Marla McGee
Chef Marla McGee has been cooking and throwing parties all of her life. She attended culinary school at the Art Institute of California, Orange County where she graduated with honors. Just 6 days out of school, she was hired as one of the chefs at the 5 Crowns in Corona Del Mar. After her time there, she decided to start her own catering company. Read More>>
Julie Cho
Calvin started Happy Cow Photo Booths with a partner he had originally planned to start this up with, but due to last minute circumstances of his partner needing to enlist with the military again, he was back to square one to having this run this by himself. This is where I came in as I had previous exposure of running the operations of a different photo booth company before and he hired me to work as the operations manager here at Happy Cow Photo Booths. I had the special opportunity to do all the ground work from the floor up, which covered me making our website, designing it, setting up our pages, social media platforms, copy writing information, etc. He had me initially do market research for the other competitor photo booth companies and we made our own package list and services. Read More>>
Olivia Korenberg and Jenn Pablo
Jenn and I met while working for a designer by the name of Katie Leede who was at the time based in Santa Monica. We immediately bonded over our obsession with all things creative. In between tasks we would often flip through the library or forage through piles of textiles dreaming up different schematics. After moving on from the firm – Jenn moved onto hospitality design while I remained in the residential interior design world. Read More>>
Melissa Randall
Melissa Randall’s journey to creating Baking with Melissa™ includes a professional acting repertoire of performances and hosting accomplishments that have brought her all over the world. After receiving her Bachelor’s Degree in Speech with an emphasis in Theatre from Northwestern State University, Melissa established herself by performing in dinner theatres, children’s theatre, theme parks, cruise ships, trade shows, baking webisodes and much much more. In addition, Melissa dedicated over 20 years of her life to teaching children the art of acting, baking, and cooking in a variety of enrichment programs and theatres, proving herself as an accomplished actor, baker and educator. Read More>>
Rachel Ranucci
I have always known I was a creative. I started out in drawing, and in high school, I planned to take a drawing class as my mandatory elective. For whatever reason, the class was unavailable that year so I took photography instead. I knew pretty quickly it was something I loved. Read More>>
Tricia Lee
I think I’ve always had the creative gene and an eye for design for as long as I can remember. But I can say that my love for flowers and events really started when I was a young teen. One of the ladies at my church needed some help preparing for a wedding of one of our church members and I went along with my mom to help out. It was then that I realized I truly enjoyed it and actually had a knack for it. Read More>>
Frankie Thaheld
I started in the world of beverage service about 27 years ago as a soda jerk at a Ruby’s Metro Diner. I started a long love with all things liquid and eventually got into the greater restaurant business world working my way up from Busboy to Server always with an eye on being behind the bar. Finally in 1995, I started bar training at California Pizza Kitchen and quickly became a traveling corporate trainer traveling globally to open new locations. In 2006, I was hired by George’s At The Cove and worked hand in hand with the Executive Chef in creating a world craft influenced culinary cocktail program. Read More>>
Gina Salim
Build Your Own Bar is a mobile bartender service that focuses on providing all of our clients with exceptional service. We are licensed, insured and currently serving Los Angeles, Orange County, Inland Empire and San Diego. Ryan Rodigues (owner) started BYOB in 2011 in San Diego, CA. He had a brilliant concept that he would build from scratch a classic portable wood bar & provide mobile bartending service to all types of events. He covered all of the San Diego area, from Private Backyard Parties, Corporate Events, Weddings, and so on. Read More>>
Francisco Peńa
Like many others before me “The American Dream” is what led me to make the decision and immigrate to this amazing country 11 years ago. From the very first day that I came into the United States, I noticed how different the economy was of that in my country; Mexico. I wanted my own business, to be my own boss, but soon I would find out that it was not going to be easy; if I wanted “The American Dream” I was going to have to work very hard to achieve it. So, I began with two jobs in order to cover the cost of moving myself and my family from Mexico. Read More>>
Wayne Magnusen
After working for 8 years at various restaurants and the latter 3 at a 5-star resort in Newport Beach, I wanted to create food that I was passionate about. My goal has always been to serve visually appealing and great tasting food at fair prices. In 2014, I met my now fiancé Mercedez, our event coordinator at the beginning of this new journey and together we started Sunset Catering. Our first venture was Surf & Turf Kabobs which we sold at the Miracle Mile Farmers Market that included a menu of Chinese 5 Spice teriyaki marinated Fillet, Salmon w/ my house made Zesty Chimichurri, Chicken with my special Yogurt Lemon Curry with sides all grilled to perfection on site. Read More>>
Morat
I started with photography, as I did with writing, almost entirely by accident, back when I was living in London. Having stumbled into a music journalism job in 1989, I was commissioned to go on tour with a punk band called Poison Idea in 1992. Because the band had a well-earned reputation for being completely out of control, none of the photographers at the magazine wanted anything to do with it, so the magazine asked me to get what I could with a disposable camera. I’d always loved photography, but I could never afford a decent camera, so, having been paid more for the photography than the writing, I used the money from that job to buy a basic starter kit. Read More>>
Dava McCoy
Dazzling D’s Princess Productions was formed by myself in 2010 while attending graduate school studying psychology. At the request of a friend who ran a traveling tea party business, I started to employ my singing and acting experience, as well as a love for kids, by impersonating popular children’s characters at birthday parties. Performing for children had always been a passion of mine as I grew up doing musical theater. Those experiences coupled with my over 10 years of babysitting, teaching, and studying child/family psychology, made this the perfect job for me! Read More>>
Maria Otero
Growing up as a child my father would bake me a 1/4 sheet of Flan and sat it on the table. It was always a surprise; His moment was to see the look on my face. As I walked into the kitchen, we both would have smiles on our face of pure excitement. Throughout the day, I would take a spoonful from each end as I passed by it until there was no more left except for the long-anticipated bite in the middle. Read More>>
Kay Dalton
My initial dream was to be in sports marketing. Growing up, my Dad was an NFL Football Player and Coach and sports was the world I knew. But I was eager to learn, so I interned to get my name out there and took any job that was offered to me. I worked on sporting events like AVP Pro Beach Volleyball and the LA Marathon as well as events in the entertainment industry like the MTV Video Music Awards and jobs for Fox Broadcasting. Read More>>
Renato Babalu Sobral
I’m retired Brazilian Mixed Martial Arts fighter and former Strike Force Light Heavyweight World Champion. I start pretty earlier when I was 10 yrs. old. I fall in love with Martial Arts and I tried different styles till I turned 18 yrs old on that time I had to enjoy army on airborne. After all, back to the mats, then start my journey. Read More>>
Mark Mendelson
I worked part time throughout high school in the family business (Nate’n Al Delicatessen) then went off to college and got a degree in Psychology. After I graduated, I felt a strong desire to fully immerse myself into Nate’n Al Deli to see if this was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I quickly feel in love with the business, customers, and employees. I felt was part of something very special, and still do going on 30 years now. Read More>>
Cole Rosner
I was heavily involved in the performing arts when I was growing up in Florida and was very lucky to see some amazing Broadway shows in the 90s that really solidified my passion for theater, dance, and music. After college, I moved to London for a few years where I worked at two prominent theaters on the venue management side of things. I gained so much from working with European theater artists during that time, meeting so many visionaries in the field and learning how to not only run a venue, but to really nurture the artists and audiences that collaborated with the space. Read More>>
Jovon Bernal
My first experience with yoga was when I pregnant with my daughter Jodie 13 years ago. I enjoyed it so I continued to learn and practice at the community college I was attending at the time, ELAC. Afterwards, I dipped around in it throughout the years becoming more interested in the practice. I meet friends that were also interested in it and it became a topic to talk about, but on a deeper level. Read More>>
Joshua Kopel
Joshua Kopel is an American entrepreneur, restaurateur and environmental advocate. Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the spawn of bootleggers and retail giants, he was bred for the hospitality industry. Throughout Kopel’s 20+ year career in food and beverage he has managed venues ranging from the Alligator Bayou Bar, located on Alligator Bayou Road, seated on Alligator Bayou (it was exactly how you’re picturing it in your mind) to the hottest Hollywood nightclubs, bars, and ultra-lounges (far less glamourous than you’re picturing it in your mind). Kopel went independent in 2010 opening his first concept Five0Four, a New Orleans-inspired bar, on the Walk of Fame in the heart of Hollywood. Read More>>
Jeff Cozart
I grew up in Long Beach, not the nice areas by the beach, but the rougher parts that are known more for crime and gang activity. My dad was killed when I was a kid and my Mom raised me on her own. Her goal was to keep me alive and send me to college. She managed to do both, and for that, I will be forever grateful. Read More>>
Joseph Herrera
Growing up in a Filipino family I was never shy of eating food. But my parents didn’t really know about fitness or working out. I remember being the chubby kid asking my dad how to make my chest harder “man boobs”. He put his hand together by his chest and squeezing the palms together like the movement known as “I must…. I must…. I must increase my bust.” Read More>>
Neel Sodha
I grew up in Anaheim and went to Indiana University to complete my Bachelors and Master’s degrees in Accounting & Finance. In my MBA Accounting program, we were given an internship work experience in a European country. My team was picked to go to London, England. While there, we were living in the middle of the City, and taking the London Underground to work, pubs, restaurants and entertainment. Read More>>
Monica Kenyon
I initially found my calling when, at the age of ten I experienced the gift of helping family and friends through massage and the healing that comes with human touch. However, this gift wasn’t explored until years later while working as an Assistant Director on film sets in Los Angeles. It was then that I realized my true passion in life is helping others through bodywork. I came to this realization because I found myself giving neck and shoulder massages to fellow crew members (while waiting on lighting set-ups) and it seemed fulfilling. Read More>>
Alexis Cohen
One day, in my early 20’s, I was painting a mural on my bedroom wall when something very profound happened. I think it was because of the bigness of the piece it was almost as if I entered into another world. The characters of the mural were letting me know how they wanted to be painted. An inner hearing and seeing opened up for me. Read More>>
Gerry Valido
I’m a Los Angeles, California native. Like many other martial artists, my first exposure to the arts were Saturday afternoon “Black Belt Theatre,” “Kung Fu Theatre,” and frequent visits to the local library to read anything they the martial arts-related. Unfortunately, when you’re a kid, it’s not your decision as to whether or not you train–it’s your parents’. I was strictly an “armchair martial artist,” as a youth, whose sole exposure to the martial arts were movies, books, and sometimes coming across someone who actually trained!! Read More>>
Sylvene Tsai
I discovered my passion for the fashion industry at 7 years old. I can remember making clothes for my dolls out of any fabric I could find! Though I went to college and graduated with a degree in Business Marketing, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I should be designing. SO, I scratched the itch and enrolled myself into the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising with the intention of starting my career as an independent couture wedding and evening gown designer. Read More>>
Sherry Lee (photographer) & Dustin Lane (musician)
In the immortal words of Jim Morrison… “The time to hesitate is through…” Our lives were on auto-pilot. Day to day. 9-5. The same old same old…Things needed changing. Fast…It was a strange Tuesday in March (2016). One of those days when something clicks, when the lightbulb just doesn’t go on but it explodes. Read More>>
Keith C. Harris
INSPIRE OTHERS TO OVERCOME AND LIVE WELL – Yep, I created my own mantra 🙂 A few years back, after much soul searching, I realized my purpose was as “helper”. I didn’t have the details but I knew I was made to help. After overcoming some major life obstacles, one of which included losing 100 pounds, it all started to come together.
RACHEL PALLY
I started my line in 2002 after I graduated from UC Berkeley. I minored in modern dance and had to work in the costume shop to fulfill all of my credits. I LOVED making costumes! I started to sew clothes for myself and my friends and they were really cute! At one point, I was in LA visiting my family and I stopped into a store in Chinatown and the owner commented on my dress and asked where I got it. I told her I made it and proceeded to show her a bag of my laundry from the car – she loved it all and asked me to start sending pieces to her to sell. Read More>>
Omid (Joey) Cohen
After years of working around downtown Los Angeles with different fabric stores I fell in love with home decor fabric, and not just basic things but fun vibrant designs that everyone loves. I was lucky enough to find a business partner who shared the passion, we are lucky enough to work with well-known companies like P Kaufmann, Robert Allen, Waverly just to name a few, who work with us to provide great affordable prices for our customers. Read More>>
Ari Jogiel
I was born in to a loving Jewish mother and a famous Mexican actor (also Jewish) in Mexico City in 1988 and moved to Sterling, Illinois in 2000 when I was 12 years old. My parents showed my brother and I the importance of working hard. We were instilled the lesson that in America if you work hard there is nothing you can’t do. Read More>>
