Life & Work with Sean Gancayco of West Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sean Gancayco.

Hi Sean, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up in San Jose, California in a Filipino household. Growing up, I loved video games, animation, and movies. I knew I wanted to be involved with making these stories that resonated with me as a kid all the way into adulthood, but I didn’t really know how I wanted to approach it. I originally split my major between programming and acting, thinking that I might want to be a game developer. Eventually I decided that I loved acting so much more and dedicated myself to that, especially voice acting. I had seen a lot of interviews from voice actors of the game I was playing at the time, and thought that could be something I could do since I already liked doing theatre. When the pandemic occurred, suddenly various studios and acting schools in Los Angeles were offering online Zoom classes for voice acting. Many actors were creating home studios at the time, and I joined in. During that time I met many of my mentors and colleagues that were based in Los Angeles. Suddenly, Los Angeles didn’t seem like an unfamiliar place. So once things settled down, I decided to change it up and move to Los Angeles.

Once in LA, I took up improv classes for fun, but ended up falling in love with it. Alongside voice acting, improv has been an important part of my life here in LA. I do long-form narrative improv, where we improvise full length plays. What’s made living in Los Angeles great is trying everything, creating, and being a part of different communities. From my voice acting, improv, and even PA work, I’ve seen all kinds of people and learned all sorts of lessons. I’m currently performing in and directing a couple improv shows.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Nope, definitely not. Moving to a new city is hard enough as it is, but moving by yourself is just another layer to it. Learning to live on my own was definitely an adjustment, and being able to sit with myself was hard. Being forced to learn about how I can operate on my own, what my faults are as a performer, and how to define myself as an artist were all things I had to come to terms with. Even though I’ve come a long way, those are continuous questions that I work on to this day.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a Filipino actor/improviser.

I came out to Los Angeles to pursue a voice acting career. I currently have a character demo and have a commercial demo in the works right now!

I also do narrative improv where we do improvised full length plays. A couple of my favorite shows we’ve done are “Over There: WWII Stories Improvised” and “Austensibly Jane” (an improvised Jane Austen play). I love the challenge and excitement of narrative improv, and its forced me to stay loose while playing to the top of my intelligence.

I’ve always considered myself kind of a roguish type, learning a bit of everything from everywhere and having fun along the way. Although I stick mostly to voiceover and improv, I always leave myself open to trying things and learning from experience.

I am currently in a show “Heisty Boiz” at Outside In Theatre on 5/30. I’m directing and performing in my show “Cyberpunk Improvised” at Impro Theatre on 6/20 & 6/27.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Me and my brothers made sock puppets in a cardboard box and we did a puppet show in our parents’ bedroom. That’s always been a warm memory of time I spent with my family. I loved the silliness of the wacky sock puppets we made. I think that’s what stuck with me into doing more performing!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://seangancayco.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sean_gan_/

Image Credits
1st Photo – Sean Gancayco, Richard Tatum
2nd Photo – Ted Cannon, Sean Gancayco, Jaymie Parkkinen
3rd Photo – Sean Gancayco, Kiff Vandenheuvel
4th Photo – Sean Gancayco, Natalie Lall, Lena Lamer
5th Photo – Sean Gancayco