Meet Natalia Fuentealba

Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalia Fuentealba.

Natalia, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’m originally from Santiago, Chile and have been living in Los Angeles for three years now. Ever since I was four years old, I have been exposed to the arts. I would always see my older sister paint and draw and that was something that we bonded over when we were young. She was one of my biggest inspirations growing up and I wanted to do everything she did. When I started kindergarten my sister was in 2nd grade and her class was putting up a play and I decided to tag along even if I had to stay after school to just watch them rehearse. The teacher directing the play saw me imitating everyone’s part and decided to include me in their small production. I was thrilled to go on stage with my sister and even more excited for my parents to see me in my snail costume. That was my first time on stage and the moment I realized that I love performing.

I grew up bouncing from country to country due to my father’s work. I had to pleasure to live in eight different countries, change schools six times, and meet people from all around the world. Basically I was born in Chile, had my first steps in El Salvador and Costa Rica, began School in Panama, learned to ski in Switzerland, came back to Central America for 4th grade in Guatemala, moved back to Panama for middle school, did my senior year of high school in Brazil, and lastly moved on my own to the US to get my BFA in Acting for Film at The New York Film Academy. Despite having lived in so many countries, I am Chilean and that’s something many people get confused about when I introduce myself. My entire family is from Chile and I go visit them once a year.

I went to international schools, where all of my classes were taught in English so I’ve been Bilingual ever since I began going to class. I took some French classes in Switzerland but I never became fluent; however when I moved to Brazil my biggest goal was too become fluent in Portuguese before I moved somewhere else. I am currently trilingual, but I would love to learn more languages. Changing schools was hard growing up, but there was always one class that would make me feel at home, Theater/Drama Class. After that first play, I did with my sister I always wanted to be on stage no matter the country I’d perform in and my dream was to one day be the lead in the school play.

When I’d get casted for a role in school, I would create my own props, costumes, and make-up. This was very useful for when I moved to LA and began to study acting for film. Theater and Film have their differences, but thanks to my theater background I was able to adapt pretty smoothly. I’ve been able to grow in my craft through training in scene study, improv, voice over, plus working in various short films such as Brittle, One Chance, The Competition, Checkers Club, and The Key. Recently, I worked in the feature film Pizza and Whine, directed by Maria Capp. This film is currently in post-production and it stars Robert Davi, Teri Polo and Jared Sandler. It was my first experience in a feature film as an actress and even though I had no lines it was one of my most memorable experiences as an actress. Apart from acting, I have helped on set as Production Designer, Editor, Producer, Director, Costume Designer, Screenwriter, Make-up artist and even Casting Director for multiple short films.

Has it been a smooth road?
Nothing ever comes easy, specially when you live alone in a country 12 hours away from your family. I’ve traveled all my life around the world, but I always had my family by my side. When I decided to move out to Los Angeles by myself, I never imagined how hard it would be to be so far from them. I would travel to Chile once a year to see my grandparents and cousins and that was very normal to me, so I thought that seeing my siblings and parents once a year would be easy. I was wrong. The time differences and adulting in general was very stressful without them. I missed them so much, but it really made me appreciate the moments I spend with them. I’ve grown tremendously as a person and as an artist, so I’m glad I took the risk and moved out here to follow my dreams. Three years later, I feel greatly comfortable living in LA. At the end of the day, they are one phone call away. I am eternally grateful for my family’s support toward every crazy adventure or idea I may have.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I’m described as a multi-disciplinary artist due to my ability to adapt and work in a variety of fields. I took IB Visual Arts in High school where I worked on creating paintings and sculptures but theater was always my passion. I incorporated many of my skills as a visual artist in my theater and film work given that sometimes there aren’t enough resources to afford a costume designer or a make-up artist or a production designer. I am known to step in and help as any of these descriptions because I am capable of creating a lot with little resources; however I am mainly known as an actress. I most of my credits are in acting in Short films and small Theater Productions.

Lately, I’ve been working on Alba, a short film I wrote, produced, edited, and starred in. Before I go any further I must say that I had an amazingly talented group of people in my team that helped me bring this story for life: Elizabeth Soto Lara (Co-Director and Co-writer), Julian Bueno (Producer), Vicken Joulfayan (Cinematographer) Sarah Gamazo (Production Designer), Raquel Dos Reis (Make-up Artist), and Michael J. Quick (Composer) just to name a few.

Alba premiered at Warner Brother Studios in February 2019 to a small private audience. My team and I have been working on submitting it the short to festivals in the US, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Brazil Panama, Italy, Russia, Czech Republic and Spain. Currently, Alba is part of the Official Selection for the Silver State Film Festival (Las Vegas), Finalist for the Various Artists Independent Film Festival (Chicago), and Winner of two festivals: South Film and Arts Academy Festival (Chile) and Oniros Film Awards (Italy). The film was awarded Best Fantasy Short Film, Best Student Film; and I won for Best Young Actress in a Short Film. Apart from this Alba won six awards of Honorable Mention in a Short Film for: Female Director (Elizabeth Soto Lara), Art Direction (Sarah Gamazo), Two for Editing (Natalia Fuentealba), Costume Design (Natalia Fuentealba), and Osiginal Score (Michael J. Quick).

Contact Info:

• Website: nataliafuentealba.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natyfuzu/
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9169857

Image Credit:
Yuting Zhang, Fareed Yates, The competition (stills), The Key (Stills), The Key (Poster), Alba (Stills), Alba (Poster)

Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.