Meet Hunter Phoenix

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hunter Phoenix.

Hi Hunter, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve been an actress, model and voice-over artist my whole adult life. I spent most of my career working in Europe but finally made it to Los Angeles about seven years ago in pursuit of bigger dreams and a new life – I’ve never looked back!

In the last seven years, I’ve had the opportunity to work on projects and with people, I had only previously dreamed about. I starred in an award-winning pilot, started doing stand-up comedy, do voice dubbing for Netflix and have worked on major ad campaigns.

I have also been able to attend a vast array of social events and screenings thanks to SAG-AFTRA and the SAG Foundation. This has all led to incredible friendships and developing important professional relationships in the entertainment industry.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It definitely hasn’t always been easy. LA is an incredible city but can be one tough town. Nobody cuts you any slack here or gives you a break – you really have to make your own luck and find your own way.

Getting started was easy enough, but trying to uplevel to bigger projects and industry alliances has been a life-changing challenge. You really have to dig deep and find out what you’re made of.

There have also been financial struggles that come with being unestablished in a major market, insecurities with being “the new kid on the block” at this point in my life and career, and loneliness with no long-time friends or family in the same time zone even.

But giving up just wasn’t an option! I worked too hard for this and I’ve come too far. I just kept going, and keep going, with sheer tenacity and perseverance. And every step, every win builds that confidence and trust muscle within myself.

I constantly remind myself that I’ve gone from being a small-town kid living in housing projects to living in Beverly Hills….. that’s not nothing! I use to see Rodeo Dr. in movies and TV shows and now I can walk there from my house and usually stroll around the area in my yoga clothes because that’s where my gym is. It’s an incredible transformation and progression!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
First and foremost I’m an actress at heart, and that’s definitely where my passion lies, but I’ve built a strong professional career in voice and modeling over the years. I started both when I was young. Modeling came out of commercials + commercial print work and was a huge surprise to me being only 5’4”! But I have a face and a smile that sells, and that became my real strength.

Voiceover was “accidental”. While I was studying the craft of VO along with doing rigorous vocal training, it was meant more in service to my acting than anything else. A friend of mine at the time worked at a major market radio station and while helping me rehearse one day was blown away by my work and said, “you have to do voice!” I was reluctant, but he helped me pull the materials together and booked me into one of the radio station studios to record my first demo. I found a lot of success in voice work. He really changed to course of my life.

In 2020 I finally started a passion project that had been on the back burner for a couple of years, MyActorGuide.com . My Actor Guide (MAG) is essentially an online magazine/resource exclusively for actors. It’s geared towards helping ordinary people become actors and to help professional actors grow their careers and book more work.

My Actor Guide was born out of my own struggles to navigate the industry with no cohesive help or direction. It was really my move to LA and realizing this was a totally different ballgame from anywhere else I’d ever worked and didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing. I wanted to make it easier for others to pursue the path of professional acting, whatever that looks like for them and wherever they are.

MAG is the go-to guide for anyone just getting into the biz or early in their professional acting careers. While it’s primarily focused on major U.S. markets, because I have worked in so many other countries, those experiences and that knowledge inevitably seeps in.

Today MyActorGuide.com sees about 15,000 visitors per month. The tools, tips and resources empower new and aspiring actors to pursue their passion and follow their dreams. I’m so proud of how this site and community has grown in such a short time and the impact it’s having on people’s lives.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Anything that causes you to grow in life is going to involve some risk. Just following a career in the entertainment industry is a huge risk! You have no job stability or security and no built-in safety net for the times in life when things fall apart…. And they do fall apart.

Moving to Los Angeles with no connections and no support was a risk. Deciding to take a modeling job in Istanbul by myself was a risk. Buying a house online, completely unseen, because I had landed a TV series in that city was a risk.

Risk to me usually sounds like an adventure! And I’ve probably taken too many risks in my life. Many worked out in a weird sort of way and were even fun and inspiring, but there has certainly been a lot of hardship and things that didn’t work out as planned. The only thing you can do is assess, correct and move forward.

Risk implies unpredictability and even a certain level of danger. I wouldn’t be where I am right now in life without consistently taking risks.

Contact Info:

• Website: HunterPhoenix.tv
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/HunterPhoenix.tv
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HunterPhoenix.tv/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hunter_Phoenix
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@HunterPhoenix
• Yelp: https://imdb.me/hunterphoenix
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/realhunterphoenix
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@hunterphoenix.tv

Image Credits
Michael Tari Photography