Today we’d like to introduce you to Bia Borinn.
Hi Bia, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a Brazilian actress and TV Host that moved to NY in 2014. I trained there with Harold Gusking, Clark Middleton and Janine diTulio. It was amazing. But after our 2016 Summer Break traveling the West Coast, my family and I were sure that this was the best place to be – as actors and as parents. The climate, the nature, the diversity, the film industry… so we moved to Santa Monica in 2017. I fell in love with West LA. There’s so much to do, so many interesting people. And this dynamic is really important to me because as an artist, I do a bunch of different things: I record Voice Overs from my home studio, I’m writing a web series with a Brazilian lead character, I’m a podcaster, I am a co-founder of a Brazilian Cultural Initiative called “Brazilian Play and Learn” (that teaches Portuguese Language as a Heritage Language)… here I found a perfect place for my ideas to become reality.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
My first year here in the US had more downs than ups. I already had a successful career in Brazil, I left when a TV Series that I play a lead was airing (and it’s still on air in Brazil, it’s called “Experimentos Extraordinários” (Extraordinary Experiments), I was on a theater production… when I arrived here I had no work visa. I couldn’t work. That was strange and tough. Also, there was the language barrier, a toddler, no friends and family. But I knew I had to be here. I knew I had to learn so many things that I wasn’t able to learn where I come from. And I already had worked in poor and unassisted communities, where I learned so much. But the truth is I left Brazil as a white-privilege-actress to become a Latinx-immigrant woman here. This has been a crucial experience for the artist I am now.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m an actress and TV host, but I call myself an artist. I say that because I’d never wait for someone to hire me. That’s why I write and produce theater, podcast, film. I love to work with creative people. Right now, I’m writing a Web Series that it’s about a former Brazilian actress, mom of three, that starts to play characters online to make some money – and feel creative. Of course, it’s inspired in my story (I’m not a former actress and I have only two kids) but this need to write arose in me because we don’t have any Brazilian characters on TV&Film here in the US. Everybody knows a Brazilian, but we don’t see any characters, zero, none! We Brazilian actors have to play other Latinx because we are underrepresented. I’d love to see that change. That’s why I just can’t do nothing. I believe that right now is the right time to begin this movement. Representation matters. Thanks to NALIP and other Latinx organizations, we have more space now. We are seen. And I’m trying to do my part as a Brazilian artist and also as the co-founder of “Brazilian Play and Learn” for our future generations.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I love to eat cold pizza. I would totally have dozens of tattoos in my body if I wasn’t an actress. I have a kind face and voice but inside, I’m pretty much a Betty Davis-kinda-woman. And my favorite actor is Billy Crudup.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.biaborinn.com
- Instagram: @biaborinn
- Other: www.brazilianplayandlearn.com
Image Credits:
Joanna DeGeneres/Alexandre Ormond/Lenise Pinheiro
