Meet Chris Baris of Kristoffersen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Baris.

Chris, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
So first off my name is Chris Baris and I am half Turkish, German, Filipino and Chinese. I have the dual citizenship I am American and Luxembourgish.

I grew up in Luxembourg one of the smallest countries in the world, and I have four native languages which are English, French, German and Luxembourgish. I always wanted to become an actor and model, and now I am the biggest influencer in Luxembourg. All the big news media did interviews with me and wrote articles. I also just wrapped filming my first movies which are a horror Thriller movie and drama, it’s called ‘I’m Not Afraid’ and ‘Fear Binds’ both movies will be out next year.

I also just booked the cover of a fashion magazine called Obvious magazine, and I’m the first American Asian to ever be featured in it. Also, I almost became the red power ranger for this year’s Nickelodeon TV show I did a four-month casting process and got all the way until the final casting with the producers but ended up not getting it because I’m too tall… lol! I used to play professional soccer in Europe as a kid but gave up on that dream because I always had a passion for acting.

When I was 16 years old, my sister asked what I wanted to be, and I told her I have no clue. I’m just going to play PlayStation and just be with my gf at the time and get a nine to five job. A week went by, and my sister and I started arguing, and I finally told her I always had a dream of becoming an actor. She was finally relieved and said great we can work with that. We gotta move to LA and get your career started. So every summer I worked summer jobs to save money, and once I graduated, we moved to LA.

Everyone in my school my family and friends and even my ex gf were against me and didn’t want me to move to LA. So I broke up with my ex gf and told my parents I would make it and flew with my sister to LA. Thankfully, I have the double citizenship I am an American and Luxembourgish, so I had no visa issues. Once I got to LA, I started modeling for A&F and quickly realized I hated it. So my sister told me I should start a YouTube channel and focus on social media.

That’s what I did I started being more active on YouTube and Instagram because my sister told me it’s a great way to be discovered by agencies and brands etc. my first vlog was when I booked my first commercial here in LA I clogged all the bts stuff and put it online. A week went by, and I had multiple talent agencies hitting me up, and that’s how I got into acting and got signed. No, my sister is my manager and manages my career and my social media.

Basically, my story is about how me and my sister fought together in order to make it in, and now she has her own digital media company here in LA. I forgot to mention my sister is a director and producer, and she always took me with her on set, and that’s how I discovered acting for the first time in Luxembourg. That’s why she’s managing me because she knows exactly how the entertainment industry works. She’s older than me and has more experience and having my sister as my manager is the best thing that could have ever happened to me.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The biggest struggle I had was getting used to LA and being far away from my friends and family. I missed them a lot, and there were times I was doubting myself and if what my sister Jane and I were doing was worth it. I also quickly realized that there’s a lot of competition out here I’m obviously not the only actor and model everyone is just waiting for their time to shine. So my sister told me one day to start a YouTube Channel and be more active on social media that would be a way to stand out from all the traditional actors. And it did!

After a month of vlogging on YouTube I made a video where I filmed all the Behind the scenes of my first Commercial I had booked and a lot of agencies saw that and were interested in signing me without any acting experience. However I noticed that that wasn’t enough just being signed with an agency, I wasn’t booking any commercials or films. I had to improve my acting skills, so my sister helped me to find the best acting classes, and I started working on my craft.

I remember just a little over a year ago a lot of the people who I surrounded myself with weren’t actually my friends a lot of them were just interested in my following or just trying to take advantage of whatever they wanted from me or my sister. We made a choice to change our circle of friends, and we noticed a lot of our friends weren’t in our lives anymore, because a lot of them were just passing by in our lives and not really our friends at all.

Since we made that decision, we only focused on ourselves and our careers, and that’s when I started booking my first movies, covers and growing on social media. I finally found who I was and was only focusing on myself and that was one of the biggest lessons I have learned in my life.

We’d love to hear more about what you do.
As an influencer, actor or model your business is yourself, your image your talent the way you look everything. You are the product! My sister taught me that if you want to be a successful actor, model or influencer you have to understand that you are selling yourself either for movies, sponsorships or modeling contracts.

So I had to first figure out that sets me apart from others. It was pretty obvious, first off my looks I am mixed and could pass as almost anything ranging from Asian to Native American Hispanic, etc. Another thing that made me special and stand out are all the languages I have at my disposal, I speak English, French, German and Luxembourgish and I can work in the US and in Europe.

Those are my strongest points of me standing out from other influencers or actors. For example, I can communicate with my fans in their own language it doesn’t matter if they are in France or Germany or the US I can create content in their native tongue, and this makes me stand out.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
The biggest credit goes to my sister Jane Fersen she is my mentor and teaches me about everything I know until today, she also is my manager and will be the only manager I would ever because I know she’s my sister and only wants the best for me. Hen, I was 16 years old, my sister asked what I wanted to be and I told her I have no clue. I’m just going to play PlayStation and just be with my gf at the time and get a nine to five job.

A week went by, and my sister and I started arguing, and I finally told her I always had a dream of becoming an actor. She was finally relieved and said great we can work with that. We gotta move to LA and get your career started. So every summer I worked summer jobs to save money, and once I graduated, we moved to LA. Everyone in my school my family and friends and even my ex GF were against me and didn’t want me to move to LA.

So I broke up with my ex gf and told my parents I would make it and flew with my sister to LA. Thankfully I have the double citizenship I am an American and Luxembourgish, so I had no visa issues. Once I got to LA, I started modeling for A&F and quickly realized I hated it. So my sister told me I should start a YouTube channel and focus on social media.

That’s what I did I started being more active on YouTube and Instagram because my sister told me it’s a great way to be discovered by agencies and brands etc. my first vlog was when I booked my first commercial here in LA I clogged all the bts stuff and put it online. A week went by, and I had multiple talent agencies hitting me up, and that’s how I got into acting and got signed.

No, my sister is my manager and manages my career and my social media. Basically, my story is about how me and my sister fought together in order to make it in Hollywood, and now she has her own digital media company here in LA. Another huge part of the credit goes to my parents. They were completely against me and my sister, because naturally as parents they would be afraid of us being so far away and not being able to help us.

However with a lot of convincing and my sister convincing them my parents realized it would be best to let us move to LA and make our own experiences and live our lives. Now our parents are proud of both of us and come to visit us regularly on holidays.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chris_baris/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrisbarisss/
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFQGHTZOkVB6wrvGF548FrA

Image Credit:
Jane Fersen, Jerris Madison

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.