Today we’d like to introduce you to Andy Garcia.
Hi Andy, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My earliest memory ever is watching 2002’s Spider-Man with Tobey Maguire in an AMC theater with my family, I believe. I had to be about only three years old. Growing up as a kid, more movies stuck to me such as a few Arnold Schwarzenegger movies my dad would love to watch, like Predator & Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Other movies I would have to bring up is Alien versus Predator & Peter Jackson’s King Kong.
All these movies made me feel one way: inspired. These films made me realize I had a lot of natural love for acting, movies, film, filmmaking, the film industry & Hollywood. They solidified my desire to be a filmmaker. As a little boy, that’s what I wanted to be. Also, even going to Universal Studios Hollywood as a child growing up with my family (my mom, dad & sister) had a lot to do with being so interested with the world of movies. My parents ended up bringing a camera & our first Windows PC home. This had to be no coincidence. I ended up experimenting with both devices. I would make dumb little “short films” with this camera & even ended up learning how to edit with programs such as MS Paint, Windows Movie Maker & more on the computer. I even ended up finding out about YouTube & there was no going back. I made a Youtube channel & started producing a bunch of random content. I’ll never forget socializing & even going onto collaborate with a bunch of users all over the world over YouTube. I remember reaching about 1K subscribers on YouTube & in 2008-2010, one has to admit that isn’t so bad. Stars at the time like Fred & Shane Dawson inspired me as well. I was growing up in elementary school when all this was progressing & even all my schoolmates in my grade year were following along. It was a good feeling that a bunch of my schoolmates would watch my content & even talk to me about it at school. I felt like a star. I would even bring my camera along to school at times & record some of my friends whenever we were out to make content. Something to mention, I wasn’t really involved with sports growing up as the filmmaking was what I liked doing.
My parents never really signed me up for anything. It wasn’t until I entered middle school that I was starting to get more interested in girls & fitting in since I was getting older. I even sort of stopped being so interested in filmmaking. It wasn’t until eighth grade in 2012 when the EDM scene got pretty huge. People my age really got into shuffling which was a form of dancing (to EDM music) & even started doing “light shows” with gloves on their hands. I brought out my filmmaking skills & took advantage of this. I would record my buddy’s shuffle & do their light shows. I went on executing & posting this type of content on YouTube, only for all these videos to go semi-viral. Fighting was something a lot of my schoolmates would do around this time (growing up in the hood of Riverside was a byproduct of this) & that’s even something I would make content out of. I would grab & get a good amount of views on this as well. I then entered high school & once again cared more about fitting in & being more interested in dating women. I did join my high school’s football team freshman year & got into weightlifting. Since then, going to the gym & lifting weights was something that always stuck with me. This is where my 10+ years of fitness journey started.
Throughout all the times that I cared more about fitting in & pursuing girls, I was still heavily interested in what movies came out, what went on with them & how their production was going despite not being so engaged in producing content anymore. In high school, everyone had to think about what they wanted to be in life. I thought that I could do something with criminal justice so I stuck with that thought for a bit. It wasn’t until I graduated high school that I thought about turning my old admiration for filmmaking into a career & my purpose since that’s what would always bring me the most joy. I don’t think much about what I could of done differently in the past cause I personally really think it doesn’t matter but I did wish I could of always had this mentality cause who knows where I could be currently in regards to film. After graduating high school, I asked a buddy named Rolando who was an aspiring graphic designer, photographer & videographer at the time to take my first headshots. Getting my first headshots taken felt great. I went on to getting some sort of free trial at the Los Angeles Film School. I lived in Corona, CA at the time so it was an hour-long commute there & back each time I would go to the campus along with paying $5 for the parking each time which was ridiculous. I only ever got some sort of free month-long trial out of the school & stopped going since I thought it was a better idea to just enroll in the film program at my local community college.
Come 2018-2020 (despite the pandemic), I was 19-21 working & going to school. I thought it was a good idea to invest in a Sony A6300 camera, a MacBook bro & a drone: the DJI Mavic Pro 2, all devices I still use till this day. I once again started collaborating with other local filmmakers, photographers, experimenting & making whatever content I can with friends & school mates & whatnot. I started using programs such as Adobe After Effects, Lightroom, Premiere Pro & Photoshop. Come around the Halloween season of 2019, me & some buddies threw two major back-to-back house parties for the holiday time. Hundreds of people our age at the time attended both events. I made content out of this too. I felt like I had some sort of momentum going on so I ended up looking for nightclubs to do videography for which I never have got paid for before or have done professionally. Coincidentally, a nightclub in my hometown, Anaheim, called Blush nightclub at the time got back to me & gave me my first chance/opportunity to professionally do videography for them. I was consistently the venue’s videographer for a bit. This started some sort of ripple effect for me. Working at the nightclub ended up getting me referrals to two different bars in Los Angeles County as well.
On top of that, I was doing video work for other clients as well, such as aspiring hip-hop artists who would open up for bigger performers at venues like the NOVO in LA. I ended up meeting & working with celebrities such as Oscar De La Hoya & YG due to all of this. I also ended up taking acting classes at a studio that gave this type of service in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. I went ahead & decided acting is something else I could look into. I did research on where to start with it & found out about Backstage, only to end up subscribing & creating an account. There was no going back from there. I actually would find myself landing paid & unpaid gigs on a bunch of smaller productions back to back & consistently. A byproduct of all this was me finding out & exploring how the film industry truly worked. I adapted to this. I would meet & network with a bunch of other like-minded people who wanted the same thing as me. I’m still friends with a bunch of these people I met till this day. I was busy with what I liked doing in 2021. I took a risk & quit my “9-5” I had at the time which was being a delivery driver for Amazon. I was getting paid to act, be a production assistant, do videography for all sorts of clients, getting gigs to be a background/extra actor and meeting along with working with a handful of celebrities. Celebrities I came across from all this type of work were DaBaby, Machine Gun Kelly, Warren G, Mikey Garcia, Sebastian Stan, Noel G &, etc. I would find myself driving from Riverside to LA daily which was always an hour long. I also was an intern for an actors management company called Torque Entertainment. The consistency eventually went away. I was still involved with all this type of work but just not as much as it was at that time. I got involved with a lot of partying. I ended up also struggling with mental health for a bit but eventually bounced back from this. It made me even stronger mentally.
All of this actually helped me find out more about myself. I focused on improving every aspect of my life (Spiritually, Financially, Mentally & Physically) which I ended up getting success with. I got closer to Jesus Christ. I got better & more responsible with money. My mental health peaked. I ended up learning how to box. I made long-distance running & weightlifting something part of my daily routine only to get in great shape. I also went down the fitness rabbit hole & starting eating clean. Something I always wanted to do was work at a film festival & of course, win something out of one. God gave me an opportunity. I found out about the IE’s 48-Hour Film Festival & enrolled. I was in for a ride. I got way more than I asked for. I ended up working three film festivals back to back. IE’s 48-Hour Film Festival 2022. LA’s 48-Hour Horror Comedy Film Festival 2022. Riverside City College’s Film Festival Fall 2022. I acted, directed, edited, produced & wrote for all three projects I made for each festival. I was a leader for each project. I ended up even winning my first & only award so far from the film industry which was a ‘Best Trailer’ award. I even brought a project that I had been wanting to make for years to life due to my school’s film festival. I still get gigs from everything I’ve mentioned here & there. Writing all of this took me down memory lane. As I still focus on improving every aspect of my life even more, I can’t wait to see what the future brings me. The best is still yet to come.
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?
Yes & no. I actually put down what kind of challenges, obstacles & struggles I faced in my really long answer to the previous question.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am an actor, editor, filmmaker & videographer. Acting, editing, filmmaking & videography is what I specialize in. I’m known for my whole 24-year-old journey consisting of all this. I’m proud of everything I’ve done.
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Watching 2002’s Spider-Man with Tobey Maguire in theaters
Honorable Mention:
Watching 1987’s Predator as a kid at home on TV with my dad
Both movies inspired me.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andyroygar/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@andyroygar
Image Credits
Johnny Estrada, Pedro Flores, Adrian Flores, Jaanai Iliana, Elijah Dierking, Jeffrey Gaynor, Samantha Gleason, Eric Puente, Thomas Gallegos
