Hollywood 06.05.2018

Leon Ofsky

Possibly like a true artist; I left this until the last minute. My story is still in progress. How I arrived in USA is an even longer in progress story. I was born in New Zealand, travelled, and wasn’t happy at home upon my return. I won my green card in the diversity lottery program and migrated as soon as I could. Firstly moving to Jerome, Arizona and writing my first book. Almost a year ago, moving to LA to explore art, people, and lay in the sun. Read more>>

Paige Lorentzen

Let’s start back in 2004. I was 9 years old and my dance teacher at the time choreographed for the TV show Gilmore Girls. She asked my mom if I was available to film for 2 days as one of Ms. Patty’s dance students on the show. When I set foot on the Warner Brothers Studio lot I fell in love with the world of entertainment. My mom always told me that if I wanted to pursue this as a career I could do it when I was 18 but my she didn’t want me to go down the stereotypical child actor path. Read more>>

Aaron Weber

The year was 1996 and the place was East Lyme, Connecticut. I was mistakenly placed in an upperclassmen class whose responsibility was to produce the school’s internally televised morning news show every day. Being the only freshmen in the class, I was not allowed to help much and find myself tinkering with a brand new computer that was sitting in the corner of the room. Read more>>

Jessica Abrams

I came to Los Angeles from New York twenty years ago to write screenplays. I remember it was Winter in New York when I made the decision. Snow — dirty, soot-covered snow — was on streets and my friends in LA were sipping tea on their patio and it was eighty degrees. That plus the fact that I wanted to write for film and television made the decision to move a no-brainer. I’ve never regretted it. Los Angeles is the kind of place that allows you to discover yourself, if you look hard enough. Read more>>

Liz See

The idea for Get Threaded® started in the USA in 2008 when I saw threading for the very first time whilst visiting from my Home Australia and I knew it was going to change my world forever, I had always worked in the hair and beauty industry but had never seen anything so bizarre but absolutely amazing…..a cotton thread removing facial hair. Still today this continues to amaze me. Read more>>

Daniel Rice

I have always been fascinated with fitness and physical activities. Sports have been a part of my life since I was very young; I competed in gymnastics, martial arts, wrestling, physique body building, and olympic lifting. Even as a competitive athlete I was diagnosed with hypertension at the age of 19. I knew heart disease ran in my family but I didn’t know that someone as active as I was, was at risk. Read more>>

Toni Christopher

I graduated from college with a BA in Theatre completely uninspired. “Now what?” While bartending back home in Boston and contemplating my “What’s Next?”, someone recommended a local acting teacher who had an impressive reputation. I audited his class and was completely taken by his approach to the craft and forthright energy. He, along with some of the actors in his classes ignited my fire and passion for creating, expressing and storytelling and one year later I was in New York City living the dream of an Actress. Read more>>

Gunnar Todd Rohrbacher

I started at the Groundling’s and Lisa Kudrow was my first teacher. I’ll always be grateful for that. She didn’t teach for long before her career took off, so I know how fortunate I am to have learned from her. Through Lisa, I met Cynthia Szigeti who became my mentor. Cynthia ran the school at the Groundling’s for a period of time and is responsible for literally hundreds of careers in show business. Read more>>

Johanna PINKSU Marjomaa

I have always been an artist, I started to paint and draw when I was able to grab a pen or brush to my hand. My life changed, when I was 15 years old, when I got cancer and it changed my life completely. When I survived I decided to go after my dreams. I have graduated from 2 different art schools and ended up to go to a makeup school. I love to create art, but I love to be around people, so being a makeup artist is just perfect fit for me. Read more>>

Paige Sara Wilson

I started taking photos at a very young age– around twelve– while on family vacations. I loved capturing the scenery of a new place which led to receiving a camera as a gift, then later on beginning to take nature photos of my mother’s rose garden, then portraits of family and friends. I went to a high school that had a very thorough and well known arts program, so I studied film photography for my four years there, and by the time I graduated, I had already begun shooting professionally. Read more>>

Claudia Ramos

Well, this all started 8 years ago! I was working for a greeting card company in Los Angeles, California and I was a creative developer which I got to design and illustrate greeting cards and apps. I was with that company for 3 years and I had in mind that I will grow old with that company. The company decided to close the L.A. office and it was the saddest time in my life! I felt like I broke up with a boyfriend and I was crying not knowing what would be my next job. Read more>>

Alex Wisner

I’ve been a musician and writer for over fifteen years. I’ve toured since I was sixteen. I’ve played hundreds of shows and I understand the upsides and plight of what it is to be an independent musician. Also, growing up in Los Angeles, surrounded by fellow artists and with the growth of social media, it dawned on me that every artist tries to build their own artistic empire and has little time to pay attention to anyone else. Therefore, promotion can be overwhelming. Shows can be hard to pack. Read more>>

Jay Russell

I grew up in North Little Rock, Arkansas. At an early age I thought I wanted to be a musician and studied music through my junior year in college, at which time, my love of filmmaking took over. When I finished school – School of the Arts at Columbia University – I began my career doing any sort of writing or production assistant job I could find, all the while pursuing an independent film project I had written and wanted to direct. Read more>>

Paul Schon

Back in 2009 when I was brokering apartment buildings at Marcus & Millichap I was fortunate enough to get introduced to my business partner Artem Tepler. Our mutual friend introduced us since he knew both of us were pursuing our real estate careers. He had just gotten his Masters Degree in Real Estate Development from NYU and moved to Los Angeles. We got along right away and started remodeling and flipping homes together. Read more>>

Tori Horowitz

I was born in LA and I know it like the back of my hand. Because of my extensive familiarity with this great city, I don’t think i could be good at my job anywhere else. I have always been interested in design, architecture and the intersection of design and nature – how structures live within their environments and how people live in their structures. Read more>>

Rocky Horsford Best

I am an east coast transplant from Metuchen,New Jersey and a Rutgers University (Mason Gross School of the Arts) alumni . My entire family is from West Indies, a beautiful island called St.Kitts aka. home. It’s funny to me how I ended up in this field of work. My up bringing was very traditional with the excepiton that I got to enjoy the best of two worlds . Your raise to go to school , working hard and getting a “job” . Read more>>

Lara Thomas Ducey

After graduating with degrees in Theatre/Film and English from the University of Kansas, I moved to Los Angeles to pursue my writing and acting career. With a passion
for both comedy and drama, I have appeared in several independent films and programs on notable networks (TBS, HBO, TruTv, MTV, Fusion, AMC). One recent project received numerous awards and was accepted into 52 international film festivals – including a screening at the prestigious AFI Film Fest. Read more>>

Melissa Schaefers

In August of 2007 I made the big leap to California from the Midwest. At only 18 years old my interest in learning about hair in a big city drove me through a quick 10 months in beauty school. I was constantly meeting industry mentors in additional outside courses which led me to my next position as an assistant. I worked in one of the most prestige salons in Beverly Hills under the most talented hairstylist I have seen to date. He shared his skills and knowledge that help to mold the hairstylist I am. Read more>>

Rocio Mesa

I was born and raised in Andalucia, Spain: southern traditions, Mediterranean culture, flamenco and rock and roll. In 2011, during my mid-twenties, I got a grant to study documentary filmmaking overseas. I could choose between New York and Los Angeles. I was obsessed with the California garage rock scene, so I didn’t think about it twice. Read more>>

Peter Stark

A little over 20 years ago, my wife decided to get her Master’s degree out East, so I followed her and took a couple of graphic design classes to pass time. I liked the classes enough to apply and get accepted to a design program in NYC, but never ended up going. Instead, I hustled my underwhelming book all over the city until one kind soul gave me my first break – working at a small shop called Bau-Da Design, on Blue Note album covers and a handful of theatrical projects for The Weinstein Company. That’s where my career started. Read more>>

Nelson Estevez

I primarily started as a working actor. In this line of business you are always in the process of auditioning or “looking for” your next job/role. I made a creative decision to also create opportunities and have my perspective told through visuals and audio by creating content such as short films, upcoming features, and tv/episodic through online distribution/streaming. Read more>>

Katie Johnson

When I was little my mom didn’t allow cable TV or video games in the house. So naturally, I grew up to write for Shooter (USA) and Call of Duty (Activison). No, I didn’t aspire to become an action writer. I originally thought I would write and act in Julie Delpy style indie movies about Feelings. Instead, I write and act on a show about a former Marine sniper and government conspiracies. You know what, that’s close enough! Read more>>

Jimmy Wu

I am a direct recipient of the extraordinary services offered by InsideOUT Writers (IOW). In 1996, at the age of 16, I was arrested during the act of committing a crime. I was immediately detained and sent to Central Juvenile Hall near Downtown, Los Angeles. While awaiting the outcome of my case, I was invited to be a participant of an innovative creative writing class that was created to arm me and other kids with a creative outlet for self-expression, self-exploration, and self-realization. Read more>>

Cat LaCohie

I was performing as Vixen DeVille back in the UK and relocated to LA in 2012. I was asked to teach an intro class for another burlesque company where I had to teach a group dance routine. My background getting into burlesque was not heavily dance based but more as an actor and theatre creator interested in the creation of character, the exploration of costume, and the solo act creation of a piece of performance art. Read more>>

Tim Murray

I went to the University of Miami to study acting and moved to New York City right out of college. I started going to open calls every single day. This went on for years and I was cast in some regional theatre shows that took me out of the city, but I always had to come back and start from scratch with a new apartment and new restaurant job. I felt like I wasn’t making the kind of strides I wanted my career to have so I started writing my own stuff. Read more>>