cast here and there.
In July 2025, he proposed! In August 2025, we got married at the courthouse. We have been living together, and I am still sending out auditions, but I found a new passion, which is training, so I recently got certified as a personal trainer, and I work at a gym near our apartment.
Like I said in the beginning, my life had so many twists and turns, but I do not regret any of it. I have many passions, and I love my life right now, mostly because I get to choose from all of the things I love, and I have amazing people who support me, no matter what I decide to do!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It was not a smooth road. I believe I covered a lot on the previous page, but being an immigrant is very hard. It’s expensive and uncertain.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Right now, I am an actress and a personal trainer. Unfortunately, I cannot afford to be a full-time actor yet, so I had to find a different passion to make money more consistently.
As an actress, I did commercials for a Latin brand called DollarApp (they recently updated their brand to ARQ), movies, and verticals. I can’t say I am known for anything big, but I played a lead role in an independent horror movie, titled “Unholy Song”, and it’s available on Amazon Prime.
As a trainer, I just recently got my certification, so I am currently finding my way into this business.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
I think singing and dancing or playing characters I created for my parents in our living room has to be a very fond memory. They were always hyping me up!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessiechaves_