Life & Work with Christopher Almeida of LOS ANGELES

Today we’d like to introduce you to Christopher Almeida

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
How I started…. What a great question. Nikki Laughlin comes to my mind when I think of that question. A simple question can change everything as for me a simple question moved my compass in life. 2005 was that year and Las Vegas Nevada was the environment I was living in at the time. Nikki Laughlin in that time was my manager and mentor while I worked for the Wynn Resort Hotel Casino as a sales associate in high end retail learning and building myself in the new opportunity I was given during my 10 years experience in the industry of customer service and sales. Nikki Laughlin saw something in me that I haven’t yet discovered during that time. I remember so well the conversation we had it was direct and endearing. She asked me, Christopher why are you here? I’m not one to be stumped or caught off guard but that very moment I stood in dead silence. Fear is interesting and comforting at times. So my initial response was to be offended. Like what am I not wanted? Nikki Laughlin being the leader she is wanted for me to reach deep inside without shame and just be honest. So our conversation came to a stale mate. The next few days the question haunted me in my most inner Child and spoke for the first time through the fear and total insanity. After I went through those few days I presented Nikki with my second response and it was me handing over to Nikki my note book. You see in my life I had to teach myself how to be anything let alone the authentic me. So a note book at the age of seven served as my blanket to live in and be free. I come from humble beginnings born in Hawthorne, California a survivor of physical abuse mental abuse and sexual inappropriate behaviors inflicted onto me by the family I was born into. I love my family but I am not them. It took me 37 years to say those words with courage and still today I taste tears every time. Nikki Laughlin took my note book and read my heart. She spoke to my heart with encouragement and compassion, Christopher you are amazing! So go be it. That simple statement seeded in me hope. So I used that hope and ended my 10 year career in customer service and sales industry to pursue me Christopher which lead me to the world of Media. Where I have 15 years of experience. The boldest thing I’ve ever done. Especially with the personal trauma and life’s turmoil I was facing at that time and still find myself working through it one day at a time. I had no support from family friends or anyone in this sudden change of direction for my life. Potential is beautiful and spreads wealth throughout the whole environment in which I had but never saw in myself and believed. Since then I have been working on my value as a person. So I used my talent and survival instincts to push through thinking that success in the industry of Media would calm my heart and heal my brokenness. Today I stand before with the honest truth I have never been more wrong in my life. Life has a funny way of laughing with you so you can laugh at yourself someday. I enjoy starting at the bottom learning my way up any ladder I decided to climb. So naturally I put myself out there by working at the radio station Hot 97.5 KVEGAS in Las Vegas Nevada as a street team member. Fun times. I learned a lot. It took me some time to narrow the road of which story I wanted to tell as an aspiring artist soon to be born. So in 2013 I decided to move back to Los Angeles California to put all my energy into the world of Media and pursue me. I’ve been writing since I was seven. I wrote my first poem when I was seven and never stopped so filmmaking became the story I would start in this journey I embarked. This same year my mother sold the house I grew up in and gave me twenty thousand. I took it straight to the Los Angeles Film School and enrolled as a film student. The whole tuition was Ninety thousand which I didn’t have nor was I approved for financial aide. So I promised admissions that if I would be able to attend as a student I would not let them down and be the best filmmaker they have ever seen all I was asking for was an opportunity to be. I got in. Happy times. I’ve never been good student throughout my school life I barely got my high school diploma and never studied anything. But as a student at the Los Angeles Film School I excelled more than I can ever imagine. I discovered gifts that I possessed in which I never knew I had. My time at the Los Angeles Film School came to a quick end being that I had no money to finish. I vowed to use everything I had learned and then some to make sure one day my name would be on some movie poster billboard all over the world. So I did what I knew best to survive in the streets and do what’s necessary to keep going. Before I left the Los Angeles Film School my screen writing professor Linda Cowgirl worked with me on how to write a screenplay. On my last day as a student I met with Linda Cowgirl and she asked me, Christopher why is it so important for you to learn how to be a screen writer? Holding the emotions and tears I stood before her with courage and said, because if I don’t learn how then how will I be able to move on in my life. Linda Cowgirl looked at me and smiled. She handed back my script and said, go be it. Simple words that nurtures the heart. From 2013 – 2018 I created filmed directed produced worked lived my life as filmmaker. In 2016 I was given an opportunity to be a co writer on an actual studio production picture. My heart jumped for joy. I said this is it. I made it. Success! Jim my mentor and at the time was who hired me to work on project taught me the key that I did not receive at the Los Angeles Film School in screen writing. It was how to properly outline a script. Truly grateful. Jim is an amazing writer and storyteller. I’m truly blessed and lucky to have been taught by him. Just as the sails were beginning to take form my life was rudely interrupted. Once again my timeline shattered again and I found myself lost without hope because the project I was working on was no longer available for me. At this very moment May 6, 2016 on La Brea waiting at the bus stop dumbfounded why life was cruel to me I yelled out loud to the sky. Why the fuck don’t you help me! My bad if I never wanted to know you or have religion but if you are what they say you are then why don’t you help me! I cursed at God the Universe Galaxies everyone everything got it. Magic creeps up on you when you least expect it. Because once I had finished yelling. A bus pulled up the doors opened right in front of me and the bus driver looked right at me and said, Son you coming home. I got on the bus and sat in the back soaking my emotions. Half way to where I was staying at during that time the bus I was on stopped and kicked everyone off in a not so friendly neighborhood. So now I’m heated because after that emotional cry I just displayed this is the response I received. Fuck! So there I am waiting like fresh fish asking to be harpooned by the vicious environment I was in. I went to sit down at the bust stop bench and I noticed a hand written letter in black sharpie marker that read How To Confess Your Sins To Jesus sealed in a Ziploc bag taped to the bench. I looked at it and laughed in a very mocking way. Great a message in a bottle how the fuck is this gonna help me. Another bus pulled up so I picked up the letter and got on the bus. While on the bus anxiety was taking over and my emotions were going ape shit. Shame was heavy on my heart and embarrassment. At this very moment I heard my heart speak and I was asking myself a question… Christopher you yell at me that why don’t I help you… And I say to you Christopher, look how far you’ve gone without me. No, help I will not give you but instead will show you something much better then help I want to show you who you really are. At that very moment tears flooded my soul. This is where my walk began. I have never been afraid to jump out of the plane into the ocean and swim to shore because I see it as life is short so why not. I decided to let go of ambition dreams goals everything and everyone in my life at that current time in order to know me Christopher. Once again I’m all alone. I remained devoted to me and confirming the good and bad about me in everything. I had joined a church and studied the Bible. After a few months of bible studies I left the church and kept walking. One day my heart spoke and the joy of creating and writing bursted out of me like I’ve never felt or experienced before. I wrote a pilot script in which allowed me to be offered 1.6 million for my pilot script by the production company Electric Entertainment. So now I’m in this meeting in which I got by a miracle in meeting a fellow colleague June Walton from the Los Angeles Film School at a bus stop on some random day. We connected. He really enjoyed my pilot script idea and set up the meeting with Cynthia Jean with the production company Electric Entertainment. Funny times. I walked away from the 1.6 million offered by the production company Electric Entertainment. Because they told me that I would never be credited as screen writer for my idea or be executive producer. Cynthia Jean asked me what did I want. I responded with screenwriting credit and executive producer credit and before I was able to finish my thoughts… She interrupted me and said, oh that will never happen. Let tell you how it works. I completely froze and analyzed the situation in which I was in. I suddenly began to use what I had learned in my previous years of customer service and sales experience in which that if during a transaction of any kind in which either party uses the words never happen or can’t then there lying to you. Keys keys opens doors. So I left the meeting with the same 5 dollars I had in my pocket when the meeting started. I told myself I’m gonna make I just don’t know how. Since then I’ve dedicated my energy in growth towards the best version of myself through compassion and self love. Since 2018 I haven’t created nor really wrapped myself in the blanket I once wore proudly as an artist. More or less I’ve kept my heart protected from others simply focused on me and my dreams. I don’t know why I agreed to speak to you about this let alone for some magazine article. Perhaps it’s my way of saying goodbye to my past and living in the present with love and peace assured in my heart that Christopher is and will always be Renegade Artist to me with or without the credits in Media. Thank you for the opportunity to share a piece of my heart it’s an honor to be in your presence for greatness is what I see.

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?
No. Dealing with physical abuse mental abuse inappropriate sexual behaviors has hindered me causing Christopher to never be able to fully trust in life.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Writer. I love to create. I’m an amazing storyteller. I’m most proud of my selfies plastered thought my 13 Instagram accounts 5 Tic Toks. I enjoy telling stories. I’m really great at it.

Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
My cousin Lito gifted me my first pair of Levis jeans when I was seven years old along with the Supersonic JJ Fad Vinyl Record. I really miss my cousin he saw me before I did and wasn’t afraid to express the beauty that I am.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1.6selfmade?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/1.6selfmade/