Check Out Dominique Star’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dominique Star

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
When I was five my grandfather got me a guitar and I immediately wrote a song about mac and cheese (Kraft, to be specific). So music was really my first love, or maybe mac and cheese, hard to say. I was also an avid reader and spent a lot of time in my room reading Harry Potter and basically any other book I could get my hands on. This left me with a pretty vivid imagination so once my mom put me in musical theatre, the rest was history.

I ended up going to school in New York City. I had this (maybe misguided) idea that if I majored in music or theatre that it would take the joy out of those things for me, so I decided to major in whatever I thought I could learn for four years and not get bored of, which turned out to be French Literature. Through studying abroad in Paris I actually started playing music with other people and that’s how my first band formed.

After spending a couple of years as a musician in Brooklyn and Paris after school, I decided I wanted to live somewhere where I could actually see the stars at night and live with a bit less daily struggle, so that’s when I moved to LA! Started auditioning for student films and taking on camera acting classes and everything just sort of fell into place after that.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Oh god, absolutely not. When I graduated college, I got a record deal (literally on the day of graduation, it was a very good day), and spent four years being a full time artist and songwriter with multiple producer sessions every week until I got majorly burnt out and disillusioned with the industry. It had been my dream my entire life to be a musician, and realizing that the reality of that life didn’t quite match up to what I had imagined was kind of devastating.

More recently, I worked on a musical theatre project (Perchance to Dream) for several years that I think is probably the best thing I will ever do, and for various external reasons (money, copyright, etc.) will most likely never make it to Broadway.

Living life as an artist has extreme highs and lows, and being able to weather those and still believe in your work is so intrinsic to longevity.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Generally I say I’m a musician who acts, despite acting being my main income and focus currently. Based on my career trajectory, I’m known for playing witty, idealistic, creative characters. This can easily trend toward “manic pixie dream girl” so I always try my best to portray the characters I play with depth and humanity, rather than merely the foil to a depressed male lead.

I’m most proud of Perchance to Dream, a musical I co-created with David Su which tells the story of Hamlet through the music of Radiohead, set in a dystopian future overrun by exploitive tech corporations. During the pandemic I’d been reading a book about Rent, the Jonathan Larson musical, which is based on Puccini’s La Boheme, and I started thinking about what older work of art I could adapt into a musical with modern music. That week I happened to listen to OK Computer, immediately thought of Hamlet, and the rest came together quite naturally. The casting came together super serendipitously, we put on a sold out concert at Pico Union Project, and then later released an album which ended up blowing up on Spotify & Tiktok. You can check it out at https://pcd.fyi .

What sets me apart from others is my authenticity and the ability to turn my dreams into reality. I mean what I say, and I do the things I say I will do, even if they seem impossible. I live daily with the realization that I’m going to die someday, and that motivates me to be brave even though I am scared pretty much every day. The worst that happens when you try something is you fail. If you don’t try at all then all you’re left with regret and imagining what *could* have been. As an over-thinker, that’s way worse to me!

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Ooooh boy, so many lessons learned. I think the biggest is the more vulnerable and true you are with your art, the more it will resonate with other people. I can easily get caught in this mindset of not wanting to say something that might piss people off, or being scared of showing people what I really feel deep down. But yeah, the projects I’ve worked on where I’ve really leaned into my vulnerabilities have ended up the most successful. I still struggle with this with songwriting, if I’m being totally honest. I think because music is so close to my heart.

Another lesson is the value of community and being around other people pursuing this crazy life. I’m a part of a few communities where we get together and talk about creativity, the struggles of being an artist, and share our work. I host a salon at my house as well which has been such an enriching experience and I hope fosters collaboration between people I’ve met in this lovely city. One of my favorite things to do is encourage people to have more confidence in their art and their unique perspective as an artist.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dominiquestar.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doremidom/
• Twitter: https://www.tiktok.com/@dominique_star
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DominiqueStar
• Other: https://perchancetodream.org/

Image Credits
1 – Jordana Sheara Photography
2 – Dominique Star
3. Gregory Ontiveros
4. Christy Chen
5. Dominique Star
6. Teolindo
(Lead image credit: Leah Huebner)