Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandi Aguilar.
Alright, so thank you so much for joining us again. To kick things off, can you tell our readers a bit about your story and how you got started?
I talk about my story and how I got started in the acting business in my first article with Voyage L.A. from 2018 – which you can read here at this link! – https://voyagela.com/interview/meet-brandi-aguilar-brandi-aguilar-santa-clarita/
But for people reading that may feel too lazy to copy and paste the article link, here is the short, condensed version of how I got started acting 🙂
I was born and raised in LA. At the age of ten, I started modeling for chain stores such as Stein-Mart, and doing TV commercials for Eggo Waffles, and did Discovery Kids..and a movie. I also did theatre workshops for shows such as Bugsy Malone, Into the Woods, A Midsummer Nights Dream Musical, etc. Then I turned 18 and started kind of managing my own acting career. I’ve been in music videos for Yellowcard and Sadie Jemmett…I did a movie called Clickbait, available on nearly all streaming platforms, and My performance in Clickbait won me Best Supporting Actress at the San Diego Fantastic Film Festival. I was up against about six other actresses, some pretty famous, and I still can not believe I won! I am proud of all the TV shows, movies, commercials and stage plays I have been blessed to be in throughout my career. It doesn’t seem real! I do voiceovers as well. I loveeeee it and recently got cast in a cartoon!
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?
When you have a career in the arts, I don’t feel there is any such thing as a smooth road! It’s very unstable and you never know when you’re going to get your next role. So to keep money coming in and to pay my rent and bills, I also work a full-time job as a travel agent, I love it. I’m grateful to be financially stable. I’m nowhere near rich of course, but being financially stable brings me normalcy to my life. And I still get to live a life outside of acting. I’m saving up for a little house. I’m almost at my goal. There’s a stereotype that actors are dirt poor. On my 18th birthday, I made a promise to myself I would never let myself financially struggle for my dream. And I kept that promise. I would work hard at both my regular job and at my acting career. I’ve always had a good work ethic. And I’m proud of that. That being said, after a long day of work, sometimes I feel too exhausted to do an audition, so I take a nap and do the audition anyways, haha. It’s definitely kicking my time management skills into gear, which I had never been good at. So I would say my biggest struggle right now is that I’m always tired! Haha.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I do every form of acting there is: movies, tv, stage, voiceovers. Comedy is my specialty, but I’m pretty good at dramatic acting too. I just have to get in that headspace of the character, which is sometimes hard! Comedy is a fascinating art. To me, it’s literally exaggerating things. Best of all, comedy is making fun of ourselves as humans. Humans are fascinating and quirky, and comedy exaggerates those quirks.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Haha, this would be a good question for my parents! I think when I was super young, I was a very anxious toddler and very attached to my mom. If my mom left the room, my 3-year-old self would panic. I was also attached to my dad as well, but he was at work so I didn’t have access to him 24/7. On the flip side, my parents also told me I was a ham and seemed to love the “spotlight”. When I was about 2 or 3, I would sing outside loudly and dance. My family came up with the nickname “Little Magic” for me from the tv show “In Living Color”, since I was always singing and dancing for family members. When I was three, my mom put me in tap dance and ballet classes, and I did that until I was about nine. I quit dancing to become an actress. Go figure!
Other things I loved doing as a kid was reading books, I would read anything! I loved my DivaStarz doll I got when I was 11. I brought her everywhere with me! I loved doing her hair and changing her clothes. I loved swinging on my old tire swing. One of my friends had a treehouse in her backyard so we would climb that all the time and read books in there.
As a teen, I got over my shyness and was extremely. Loud. Kid. I got kicked out of my local mall as a teen with friends a couple of times for being too loud and disruptive haha. We thought we were so cool. At my high school, I did theatre and choir and definitely fit the stereotype of the “theatre kid”. I definitely considered myself a weirdo. I was obsessed with the 50s through the 80s and would dress like a different decade every day to school. I also enjoyed T.P.ing houses in high school, doing prank phone calls, I think me and friends also T.P.ed a park once. During my junior year of high school, I went around campus at lunch pretending to be Beavis and Butthead and screaming, “I AM THE GREAT CORNHOLIO!!”
I feel so bad for anyone that knew me when I was a teenager!
Contact Info:
- Website: Brandiaguilar.com
- Instagram: pixiebrandi
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2058875637649609/?ref=share_group_link
- Twitter: Twitter.com/BrandiAguilar
