Inspiring Stories from Pasadena

The heart of our mission at VoyageLA is to find the amazing souls that breathe life into our city. In the recent weeks we’ve had the privilege to connect with some of Pasadena’s finest artists, creatives, entrepreneurs and rabble rousers and we can’t begin to express how impressed we are with our city’s incredibly deep talent pool.  Check out the Pasadena’s rising stars below.

Jessica Javens

I spent nearly two decades in banking, working my way from a call center seat all the way to a Director role — while raising four adopted kids, running a household, and holding everything together with willpower and caffeine. From the outside, I looked like someone who had it completely figured out. Inside, my body was keeping score. Read more>>

Christine Khomyk

In December 2024, I went to Kenya and Tanzania and fell in love with nature. The moment I came back I knew I wanted to go back, but this time with a proper camera. So in September 2026 it was a time to start planning another trip and I bought my first camera knowing absolutely nothing about photography. No technical knowledge or editing skills. Read more>>

Amanda Ward

I grew up in southern New Jersey, and when I was in school I always loved anything related to the arts. I was too shy to engage in theater even thought I really wanted to. In my spare time I would always read everything from fiction to autobiographies, even tabloids. I would also consume all types of media such as movies, television and music. Read more>>

Emilie Thorsby

Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It started when I was a child, during a difficult period in my life when I was being bullied. Music became my escape and, in many ways, it saved me. It gave me somewhere to put all the feelings I couldn’t express anywhere else. Read more>>

Ana Gibert

I began shooting in black and white film, with Canon. At first it was a personal passion, that evolved. One day I went to see a band perform ( it was one of the older venues in Silver Lake), called the Shys. Read more>>

Madison Rhee

I haven’t been here to witness all of our story, as I joined the team about two years ago and SS was founded in 2014. Read more>>

Julia Damatin

I moved to New York City to become an actor. After graduating with my BFA in Musical Theatre, I created my brand Actors Are Athletes (@actorsareathletes.) I needed something creative and community-driven in my life while navigating the reality of being a young actor: auditioning constantly, working to make ends meet, and spending a lot of time in the in-between. Read more>>

Ayanna Clark

Today, I’m an artist, illustrator, author, songwriter, and creative entrepreneur. My work has expanded into children’s book illustration, book and cover design, publishing support, and helping independent authors turn ideas that may have lived in their heads for years into actual books. At the same time, I’ve continued developing my own stories and artwork, particularly projects centered on Black women and children. Read more>>

Jerry Hooper

My story begins in 1973, when I was 10 years old, on my first trip to Disneyland. Our first attraction was Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. I was impressed with the Audio-Animatronic figure of Mr. Lincoln. As the program neared its conclusion, Mr. Lincoln stood up to finish his speech. Read more>>

Karen Pisciotto

My journey started in Italy, where I got my first job as a pizza chef in Ancona, a small coastal gem overlooking the Adriatic Sea. That was where my passion for traditional Italian food culture and the craft of pizza making really took root. Read more>>

Skughofey Earl

My story really begins with family, creativity, and service. I grew up understanding both struggle and the importance of helping people. My mother, Cylinda Johnson, was one of my greatest influences. She had a heart for people and taught me that success means much more when you can use what you have to help someone else. Creatively, my journey started very young. Read more>>

April Wilhelm

My journey has been anything but linear. I know what it means to carry a lot through seasons as a single mom, a military spouse, and a working mother trying to build a career while keeping my family afloat. One of the most defining moments of my life came when I gave birth to my baby in Pasadena at just 26 weeks. Read more>>

Gabriella Andreasian

The road to opening my dream Speech Pathology clinic, Speech Perfect Therapy, began with my undergraduate education at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as a Sociology major and an Education Studies minor. From the beginning of my studies, I knew I had a passion to work with children, but wasn’t sure what route to take to follow that passion. Read more>>

Jeff Lu

Like a lot of kids, I grew up playing the violin. I got pretty good at it, but I knew early on that what I really loved was learning other instruments, too, which is how I ended up picking up 5 more: viola, cello, double bass, piano, and trombone. Read more>>

Mandy Chen

My journey in film started with a simple curiosity about storytelling and a desire to understand how stories could connect people across different cultures. I studied Film Production at Michigan State University, where I first developed my foundation in filmmaking and discovered that I was drawn not only to directing, but also to the collaborative and problem-solving side of production. Read more>>

Miriam Yaoska Reyes-Ayala

Side by Side with Miriam: Turning a Journey of Resilience Into a Vision for Wellness My name is Miriam, and my journey to where I am today has been anything but a straight line. I was born in Nicaragua and grew up for the most in Pasadena, California. Family, community, movement, and helping others have always been important parts of my life. Read more>>

Kamo Baby

I grew up in the Inland Empire and have always had a passion for creating and entertaining whether it’s music, videos, clothing, acting, etc. I love creating. But I’ve always had a thing for music. It makes me feel alive. I released my first recorded song when I was 12. I started taking music seriously around 17. Read more>>

Rachel Lee

Getting into art wasn’t ever a problem for me; my parents, specifically my mom, always encouraged it ever since I was a kid through little hobbies of jewelry making, sewing, photography, film, animating, and painting. She would take me to farmer markets, museums, and San Francisco with her each weekend just to expose me to different forms of art and creativity. Read more>>

MARIIA MENSHIKOVA

I started young. At 14 I was spending all my waking hours on the computer, doing digital illustration, making music, watching obscure cinema, and taking freelance illustration gigs, which was still a pretty odd thing to do back then. Read more>>

Caleb Morgan

My background has always been centered around operations, customer service, and solving the kinds of problems that tend to happen when nobody else is available. Over the years, I worked with service-based businesses and saw how much opportunity could be lost after hours. Calls were going to voicemail, customers were left waiting, and truly urgent situations were not always reaching the right person quickly enough. Read more>>

Julie Ban

My love for makeup started around middle school. I grew up with a lot of girl cousins for me to practice on. I attended MUD in Burbank, CA and worked at MAC for 2 years. After moving on from MAC, I was doing a lot of wedding makeup and decided to change my environment while still surrounded by the beauty industry. Read more>>

Lyia Meta

I’m Lyia Meta, and I’m a singer, songwriter, performer, visual artist, vocal coach, author, columnist and producer. If I had to describe myself in the simplest way, I’d say I’m a performer first. Everything else has grown from that. Music was always around me growing up. My father was a visual artist, musical performer, so being around music and musicians felt very natural to me. Read more>>

Veronica Alvarez

My journey into arts education began with a painful rejection that would ultimately fuel my lifelong mission. As an elementary school student, a teacher told me I was not talented, effectively closing the door to my own artistic pursuits. Read more>>

Britney Li

I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. Like a lot of kids who got started, I was heavily inspired by anime and cartoons. I kept drawing as mostly a hobby, all throughout my adolescence until senior year of high school. At this time of the year, if not decided years prior, people were questioning what colleges everyone wanted to go to. Read more>>

Albina Ayhan

The passion for drawing started in early childhood, particularly through painting family portraits. Seeing this commitment, my parents enrolled me in art school. Although we focused more on human anatomy than portraits, it gave me a solid foundation in art history, color theory, and various mediums like watercolor and oil. Read more>>

Samantha Polanco

My career as a hairstylist started when I was 22, although I never imagined that beauty would be where I would find my purpose. I actually rebelled a little and left college because I knew I wanted to do something creative. Read more>>

Maria Nahas

My journey as an occupational therapist started 10 years ago. Prior to that I had a passion for health and wellness, while getting my degree in Kinesiology Exercise Science at Cal Poly Pomona I would also teach yoga classes at several crossfit gyms and dance studios. Read more>>

Sunny Tripathy

I’m still figuring it out, and I’ve learned to love that. Read more>>

Nikita Miroshnikov

I’d use something like this — it keeps the facts from your previous interview, but makes the answer feel more like a fresh personal story rather than a repeat. I started my career behind the camera. Read more>>