The Valley’s Hidden Gems

Chioma Iloegbunam

I’m from a super small town in suburban Georgia (Grayson represent), and I was also really shy and hyper-independent as a kid, so I often turned to escapism whenever I wanted to entertain myself. I grew really attached to animated films and all different kinds of cartoons and children’s books, and I loved drawing and writing simply because it made me happy (plus I wasn’t too bad at it either), so naturally, I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to pursue art seriously when I grew up. Read more>>

Jordan Pearson

I would like to think I was a performer since I came out of the womb. I got the nickname mover and shaker as a baby because I was always up to something. I was born on the east coast in Richmond, Virginia. As a kid, I wanted to be a pastor, a singer, a lawyer.. anything that involved performance I wanted to do. In grade school, I was considered the “troubled child.”. While in middle school, I was recommended to channel all of my negative energy into something positive. Well, I couldn’t shoot a basketball or throw a football and had no athletic abilities. Sports were definitely out of the question. So, I was forced to do theater.  Read more>>

Joshua Kang

I’m a 1st generation Korean-American L.A. native that moved into a low-income community in the San Fernando Valley at the age of four. I think you start to walk the path of becoming a strange and potentially interesting person when you’re raised by a single mother & an older sister in a social environment where you’re the only Asian in sight. You grow up around a multitude of people different from you who simultaneously exclude, befriend, and challenge you, and all of these flavors get shaken up into an excellent cultural cocktail that you sip on for the rest of your life. Read more>>

Asgerdur Arnardottir

My name is Ása and I’m a multidisciplinary visual artist born and raised in Reykjavík, Iceland. I hold a bachelor’s degree in Art from Iceland University of the Arts and I am currently graduating from the MFA art program at California Institute of the Arts, or CalArts. I moved to LA a little under two years ago, right at the time I was starting my studies at CalArts. I had longed to come to this school for years, so arriving here felt like a moment that was always supposed to happen. Read more>>

Melissa Broughton

My dad was a cowboy and I grew up on cattle ranches in Wyoming and Colorado, so I’m comfortable in the ranching culture. He never owned the ranches, but he worked as the manager; my mom was a rancher’s wife and a waitress. The ranch was just outside Del Norte, a small town located in the San Luis Valley. We were a Hispanic and Caucasian community, farmers and ranchers, and went to school Monday-Thursday, leaving three days for sports and working on the ranches. To this day, Del Norte still has only one stop light. Still, lavender farming in California is far cry from cattle ranching and “cowboying” in Colorado. Read more>>

Maddy Meyers

Born and raised in Los Angeles with both parents working in the entertainment industry, I had big dreams of my own to succeed in film and tv. I interned on a sitcom while in high school, went to film school in Chicago, graduated and then began working in scripted tv. Read more>>

Martin Jerome Manlangit

From elementary to my early junior high days, I explored various sports teams. I tried basketball, softball, flag football, etc, but I was never particularly good at them. When I saw some of my friends in my middle school’s dance team, I wanted to try it out. I started dancing in the 8th grade in my school’s dance team and was having the time of my life. Cliche to say, Dance was my life and would make me the happiest I’ve ever been. For me, it was fun making connections with other dancers, performing onstage, and learning and training in several styles like House, Locking, Waacking, Hip Hop Grooves, etc. We would compete in local competitions throughout my high school years and then went on to compete and perform in competitions like World of Dance LA, Vibe, Hip Hop International and would go on to win several awards. Read more>>

Courtney Ursetti

I began my first career in retail as a sales associate working at Nordstrom in the Midwest. I was going to fashion school and I knew I loved fashion, working with people and finding great talent. While at Nordstrom, I moved several states to be promoted from sales to manager and open new stores. I spent a total of 13 years at Nordstrom and from there, moved into high-end luxury management working for Miu Miu. For several years I continued my career opening stores, expanding my knowledge into different categories from ready-to-wear to yoga and then to a multi-category wellness and lifestyle company goop. My career in retail lasted over 20+ years in retail and then I had a life-changing experience that forced me to leave my life in retail. Read more>>

Alexis Kemp

My Sister’s Scrub came to mind in September 2018. I desired to have my own business since I was a child, but was not sure of what it would be. Growing up, I absolutely loved skincare and bubble baths, so once body scrubs came to mind, it took off from there. After researching formulas, ingredients, etc. I launched my small business in December of 2018. My Sister’s Scrub is named after my personal sisterhood in which every scrub/product is named after someone close to me or contains a sisterly related name such as sissy, sister, and/or sis. Read more>>

Mikayla Hassinger

I was adopted at a very young age. While I was growing up, I had a hard time communicating with my parents. My parents put me in all types of activities and sports to keep me distracted. Eventually, they put me in dance at the age of three and ever since then, dance has been my life. My parents describe dance as my Island of Competence. Where I’m at today in my career is all because of my parents. Dance was the only way I could effectively communicate how I felt. I grew up In Salt Lake City Utah and Dolores Colorado in which both places I was always the only person of color. In both of these places, I was able to find a safe haven through dance. When I moved to Colorado when I was 10, I found an amazing dance studio called Dance in the Rockies. The studio was an hour away from where we lived. Every day after school my parents would drive me and hour there and an hour home. Read more>>

Wendei Melnick Smith

Many years ago, I worked in entertainment as a development executive. I left my last job in NYC and moved back to Los Angeles as I’m a native. At that point, entertainment was very much a man’s world and I didn’t want to take on the persona of the women in VP Studio/Network Executive jobs in order to survive, so I decided to produce independently and needed a way to support myself. I went to school to become an esthetician. I’ve been licensed for close to 30 years now; my website for services is www.peaceofmindwellness.com. In 2010, I began formulating my own skincare line as I had become certified in Oncology Esthetics and I wanted to formulate nontoxic products for the cancer patients I was working on and of course, I’ve always been into clean products. Read more>>

Harbor Party Alex Ellis and Jack Kovacs

Our story began in 2014 as a collective of LA musicians who had been playing together for many years prior. Over time we realized we shared a love of Yacht Rock so undeniable that there was simply no other choice but to form a band and pay tribute to the smooth music of the BigTime™ LA studio scene of the late 70s and early 80s. We started performing at the legendary Rockwood Table and Stage. After that, we shifted our residency to Good Times at Davey Wayne’s, LA’s premiere 70’s themed bar. We’ve since charted a new course that has found us at Lodge Room in Highland Park. Read more>>

David Chan

As an art student, I was always interested in portraits. I had an incredibly drawing teacher, Chawky Frenn while studying at George Mason University. They way he taught us how to draw the body, to depict light, and introducing us to ideas such as chiarscuro was the beginning. It led to lighting and photography for the referencing for drawing projects. This eventually expanded into getting my first camera a Nikon D50 and my first lens. From there I was photographing all my friends. Read more>>

Thea Raskin

I started my career in advertising in account management in NYC and then transitioned into recruitment when a recruiter I met thought I’d be a good fit for their business development efforts. A few years later, I rounded it out with building and growing a creative recruitment division at an executive search firm with offices in NY and LA. From there, and given the market at the time, I saw the white space with folks who were moving out west but the industry wasn’t quite ripe yet, and given my network, I was able to provide under the radar talent for branding, fashion and advertising talent, which was limited at the time in LA. This was back in 2016. Read more>>

Christina Gray

Thanks to my parents’ love of acting and the theater, I grew up backstage and on stage in my small Texas hometown of Baytown (near Houston). Acting wasn’t considered a “real” career option however, so I went to college, got a degree and a high-tech job, and moved to Dallas. Acting was in my blood, however, and that’s when I discovered the world of on-camera acting. My first paid acting job was as a background performer in Oliver Stone’s “JFK,” and even though the hours and conditions were less than ideal, standing on the sidewalk watching a full-blown recreation of the fateful motorcade go by take after take after take…I was hooked. Read more>>

Devin McGee

My acting journey began in elementary school, where I played a motorcycle gang member in the school’s production of the musical “Leader of the Pack.” I vividly remember being absolutely terrified on that stage but also completely mesmerized by the applause and energy coming from the audience. In middle school, I discovered my passion for drumming. My father was a drummer and when I was young, he used to bring me to his band’s shows where I would sit behind his drum set in awe of the excitement, energy and applause coming from the crowd. In high school and college I played drums in several bands; performing in clubs and reveling in that same excitement. Read more>>

Shea Frazee

I was born and raised in a place known more for ice fishing than basketball; Fairbanks, Alaska. Watching Michael Jordan’s peak years were some of my first memories. But in Fairbanks, which is right in the center of Alaska, access to sporting facilities was limited both in quantity and accessibility because of extreme weather. So I shot the basketball through anything I could. Which was usually a laundry hamper or a small, low hoop nailed to a tool shed. Read more>>

Idonteá Richardson

Hammered Nails was created in 2017 to bring awareness to the importance of nail salon alternatives all while empowering women to develop healthier nail choices. We educate women by providing them with information targeting the importance of nail health. Many consumers are unaware of the harsh chemicals they are exposed to when entering a nail salon. These harsh and unsafe chemicals include but are not limited to toluene and methyl methacrylate, which are damaging and can cause issues within the neurological and reproductive systems over the course of time. Therefore while creating Hammered Nails, I sought to eliminate the hassle of fill-ins, long lines, making appointments, damaged nails, and exposure to harsh chemicals. Read more>>

Patrick Devaney

Growing up, I was always drawing and doodling. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an animator. I got exactly one frame finished when I someone told me what “frames per second” meant and I quickly gave up that idea. Storytelling, however, was always something I wanted to do. My dad loves telling the story that the first movie I ever watched was Casablanca when I was two days old, fresh back from the hospital, asleep on my dad’s stomach. Read more>>

Bess Jane

I grew up in Maryland, with both my parents working in theatre. Theatres were my playground and from a young age, I loved creating different characters and doing voices. I started acting classes at Imagination Stage when I was eight years old and fell in love with performing and making people laugh. Throughout my adolescence, I continued to do plays and musicals, always playing comic relief roles. After graduating high school, I knew I wanted to study acting, so I applied only to top acting schools and chose the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After graduating in May 2023, I found Zombie Joes Underground Theatre, where I felt a sense of belonging. I also joined an improv group and discovered my love for improvising. Read more>>

Lily Monge

Hi! My name is Lily, I’ve been a Brow Artist for a little over 2 years now. I’ve always wanted to be in the beauty industry but I had no idea how to get my foot in the door. In 2020 I was presented with an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up and that’s how my journey began.I’ve learned quickly that there is no “smooth”, “easy” or “fast” way in this industry. Everything that has value takes time, patience and hard work. One of the biggest struggles that I think everyone can relate to is building up the confidence within your work. There were many times that I doubted my work, doubted my decision to start my business, etc. but once you start believing and having confidence everything else seems to fall into place. Read more>>

Marta Pérez-Coca

I started in the 2000s with a small camera, family and some friends. I used to write and record small horror stories when I was little. When I was in high school, we filmed a short film, and I became more in love with moviemaking. However, I gave up my passion for a few years to try to focus on a more conventional career pathway. I grew up in a small city by the Mediterranean Sea called Alicante, in the southeast of Spain. When I was 18, I went to college in Madrid, Spain, to study Business Administration. Once I graduated, I started working in finance, but I realized I was not doing what I really love: making movies. So, I decided to quit my job and focus on my dream. Read more>>

Fredrick Leach

I’ve always loved film and TV — I still remember seeing the re-releases of STAR WARS in theaters and falling in love — but I spent most of my early years not knowing that film was a viable career option. I actually went to college with the plan to play sports and go into coaching. When that didn’t work out I went into education and was an 8th-grade U.S. History teacher for three years before the film bug finally convinced me to take a risk and move out to LA. That was in 2015. I started off working at this web series company called Black&SexyTV that specialized in creating content for a modern Black audience — it was a great place to start. I got so much experience as a writer and director there. Read more>>

Catherine Goldberg

It started in 2015 in San Francisco. I was doing marketing and consulting for some of the early cannabis brands. These companies were having a nearly impossible time getting in front of consumers who didn’t visit dispensaries. When recreational cannabis became legal in I knew that people wanted to incorporate cannabis into their big events and I realized that this was a perfect opportunity for brands to make an impression in a joyful and safe setting. Read more>>

Grace Fellows

I fell in love with music as a young child, my dad liked to play country songs on the guitar and he would get me to sing with him, after he died when I was 9, it was a cathartic sort of journaling experience to write songs. I first started writing at the age of 11 and by 14, I had formed my first band that performed around Ventura County. After studying music at Ventura College, I transferred to CalArts where the first version of Towse was formed. Throughout my time at CalArts and after, I lived in the San Fernando Valley, where I released the Towse album “Change” now available exclusively on BandCamp. Read more>>

Juris Anton Tungpalan

Hi, I’m Juris and I’m a BG Designer at Titmouse! I was born and raised in the Philippines. Two years ago, I packed my whole life into two suitcases and moved to Houston, TX to finally be with my wife (we were in a long-distance relationship for 8 years!). After a year with no luck in finding a job in Houston, my wife and I relocated to LA last summer in search of better opportunities. It was my best career decision yet. From a young age, I’ve always loved drawing and coloring. I was fortunate enough to have access to a plethora of ’90s-’00s cartoons and anime which sparked my interest to make my own designs. Seeing characters on their journeys to magical or surreal environments and getting immersed in their adventurous stories inspired my younger self to dream and imagine beyond my little world.  Read more>>

Mike Scully

When I was seven years old, my two friends Cory and Ryan sat down with his dad to watch a special Live Performance of Garth Brooks in Central Park. I can quite vividly picture the entire scene in my head to this day. He was so charismatic. So energetic. So entertaining. I had never been so captivated in my short life and rarely since. It wasn’t long after that experience that I first heard my father’s favorite song, Hotel California by The Eagles. He had been in prison most of my life to this point and watching him light up when it came on the car radio and hearing him sing along with such passion and conviction hit me just as hard as the first time I heard Garth. I asked him if he had heard of Garth and Brooks… I must have been mixing up Brooks and Dunn. He had and was a big fan. Read more>>

Dan Lenard

I’m originally from Buffalo, NY. My wife and grown boys moved out here in 2015. I spent 15 years in radio and television during the 80’s and 90’s. I left broadcasting, sold life insurance for a while, then went back to college to get my high school teaching certificate.I obtained that in 1998 and was immediately hired as a high school social studies teacher in a rural district high school. I spent three years as a teacher, getting my MS in education in 2002. From there, I became a stay-at-home dad and found the time to pursue voice acting as a full-time career in 2003-04. I’ve been doing it as a freelance voice actor ever since. (danlenard.com) Along the way, I developed a second career as a home voice-over studio consultant. Read more>>

Steph Zangeneh Azam

After college, I became a freelance magazine art director working for various publications. It was an exciting time – flying to Las Vegas every two weeks to art direct my team for a city mag. Then taking on a top-to-bottom redesign for Case Western Reserve University’s Think magazine. I learned a lot about self-perseverance in those years, constantly hustling. Then my husband and I decided to buy a house in CA, which meant I needed to boost my income. As a result, I took a job with the state. It was great money and benefits, but the environment drained me of creativity surrounded by gray cubes and dreary meetings. I was depressed, and it started to affect my life outside of work. I stayed for three years, enough time for us to get settled, and then eight days after my fortieth birthday, I left. Read more>>

Hannah Mittermeier

I’m from Pennsylvania, originally — but genuinely, for as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to move to Los Angeles. I remember being five- or six years old, somewhere around there, back when Hollywood Video was a thing. Did you have that here..? It was a VHS rental store. The title might’ve been a little redundant if there were any out here! But I loved it. My family and I would go pretty often (my go-to’s were Scooby-Doo movies and Goosebumps) and I remember there was this one aisle… It was made to look like you were walking down a red carpet, with paparazzi and their flashing cameras painted on the walls. Read more>>

Tianna Holly-Haynie

I started dancing at four years old in my hometown Chico, California. I started off in Ballet, Tap, Jazz and I was in Musical Theatre. I basically trained in all styles but it wasn’t long before I fell in love with Hip-Hop. I began dancing competitively at age eight and that’s when my passion for dance grew stronger. I loved performing! I would study the “older” teens routines and go home and practice them in my room for hours. I knew at a very young age that I wanted to be a professional dancer. As a young child, I knew the choreography to every music video on TV and I remember thinking “That’s going to be me one day!” I would make up routines in my room and not just quick fun routines, I would choreograph to the whole song, rehearse and then perform it for whoever was around. Read more>>

Drew Taylor

I was an incredibly shy child in the company of strangers. So you can imagine my parents’ surprise when I asked to join an acting class at 12 years old. Although I’d grown up visiting sets with my dad (he’s a stuntman), I’d never voiced my desire to work in the entertainment industry up until that point. Finally, the desire had grown too strong to remain mute. For many of my adolescent years, I took classes, made short films with friends, and dreamt of being a working actress 24/7. Looking back, however, I spent too much time dreaming about it and not enough time working for it. Read more>>

Shawna Christian

I am the creator and owner of Tansy! I am born and raised in Los Angeles, California. After running an IT company for more than 20 years, I decided to change careers and open my very own home decor and plant store in Burbank. Practicing on my own home for over a decade, I became a master at creating whimsical, vibrant, worldly spaces overflowing with plant life and twinkling lights. My mission is to educate on the healing nature of plants and to help others create warm homes filled with color and love. Read more>>

LaQuan Wilson

Right after graduating from my community college (Fayetteville Technical), I moved from my hometown Fayetteville, NC to Los Angeles, CA. At the time I was behind the camera doing photography/videography for models, music artists, and labels. Landed an internship at Motown/Capitol Records as an editor. Almost a year later, I decided to break away and do my own thing. I became a Youtuber posting funny and relatable videos. It was not easy because I was door dashing to keep my bills paid so I could focus on building my social media accounts. My sleep schedule was all over the place and eating habits were insane. I’m getting told by friends and family members maybe it’s time to come on back home and get a 9 to 5. Read more>>

Tommie Sykes

Starting a business from scratch is not an easy feat, especially when it’s in a highly competitive industry like fitness. However, for me, it was a passion that started in the most unexpected place – the military. I was deployed in Mardin, Turkey, in 2003, and during downtime, I would lead my battle buddies in an hour workout to stay fit and active. After my military stint, I attended Western Colorado University, where I played football and mentored youth in Gunnison County. My passion for fitness continued, and I always found ways to incorporate it into the mentorship program. Read more>>

Amanda Mazarov

For years, I struggled with work-life balance and experienced burnout despite various attempts to manage stress. I tried working out, eating healthy, and optimizing productivity, but I still felt overwhelmed and exhausted. Then I discovered breathwork pranayama and meditation. At first, I was skeptical. How could something as simple as breathing help me find balance and peace? But as I started to practice breathwork every day, something shifted. I began to feel more present, centered, and joyful. My stress levels decreased, and I found myself better able to handle the demands of work and life. Read more>>

Nick Lux

I did theater growing up and immediately saw that this was what I was going to be doing for the rest of my life. Come high school, although the theater bug was still very much so attached, writing and making short films/sketches was introduced into my daily life. I used to be part of the school news crew called Caiman TV (our mascot was in fact a Caiman), and I met some amazing friends in that class which I still make films with today! Since moving to LA right after high school, my career has taken similar turns. I moved up here from Escondido completely focused on acting. Read more>>

Lava Wu

Before the age of 20, I did not pursue any formal studies in art, nor did I pay significant attention to the field. The idea of pursuing art as a career or entering an art-related graduate program never crossed my mind. However, during a trip to Amsterdam in 2017, I unexpectedly came across the Miffy Anniversary Exhibition, which opened my eyes to the profound impact and aesthetics of art for the first time. This experience inspired me to start studying drawing and painting in my free time, eventually leading me to switch my major from Economics to Illustration and later, Fine Art. Read more>>

Geoff Duran

I grew up in Little Rock, AR in a family of creatives that inspired my love for art. My mom, an avid sewer, made my clothes and introduced me to fashion. Studying Fine Arts and Graphic Design, and foregoing a demanding degree in architecture to play basketball, brought me full circle with fashion. I went from designing T-shirts to working as a stylist at the Men’s Wearhouse and Saks Fifth Avenue where I began expressing my position on suiting. I wasn’t always able to find the fit and fabric I imagined, so I started designing custom clothing under my alias, Geoff Duran. Designing for entertainers like Kenny Lattimore, and athletes like Derek Fisher, as well as businessmen, I noticed they only wore a suit & tie or leisurewear. My desire to solve this overdressed-underdressed conundrum birth my attitude of tieless tailoring. Read more>>

Jacquelyn Davis

I went to a STEM and performing arts high school in Simi Valley, CA and graduated with an emphasis is graphic design, hoping it would help with my career at FIDM, the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles. I entered FIDM in the Visual Communications program to get my AA. Visual communications is a large umbrella term for almost everything visual. From styling clothes and food to window displays. After finishing my AA, I went on to get my BA from FIDM as well, with an emphasis on Set Design and Decoration. While in this program, I began working with small indie projects and student films from other LA schools like the American Film Institute, New York Film Academy, USC Film School and UCLA. Read more>>

Patti Handy

My son was 18 months old when I went through my divorce. To say I was terrified, overwhelmed and emotionally distraught would be an understatement. What I didn’t realize was the mistakes I would make! I’m hoping to turn my painful and expensive lessons into valuable growth opportunities for my clients. After spending a combined 20 years as a Financial Advisor and Mortgage Advisor and having countless conversations with women, I decided to pursue my dream of Financial Coaching for Women. I’m a teacher at heart and I love to educate and empower women with money smarts! Read more>>

Aimee Smyke

I’m a dancer, teacher, and choreographer living in Los Angeles. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio and started dancing at age three. My mother put me in dance classes as a form of therapy – I was born 10.5 weeks premature and needed extra help developing my physical, mental, and social skills. I remember dreading being in a dance class at first. Little Aimee was so shy! I loved to dance but the concept of being in a room with other kids I didn’t know and an adult other than my mom terrified me. As a kid, I was in and out of the hospital a bit because of my Crohn’s disease diagnosis. Read more>>

Lisa Lu

After yet another failed relationship at 46 years old, I decided I needed to take a step back and understand what it was about myself that resonated with this type of human, take accountability for my role so that I can learn and grow. Five months later, I started a little girlpower page with the topic of toxic relationships, it was very innocent girl talk, but during this time I was being stalked, hoovered and harassed by my most recent ex. I remember the therapist saying he was a Narcissist so I did a deep dive and what I learned shocked me. Read more>>