Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Tobias
Alex, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I don’t know where it started. I’ve always performed. At home and in public. It took me until last year to take myself seriously and pursue creativity full time. Today, I am a beauty content creator, writer, actress, musician, recreational Filipino martial artist, and overall creative, having acted in short films ranging from horror to comedy. I recently put my writing on screen for the first time in my directorial debut, “You Can Have Them”, spearheading production as the film’s main director, producer, and lead actress. My short ended up winning the FilAm Creative Challenge’s Grand Jury Award at the 2024 FilAm Creative Film Festival and I’m currently seeking and creating opportunities for more film endeavors. In terms of music, my sister, Adah, and I have a band called coemu, under which you can find a bit of our released music. I’m also currently in the midst of writing and recording my EP as a solo artist.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I wouldn’t say it’s been a smooth road. My struggles are, and have always been, with myself. Technically, I started putting myself on the internet at 11, unconfidently singing and overconfidently dancing on Youtube before being shamed hard enough by fellow middle schoolers into taking the videos down. That was pretty much the extent of how much I’d believed in my performing capabilities as well as any probability there was to successfully follow my dreams. Growing up middle class Filipino-American meant learning that art couldn’t feed me. For the next 10 or so years, I’d throw my creativity a bone or two, while protecting my ego, by cutting together music videos and makeup tutorials no one ever saw. Dancing at parties, but never taking a class. Singing in high school hallways, but never into a mic. Joining an improv club, and quitting. And quitting and quitting and quitting, quarter-assing any opportunity to express myself for fear of loving it and failing. In college, I took an acting class “for the credits” where my professor chided me for showing promise and sitting idle. It took until last year for me to decide that my ego has no place in where my dreams want to take me, and I started betting on myself. I began leveraging social media to my creative advantage, and have been lucky enough to gather an audience.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Right now, I am an actress, aspiring voice actress, writer, songwriter, martial artist, and beauty content creator. I don’t think I can call it a specialty, but I’d say I’m currently mostly known for my content creation. I’d like to change that. Right now, I’m most proud of my most recent film accomplishment. Rather than winning anything, I’m proud of even just the materialization of my own artistic idea. It took a lot to get to a point where I feel like I deserve to choose my passions over what I’ve been taught should be prioritized in life. What sets me apart from others, is what sets anybody else apart from anybody else; my identity, temperament, my failures, my strides, and how I decide to tell the stories I feel are worth sharing.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
As much as I’d like to say work ethic or something admirable, I think humor really drives the way I approach and execute any artistic undertaking. It’s hard to even own the word, “success” without feeling a bit fraudulent. But, where there is humor, there is a sense of humility, playfulness, and unique execution. Humor checks the ego and creates a junctional headspace where more minds can converge and relate. Navigating creative execution with humor at the forefront facilitates collaboration and recenters the reason why I do anything at all; I want to have fun.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/godtobias?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
- Twitter: https://www.tiktok.com/@godtobias?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC075p7xacHEEU-rqozuVVmA
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1DdJVgNWTvy8a9cjQ6zkiG?si=nIHYhIXeR7SqQ6n3qsHSXA
Image Credits
Naomi Christie
Eugenio
Justin Varian Jackson
Jordan Jennings
Tiffany Tran
Amber Darbouze
RDC World
