Daily Inspiration: Meet Venus Leone

Today we’d like to introduce you to Venus Leone

Hi Venus, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I am Italian born, half Afro-Brazilian, raised in Switzerland, hence why I am fluent in 8 languages, which have come very handy in my Hollywood survival. I realized my passion for the arts at the age of four when my mom insisted with a ballet school to have me start classical training and not toddler dance. My sister was the painter and mimicking everything she did, I started painting as well, played flute and sang in the school choir. Although I was told by talent scouts that my skin was too dark for a professional ballerina, I kept working on my skills, but then tore my ACL and ended up studying business and economics while recovering from surgery. That was the time I began recording, songwriting and singing with the Hip Hop group L.U.Squad in Luzern, Switzerland. Later I joined a dance crew called Vanity Dancers, which was connected to the Homeboys at Work and Toma Reggaeton DJ crews based in Zurich. While maintaining a full time job in a business center, I realized that I had to make a decision. Working in the entertainment business was not sustainable for me on the long run, so I started traveling to the USA on vacation. For three years I traveled back and forth taking dance classes at the Broadway Dance Center in New York City and at the Millenium Dance Complex in Los Angeles, going to auditions, picking up little jobs in music and publishing studios. Because I met a lot of American music professionals touring with DJs in Switzerland, I connected with them on my trips and through a lot of trials and turbulence I eventually pursued a career in the Hollywood film and music industry as an actress and singer. Looking up to artists like Missy Elliot, Michael Jackson and Prince, I secretly dreamed of being able to produce and create music and miraculously managed to go back to school for audio engineering graduating as valedictorian at the Los Angeles Film and Recording School, becoming the first elected president of its honor society and interning at Nickelodeon. At the time of my graduation, music studio managers, who happened to be women, would discourage me from trying to find work as a recording engineer, telling me that they would not hire a woman, or would say things like “pretty girls are stupid”. Needing to work, I found a more accepting community in film production and started there. To make ends meet, I also started teaching, translating and accent coaching foreign languages.

Meanwhile I have had the privilege to work on award winning projects, have become a Recording Academy and Production Sound IATSE695 union member, and have gained decades of experience on stage and behind the scenes, as the supporting, the lead, the TV host, the PM, the boom operator, the sound department head, the sound designer, the accent coach, the translator, the producer, the music business professional, the background dancer, or choreographer and many other credits. I have worked with indie productions and big brands like Netflix, Amazon, Warner Brothers and popular names like JLo, Jazmine Sullivan, Megan Thee Stallion, Terry Crews, Anthony Anderson and more.

After three album releases closing a trilogy, I am also working on my fourth album and have a single in this year’s rotation for Grammy consideration.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I have never heard anyone say that their road pursuing an artistic career was smooth. Being a woman of color on her own in this town is very tough. Everything is a roller coaster, from business to romantic relationships, the difficulties with immigration, the existing or not existing support of your loved ones. This year commemorates 20 years since the first time I came to the states. I went to New York for my first dance class at BDC in April 2004 and came to Los Angeles for classes at MDC in September of that year. I had no idea if I was going to be able to come back. I left my job in Switzerland on a leap of faith the following year, stayed 3 months in LA and 3 months in Switzerland for years, constantly gigging and looking for work to finance the next trip. A romantic relationship became abusive leaving me homeless and stranded. There was a time I lived in a tent. It was a tent behind a pool house facing the Hollywood sign, so if someone gave me a lift and dropped me off, they thought I was balling (“fake it till you make it”, they say). Since there was no bus up there and I couldn’t afford a car, it took me 45 min to walk to get to Hollywood Blvd., but I just kept pushing and never complained to anyone about my struggles. There was a time I had a job as a production manager on an Edison Gas commercial that was in DTLA, while I was sleeping on a friend’s couch in Inglewood and had all my stuff in storage in Hollywood. I got up at 4am to be able to catch the bus to Hollywood, change clothes at the storage and be in Downtown at 6am. Discipline and perseverance are the key in this town. You can’t allow the demons to catch you. Many times people have made indecent offers for money that I turned down, because as I always say: “One finds God in LA!” I only go down on my knees to pray and miracles have happened. I see Hollywood as a factory filled with coworkers, managers, producers, directors etc. If you build good relationships in your factory and understand that this is a production mecca, you will find work and a way to turn your creative skills into a business, but if you just want fame, you might become miserable, because there are plenty of hustlers looking for those fame-hungry people to take advantage of. This city makes you re-evaluate yourself daily, but you also get to know your strength and find your purpose in your life.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
At the moment, I identify as music producer, sound engineer, linguist and artist. As a linguist, I get to invent languages (Hall of Slaves, by Savannah Steiner), accent coach actors and singers in various international languages, teach and tutor privately. My accent free fluency in Italian, German, French, Portuguese, English, Swiss-German, Spanish and some Latin have opened many doors and introduced me to the most interesting people. I have accent coached opera singers, translated famous songs into other languages and helped arrange them; I have had the pleasure to teach Terry Crews Portuguese and work with JLo as her Italian accent coach. Sometimes I get two titles on a production like Choreographer and Production Sound Mixer on Dale Stelly’s movie Soñar, or Translator and Voice Over Artist in the Italian, German and Portuguese Maxx The Sock Monkey commercials.
Pre-Covid I was still performing Samba shows with a crew, but meanwhile I went back on stage to perform my own music after a 10 year hiatus. I had gotten burned out doing everything from booking to running the rehearsals, promoting, creating wardrobe, even doing my dancers’ make up and hair, while communicating with production and guests, making sure everybody has drinks and snacks and and and. So with last year’s strike putting me completely out of work and taking stand-up comedians as my example, where an artist is commanding the stage by themselves, I have come back to the stage with my own songs, deluding my stage presence into just me. Thanks to my experience as animation and show dancer, I have proven to be a real entertainer being able to engage any kind of crowd. I am very proud of never giving up my creativity, constantly growing. My new single Besame is a completely different production than any other. I have a wonderful international production crew and can’t wait to show the world what we have been cooking.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My favorite childhood memory is cooking with my Nonna in Italy, when I was still being raised by her. She was a professional chef and made everything from scratch. She would pull out her big wooden board and rolling pin to make pasta and give me two small ones. Growing up, I thought the small rolling pin was for kids. I grew up watching and helping her cook, while she rolled out her dough and sang Italian songs from the 50s. My nonna also taught me how to dance the Twist and Rock n Roll. Music has been big in all of my family’s households. When I moved to Switzerland with my mom and my sister stayed in Italy, she would create and leave a mix tape at my door every end of summer break when I had to travel back to Switzerland. Even my mom has always loved listening to music. She taught me how to put the needle on a record and from there on out, the record player lived in my room. Every time we went on vacation somewhere, she had to find a music store and buy an entire box of CDs. I even learned a little Haitian when I was 12, because we brought a box of Soca music home and I tried to sing along with the lyrics in the booklets. But it all started in the kitchen with my grandmother where I learned that no matter if I am cooking food or music: You don’t need to many ingredients, just skill and patience to cook something extraordinary.

Pricing:

• $350 indie 4 -6 track vocal and 1 track beat
• $169 for a 1 hour private language class

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.venusleone.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/venusleone
• Facebook: https://fb.com/eyeprophecy
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/venusleone
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/swizzpoetry
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/goddess-image-north-hollywood?utm_campaign=www_business_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/venusleone
• Other: https://Imdb.me/venusleone

Image Credits
Photography by Michael Turner
Make up by Diana Chanto

Music Album Cover Picture (gold outfit with butterfly on face):
Photography by Michael Turner
Make up by Brynna Ashley
Outfit by Delfim Atelier (Brazil)