Inspiring East LA Stories

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 East LA’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 East LA’s rising stars below.

Aimee Kirby

As a child, I found solace at the edges of things: the woods behind our home, the liminal spaces between what is tended and what is wild. Those margins taught me to see the world as a series of interwoven systems, fragile yet resilient, capable of healing when given time and care. That way of seeing has stayed with me. Read more>>

Genevieve Gaudet

I grew up multiracial in South Louisiana, which was my first experience with trying to integrate two totally different aspects of myself. On my father’s side, I’m one of many grandchildren in a family with deep roots in the Cajun culture and history of that area while my mother is Japanese and Mexican from Southern California. Even so, both of my parents valued self-sufficiency, resourcefulness, resilience, and I inherited a love of making things that were both useful and beautiful. My grandmother was a seamstress while my mother is an incredible fiber artist. Read more>>

Rafael Carmona

I started my fitness journey back in 2009. I attended personal training school at NPTI, where I obtained my personal training/ group fitness instructor certification. The school was absolutely amazing because it helped me gain the knowledge and experience needed to take on clients and coach group fitness classes. I then transitioned to several gyms throughout the Los Angeles and Pasadena area. Read more>>

William Brown

In my mid-20s, dance and I found each other and formed a lifetime bond. Our intimate pas de deux continues today at age 72. How did I get into dance? In short, I had spinal problems, and my doc suggested I take ballet for alignment. It was soon thereafter that I met Terrance Curtis, my soon-to-be life partner who was a dancer. Serendipitous! Read more>>

Melissa Spolar

Rock Coffee and Community Center formally began in 2001 as Reach Our Community Kids, a youth non-profit. Over the past decades, it has provided after school programs for kids and youth, including tutoring, field trips, and social events. Read more>>

Heather McCallum

I am originally an actress and writer, but started teaching fitness classes on the side about a decade ago with Equinox and then became a founding instructor of STRIDE in Pasadena which is the flagship location. Right after covid I began personal training people from a FB Mom group I belong to and it quickly snowballed from there! Read more>>

Joe Gonzales

Of course! I grew up in San Diego, CA and didn’t come from a particularly stable background, so I became pretty observant early on. I was a quiet kid and never really used my voice — I was always watching how people interacted and paying attention to how things worked behind the scenes. Read more>>

Yolie Acosta

My journey has never been a traditional linear path it has been shaped by lived experience, community, and purpose. I began my career in marketing, communications, legal disciplinary compliance and public service, working across media, government, and nonprofit sectors. While those roles built my professional foundation, the defining moment in my life came through true community grassroots work. Read more>>

Christopher Nataanii Cegielski

I credit my parents for introducing me to the world of cinema. My mom would take me to the local Harkins Theater in Flagstaff, and we’d see the latest and greatest films Hollywood had to offer. My dad and I had a different tradition, staying in, ordering pizza, and watching the classics. Without realizing it, they created a curriculum that shaped me. Read more>>

Natasha Stricklin

Growing up in Los Angeles, I began acting training at eight years old. My mom enrolled my brothers and I in a class simply to see if we would enjoy it—and for me, it immediately stuck. From the beginning, I had strong family support, especially from my mom, who guided me with industry wisdom and perspective as I found my footing as a young actor. Read more>>

Conrad Kisunzu

I was born and raised in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago in a small town called Cary, the son of two educators: a mother who grew up in the segregated South, and a father who left the Democratic Republic of Congo on his own in search of opportunity. Read more>>

Kaitlyn Howard

My name is Kaitlyn Howard. I’m from Los Angeles, CA born and raised. Read more>>

Judy Roldan

My journey into event marketing and community engagement has been shaped by both professional experience and personal purpose. After building my career in corporate marketing and event production, I became a single mother and quickly realized that returning to the traditional corporate structure no longer aligned with the life I wanted to create for my family. Read more>>

Janie Trinh

Our story starts with sports, long before Untamed Spirits LA ever existed, and long before we realized opening a bar would become our personality. Stephanie and I met as high school sweethearts through sports. Athletics were always part of our lives, not just something we watched, but something that shaped who we were. Read more>>

Erin Blume

Wow! Where do I start? I began my hair career 20 years ago without any intention of becoming a hairstylist; makeup was my true passion. When I moved to LA, I dreamed big about working in television makeup, but then a writer’s strike hit, and I realized I needed a steady job. I found myself behind a makeup counter, which didn’t inspire my creativity. Read more>>

Raquel Bell

Later I moved to Texas and flew back and forth to New York to tour with my bands. Austin was a great place to meet incredible musicians. In Austin I met Lisa Cameron, a legendary drummer, and had the great fortune of playing and recording with her. And it was there I met Primary Mystical Experience and we started Galecstasy. Galecstasy is a recording/performance duo. We make records, play improvised music, experiment with synthesizers, and we make multimedia installations and films. Read more>>

Crystal Garcia

Hi! My name is Crystal Garcia. I was born and raised in Boyle Heights, California, the youngest of three children of Mexican immigrant parents who built a life here in Los Angeles. Growing up in a Spanish‑speaking home shaped my identity and gifted me the ability to be a fluent bilingual speaker—something that later became central to my career. Read more>>