Daily Inspiration: Meet Laura Bellomo

Hi Laura, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
The brief story is that I was burnt out as a paramedic and a close friend of mine made me realize that I was in a job because of watching a TV show called “All Saints”! It was an Australian medical drama that mostly followed the life of people working in the ward of a hospital and then occationally there were paramedics who came in. Their job just looked so excited and they weren’t cooped up in an office all day.

I remembered having a lot of fun in acting classes at school so in the pursuit of joy I threw myself into acting classes, wanting to soak up as much knowledge as I could, and I loved it. I’d always been involved in plays at school but thought that I wasn’t “cool” enough, “special” enough, “loud” enough to get noticed, so I never gave it a chance.

My day job had been about trying to help change the world one person at a time, so I fell in love with Film and TV when I realized that they reach people on mass! They allow people to see things that they might never have the chance to in their own lives, to experience a different point of view. They encourage people to grow, find new emotions that they may have suppressed, or to understand that they aren’t alone in what they’re going through.

A few years later and I am now sitting in LA in my apartment, in the middle of producing two feature films, surrounded by other like-minded and driven creatives who are making their own content, and I’m loving it. I have such a supportive partner and family home in Oz and my creative family here in the USA is constantly growing.

I’m super excited for what’s coming in the next year and all I can say is it’s definitely never too late to start living your dreams and the only one who can hold you back is YOU! I made a promise to myself after watching too many loved ones pass away young that I was going to live a life with no regrets, so I’m here putting that into practice.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Ha! I’d love to hear about a road that is smooth. Everyone has their own hurdles to get through in this life and I’d say, like most people, I have gotten in my own way.

Acting has been a delightfully challenging road of discovering who I am, who I want to be and what I’m capable of. And more important, if not now then when? What am I waiting for? I thrive on finding the false limitations that we as humans have put on ourselves and on one another. It is one of my main inspirations when I work on characters and story.

I learnt the hard way that things are only as difficult as you make them. If you listen to everyone telling you how hard it is, it will be harder. Of course there have been things along the way that have deterred me or made me question what the heck I’m doing. One of my biggest lessons has been you can’t get fixated on only one part of your life without consequences to other parts of your life, eg health, social, financial, sense of self. I have to constantly reassess where I’m at, if something is still right for me, if I’m having fun and if not, then look for what that struggle is teaching me.

What you put your attention on grows, so I try to only focus on where I want to be.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Actor. Producer. Storyteller.

I work other jobs to pay the bills, keep me connected to the industry and to meet new and exciting people. I’m learning to broadening my expectations on life every day.

I came into this field wanting to act and I have more recently become a producer to so that I canbe a part of bringing stories to life from conception.

I would say I specialize in getting into the psyche of characters and discovering what their story is trying to tell the world.

I’m most proud of the creative teams that I have been part of bringing together. I love that the combination of talents are necessary to create something amazing. There are no small roles!

What sets me apart is that through all the challenges be it personal, financial, grief, moving countries, being separated from all my support networks,I am determinated to keep going to achieve my goals and to keep my dreams big.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
LA is a melting pot of creative energy. There is a constant flow of energy here where everyone you meet is trying to make something happen.

People here have all sorts of dreams and they’re here fighting to give themselves that chance to be seen and heard by the world. It’s infectious. Being surrounded by creation makes you want to create.

What I like least is that there is a real hunger that is undercutting that river. It is an expensive city and there is a necessary evil of people making money off other people’s dreams. This town makes you smarten up and find people who are genuine in their desire to create. Sifting and sorting through that is what makes people so terrified of this town and it’s why you need to have a very strong belief and understanding of who you are and what you want.