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.

Alexis Krasilovsky

I was in the first class of women at Yale, starting as a transfer student in 1969, and eager to get into filmmaking once I’d seen Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Weekend’ and other films of the French New Wave. Very few women were making films then. Read more>>

Annabel Maclean

I’m an actor, writer, and now director, originally from Perth, Western Australia, via South Africa and a few other remote towns and cities in between. Read more>> 

Adriana Ordaz

My journey with Pies in the Sky really started long before the business had a name. I spent over 10 years working in the restaurant industry. That experience taught me a lot about food, consistency, working under pressure , and most importantly, how food can bring people together. Read more>>

Londyn Cannon

Elsie’s Cafe began as a small home-based coffee shop in West Covina, born from my love of coffee and my desire to create something of my own. I started small, serving customers from my home and learning the many sides of running a business along the way. Read more>>

Ana Flores

Hi my name is Ana Flores, I am the owner and sole operator of Chucho Mobile Dog Grooming LLC. The story of how I got here and the opportunities that opened up for me start with being granted DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which gave me a work permit. Read more>>

Terry Park

I worked in many different types of restaurants in Korea, but Japanese food was always what I was most drawn to. I worked with everything from Japanese street food to sushi, and when my entire family immigrated to the United States in pursuit of the American dream, I decided to take that passion more seriously. Read more>>

Andy (Xi An) Cao

My given name is Cao, Xi An (曹希安）you can call me Andy I originally went to school for engineering but dropped out after discovering that I didn’t want it as a career. I started acting and had booked a few jobs but my acting experience only came from high school theater and speech and debate, which doesn’t really translate to acting for the camera. Read more>>

Zahira Gutierrez

My name is Zahira, and I’m an alt-pop musician based in LA. I’m Peruvian and Puerto Rican, from Houston, TX. I moved to LA right before COVID hit and ended up having an existential crisis and almost quit music. Through all that pain, I ended up realizing that making music was just who I was. And that I needed to be creative for nourishment. Read more>>

Saidy Salas Yu

My journey in the beauty industry began in 2011, when I chose to pursue a more creative path for my career. While attending school, I worked multiple jobs to support myself, and with the guidance of my parents, I began developing the financial discipline and entrepreneurial mindset that would later shape my business. Read more>>

Selena Ruiz

My story starts in 2012 when I was 16 & lost my mother. Read more>>

Julius Jaramillo

My name is Julius Jaramillo, and growing up, I knew that writing and directing films was the thing I wanted to do. I would watch films with my mom, spanning many genres from film noir to westerns. I also grew up reading comic books which helped my imagination for stories flourish. Read more>>

Ali Blake

Well, I’ve sang since I could talk and it has continued throughout my life. Singing is breathing. I started making up song since I was a kid, too. I feel that there’s music in everything, even silence. So that’s how I started and I ended up here in LA after a lot of bouncing around from NYC the bay area and other places. Read more>>

Dana Parker

I’m a singer-songwriter piano player from South Dakota. In 1995, at the age of 17, I moved to Hollywood to study music and music production. Read more>>

Sammie stage name (Dazer Dabz) Rangel

Business dont always work out but got to learn how to take it as a lesson learned n move on to the next project Read more>>

Dhamar Lambaren

I started creating content because I’ve always been someone who naturally wanted to express myself. Fashion, beauty, photography, storytelling, culture, and the way people experience the world have always interested me. Social media became a space where I could bring all of those things together and explore my own voice. But my journey started long before I thought of myself as a content creator. Read more>>

Lissa Renn

I started The Hive in 2008 which originally opened in Silver Lake. With a barbershop background, I was wanting to bridge the gap between higher end hair salons, and the low-key barbershop atmosphere. Wanting to be able to draw a diverse clientele and make anyone feel comfortable walking in and getting their hair done. Read more>>

Sadaf Asjodi

Like many families, mine wanted their kids to have some kind of skill music, swimming, horseback riding. Somehow, I got stuck with painting.I started with Persian miniature painting because it was my dad’s passion. He loved the incredible detail and precision of miniatures, so he took me to classes. The funny thing is, I never really liked miniature painting itself. Read more>>