Daily Inspiration: Meet Jhanelle Elissa

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jhanelle Elissa.

Hi Jhanelle, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’d like to preface this by saying my story is absolutely insane. I wouldn’t suggest anyone make the decisions I have… And if you do and you live to see the other side of those decisions or at least maintain your sanity, well, welcome to the cool kids club. Yeah, cool people say “cool kids club”… I think?

Anyway, I moved to LA in 2016 from Miami to pursue acting full-time. I grew up in South Florida, raised by 2 Jamaican parents and adoring the cinema. I was often on the edge of my seat in the movie theater (for you kids out there reading this in the year 2049, the movie theater is that building people go to for great-tasting popcorn and terrible first dates, and of course, to see incredible stories play out on a screen so big you can’t fit it into your living room.. unless you’re Tom Cruise… I assume his living room is pretty big..)

When I got to college, the “Y.A.” (young adult) book-to-film adaptation trend was at an all-time high, and The Hunger Games had recently come out. I was at the theater opening weekend for all four movies. I’d always known I wanted to be in the movies, but that franchise took it over the EDGE for me in terms of excitement. After numerous late-night convos with friends and lots of googling “how to be an actor”, I developed a very diabolical plan to finish college and start my career as an actor in LA. Ok maybe not diabolical.. but definitely nuts considering my background. It was an enormous jump from being a 1st generation American microbiology major on a pre-med track at a university in Florida to become a pediatric dentist… to then pursuing a career as a film actor. I know. My parents weren’t all too happy, but I was! Truthfully, that’s all that matters. Looking back, I’m grateful I realized that at a young age. (Kids, don’t use this as an excuse to go defy your parents. Finish school. Don’t do drugs. Be a good person. (All the advice that almost no one follows in Hollywood.)

Now, what followed my move to LA is a 7-year story of insane twists and turns, including but not limited to: dancing in a flash mob for the creator of ‘Friends’, working with Halle Berry (ah!), trying not to embarrass myself chatting casually on the Disney studio lot with Yara Shahidi, Anthony Anderson, and Tracee Ellis Ross, and launching a semi-successful tech-startup that went across Ashton Kutcher’s desk (yes!). I’ll probably write a book someday about it all, but give you a short version — the prequel 🙂

My first few years in LA were… interesting. Just the first 2 weeks consisted of me watching tutorials on YouTube trying to figure out how exactly to be an actor. I called up every old friend I had whose “parent’s sister’s coworker’s childhood acquaintance” MIGHT be in the industry (i.e., I had no connections whatsoever) and audited every acting class known to man until I landed on a pretty solid idea of what I should be doing if I wanted to work in the movies. (Spoiler alert: I still don’t know what I’m doing. But don’t tell my agents that..)

I’d say any initial success I had sparked at the intersection of hard work & luck. I went to any networking event that would let me in and dipped my nose into lots of conversations I wasn’t supposed to, learned to pitch myself, and ended up on, I kid you not, hundreds of sets over the years, acting in films, television shows, & countless commercials, working as a production assistant, producing indie projects, and during the pandemic, coordinating commercial campaigns for brands like Target and Google. I also discovered directing during my 2nd year in Los Angeles. Apparently, it was the thing I grew up mastering on our family camcorder, making music videos and skits with friends; I just didn’t have a name for it at the time. I directed a few short form & experiential projects, one of which was a short film entitled “LISTEN” on suicide awareness that went to festivals (I spoke on my first panel for that!) In 2019, I finally started booking my first few network co-stars and getting pinned for series regular roles and it was only a matter of time until something massive came along and I finally had money for more than ramen noodles and my reps and I were so excited and then BAMMMM! March 2020 — the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

Outside of the very obvious tragedy and terrible events the world collectively experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic — my sincerest condolences for all of the lives tragically lost in those years and deepest sympathies to those who continue to still be negatively affected — some very interesting things happened during the pandemic. A friend reached out to me during the Black Lives Matter movement about an idea for a sync initiative to help bridge the gap between artists of color and sync licensing deals. We had more time on our hands than we knew what to do with and I have a very high-key obsession with music, so together we founded Playlist of Color, a nonprofit diversity initiative connecting independent artists, songwriters, and publishers of color with sync licensing opportunities in media. I also had the opportunity to start a number of projects throughout the pandemic that taught me what I was capable of and served as catalysts for even larger business ventures including (drumroll please) — Jiive. Jiive was a labor of love born out of a desire to help LA feel a whole lot less lonely. It started as an app that I built from scratch (long story), and as of today, Jiive is a live events & social experiences collective for building real-life community and connecting with friends new and old in person. The mission has always been to provide people of all ages with access to offline social experiences and tangibly combat social isolation, digital dependency, and loneliness at scale. Since we were still in a pandemic, I spent the majority of 2021 ignoring all of my responsibilities as an actress & director and pitched to investors for this shiny new tech project. I mean hello, I was going to be the next Mark Zuckerberg! I truly believed Jiive would change the world, and I still do. The company just looks different now that the entertainment industry and live events are back in full swing. I also turned down the investment offers I got for various reasons and ended up bootstrapping the company instead out of pocket (not easy to do as a struggling actor… lemme tell ya). Throughout 2021, talking to 100+ investors was one of the most bizarre, eye-opening, exhilarating & traumatic experiences of my life. More on that later, perhaps in a book someday? I’m really pushing this book thing…

Fast-forward to today, and with entertainment back in full swing (aside from the historic WGA and SAG/AFTRA Hollywood strikes going on as I write this) I’m deciding to take life as it comes for now. I like to say I’m trying to be at my peak joy at all times, whatever that means in the moment, regardless of my circumstances. I’m still auditioning actively and looking for ways to tell incredible stories, as well as collaborate with wonderfully talented people. Dying to work with Jon M. Chu, Norman Buckley, Lasse Hallström, Francis Lawrence, and many, many others.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My career so far has been an insanely bumpy road, and to think I’ve barely even started. But if you can picture it, I’m driving on this bumpy, windy road with a giant grin on my face. I do realize how lucky I am to be doing what I do for a living, but if anyone tells you this industry is easy they are either bluffing or they want something from you. Run away! I will say I’m still recovering emotionally and mentally from the Covid-19 pandemic. It did a number on me, and some days are harder than others watching the world move on in various ways, having learned so much as a society and also nothing at all.

I learned an enormous amount about myself during the pandemic; about my resilience and the power that I have to make an impact. I want to reach as many people as possible through my ideas and my art. Still coming to terms with what that might look like down the road, but decided recently that it might be nice to ink an overall deal at a studio one day (as long as everyone is being fairly compensated for their work). It’s tough though… Hollywood is full of politics and ageism and racism and greed and a whole lot of elements that are just not fun at all (like I said earlier kids, stay in school). Especially in a city like LA, people are so scared to be real with one another, and for the most part, they choose comfort and recoil over growth and hard conversations any day. It’s actually pretty scary how some people can be. I’m not sure what this world is coming to exactly, but I like to zoom out and see the bigger picture (quite literally.. I’m a stargazer.)

On a similar note, I think community and connection are more important than ever. Through storytelling, live events or otherwise, they are potent aspects of the human experience. I’m figuring out how to marry my work in film & entertainment with live events & experiential projects, and seeing what happens. That’s the beauty and the magic of life, I suppose.. we get to be these imperfect beings, figuring it out as we go.. Onward IS upward.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My current bio is kind of cool and it’s written in the 3rd person like a classic piece of literature so, please enjoy: Jhanelle Elissa is a Jamaican-American actress and director born in Miami, Florida. She began her career appearing in commercials for brands like Walmart, Xfinity, and Google. Jhanelle recently starred in the film ‘Blood of Your Generation’ – the newest project from Cannes Film Festival alumni TJ Penton and ‘End of Summer’, acting alongside Terry Hu. She also made waves with an impactful narrative short addressing social activism, ‘LISTEN’, which went on to turn heads at Oscar-qualifying festivals. Jhanelle has worked on NBC, Freeform, and several streaming platforms. She is known to captivate in each role and is passionate about telling stories that are rousing, dynamic, and shed an honest light on the human experience. Besides acting and directing, Jhanelle is a service-oriented entrepreneur. She is the mind behind the live experiences platform, Jiive, and is the co-founder of Playlist of Color.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: instagram.com/jhanelleelissa

Image Credit:
Main photo: THEMANUC