Downtown LA

Christina Broderick

My commitment to education started in the Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles, where I served as an AmeriCorps member. During my service year, I came to realize that although I thought my talents were needed in medicine as a former Pre-Med student, it was actually within the education system, particularly with the mental health of students. After subsequently continuing to work across the education spectrum, K-12 and higher education, I realized there was a continuous gap as it related to proactive skills, strategies and resources for students and their mental health. Students were struggling and receiving help too late, if even at all. Read more>>

Brenda Walsh

My obsession with candles started when I moved to the US from Asia 7 years ago. I would light a candle each night to help me relax and unwind after a long day at work and also to help me feel a little less homesick being thousands of miles away from family. I then transitioned into buying candles during my travels because different scents equate to different memories. I have in those places. After having tons of leftover candle wax, I started to re-melt them to make smaller candles. I then went into a rabbit hole of research into candles and how to make them. I discovered that most ingredients in the mass-produced candles I bought are harmful to our health when burned and harmful to the environment as well. Read more>>

Rhys Kelly

I started out being obsessed with Fine Art in High school (it was truly the only place where I 100% fit in). When it came time to find a college, I came across a Special FX school that taught prosthetics, sculpting and specifically how to make fake eyes & teeth. Once I became in love with painting eyes, I decided to turn it into a business. I began creating eyeball wall art and jewelry for family and friends – before I knew it, I was the Founder of Rhys Kelly LLC. My story is still currently being told and I’ve been enjoying every moment of it. Read more>>

Naaman Smith Jr.

It all started when I was a little boy. Are used to love watching my dad play drums at church and often would sit by the musicians every Sunday just to act like I’m playing with them. I have always had a passion for music since I was six and that passion for music turned into something great. I will try to play any instrument that I could get my hands on. I started playing percussion at Meadowbrook middle school under the direction of Mario Ford and one day, he told the percussion that he needed tuba players and picked me. After picking up the tuba for about two weeks, I advanced to the first chair in the band, stealing the first chair from the previous tuba player who had been playing for about a year and a half. Mario Ford would always push his musicians to be better and would always sign us up for new opportunities to become better. Read more>>

Deon Williams

I am a native New Yorker who grew up in Harlem. Although I found my love for performing originally as a musician growing up playing the drums, I started acting during my college years while performing in the musical Pippin in Tribeca Theater. This is when I fell in love with acting and continued do so in the years to follow as part of the NuAfrican Theatre ensemble and a number of off-broadways in New York City. In 2018, I moved to Los Angeles to expand my acting repertoire to include film. After working on a number of projects, I decided I wanted to be more involved in the creating process and have my own voice heard. This way, I would also be able to tell stories that I felt were not always heard or seen. Read more>>

Simon Oscroft

I was born in South Africa, family moved to New Zealand, and I grew up there. Got into music as a kid with my first guitar around eight years old. I began busking/street performing at local Sunday markets and outside stores and making money to buy my next guitar or piece of equipment. Music was always a huge part of my life, without any explanation I just felt like I needed to do it, it felt like I was compelled by an internal force convincing me this was the right path. Started many bands as a teenager, eventually signing a record deal and having some pretty good early success in New Zealand, but once that ended decided to make the big move to the US. I first moved to New York and started playing in indie bands around the scene, eventually touring the US and Europe multiple times. Read more>>

Susan Rangel

“Aver esos ojos tan coquetos”, my madre would say to me. (Translation: “Let’s see those flirty eyes.”) I have batted these big, brown eyes since 1990. I’ve been called “Coqueta” all my life. I am deeply rooted between the streets of Boyle Heights and South Central. As a little girl, I use to spend my weekends at a restaurant where my tia-madrina worked, located right across the Mariachi Plaza. I remember the Mariachi bands would walk to hang out and enjoy a hot plate of menudo. I was fascinated with their traditional attire and musical talent––so much that I called some of them my novios. I would run out to play pretend “house” at the plaza and let their music be the soundtrack to my impromptu novelas. Read more>>

Zach Dowd

I played cello and drums in early grade school but I ditched music for basketball as that became all I cared about up to and through high school. In my senior year, I got inspired from a singing show to pick up a guitar and try singing some Green Day covers. This continued into early college, and my interest grew so much that I dropped out to go into music full time back in 2015. After a couple of years gigging around Boston, I decided I was either going to move to LA for more opportunity or go to Berklee College of Music for more training. I decided on the latter, figuring I was pretty lucky to be accepted, to have support from my parents, and to be so close to home at such a famous school. I sped through Berklee in two and a half years and then moved out to LA as soon as I had the money saved, which was January 2020. Read more>>

Lenny Rose

Lenny Rose is originally from Long Island, New York, now residing in Studio City, CA. Over the years, he has developed and honed his skills as a photographer, creative Director, and overall creative Entrepreneur. Working in the entertainment and sports industry since 2006. Mr. Rose graduates from the New School Center for media for multimedia production, where he won 2nd place in nation commercial contest for Bookrenter.com. He has since worked on numerous projects with well-known brands and celebrities such as Nike Women, Audi, Marsai Martin, Don Benjamin, Jackie Christie, Vh1, Akoo Clothing, Hologram USA and Black Radiance to name a few. Read more>>

Sara Martin

As a child, I was always pushed by my single mother to pursue college and to find a career that I really loved. And back then, I was actually really into neurology and I wanted to become a neurologist. But as I grew up, I started taking art classes at Otis College of Design and filming a lot with my family’s VHS camcorder. It wasn’t until attending dozen of film and art classes at various colleges/studio art programs, winning awards for my art, and starting to shoot experimental stop motion films, that I found myself wanting to pursue a career in film. And I was very lucky to have a supportive mother that supported me to pursue a career in Film as a Cinematographer and allow me to take three-hour bus rides back and forth from Orange County School of the Arts to my home in Whittier, CA; just so I can start working on my film education at OCSA’s Film/TV Conservatory. Read more>>

Jessica Hunt

How I became an #LABraider? Well, after graduating from California State University Long Beach in 2015 with a bachelors in American studies: Popular Culture, Media and Consumerism and an Event planning and Hospitality management minor, I was faced with the reality that although I had this achievement, I was still very much black in America, not to mention one of many than ever before college graduates entering the workforce. It was very difficult to find employment I felt fit my experience and portfolio thus far and I refused to settle. Read more>>

Candace Fox

Ever since I was a kid, my passion has always been fashion. Ever since I can remember, my mom and I used to and still to this day shop all the time, watch every red carpet together, fashion competition show and keep up on all high fashion and pop culture trends. This sculpted me into a fashion fanatic and shopping addict. Our favorite thing to do was and is to thrift. My mom would always find insane pieces and I would be so jealous! She taught me the ways and from there, I started to dress myself in tons of thrifted clothes. I would shop vintage, name brands, anything I could find. Read more>>

Mark Henriquez

When I was a kid, my mom was an addict. Growing up with a parent who’s addicted to drugs, you see a lot of things you shouldn’t see as a kid, like addicts coming in and out of your home to dealers pulling a gun on your mom because she owes money. The way I coped with the madness was with my writing, since I didn’t express myself to people, rap was the outlet that kept me sane for the most part. But when she started getting heavy into drugs, I couldn’t take it & decided to start living with my grandma who was down the street. Eventually, however my mom lost her apartment and moved in with my grandma too, so we were right back to square one. Read more>>

Dion Waters

I’ve always been into music, really music creation. I am a “do it yourself” kind of guy, and I needed visuals for my work, so I bought a camera and shot my first video myself “glow” and taught myself how to edit. Thats when I realized videography and directing is what I was meant to do. I then started school at Los Angeles Film School and graduated with an Associates in film. I have been doing this for about two years now with little to no support I give all the credit to God. Read more>>

East LA

Nisha

NISHA is a recording artist whose music in the last year has been featured in publications such as The Fader & Cultr, as well as on Sirius XM Radio, Spotify’s New Music Friday and NBC and Netflix shows. NISHA received a Gold Record for writing Gryffin & Illenium’s 2017 hit “Feel Good.” She is currently signed to Universal Music Publishing and has written hit songs like “Money” by Lil Miquela and several international songs that charted top 10 in India, Israel, Brazil and South Africa. After releasing six singles that have cumulatively surpassed millions of streams, NISHA is releasing her debut ep, Paris by the end of the year. Prior to March, NISHA was performing with her dancers and featured at events in LA and New York. Read more>>

Richelle Yau

It came to me while on an airplane flight to my motherland, the Philippines. The idea of mixing my passion for dance and my love for vintage felt so right. I vividly remember the moment. I was so excited and jittery about the idea. I practically jumped in my seat on that airplane flight, leaned over to my husband, whispered my idea into his ear, and the rest is history. My name is Richelle. Woman, wife, mother, sister, and friend. I am a Special Education teacher, dancer, soon-to-be movement therapist, and lifetime learner. My love for thrifting came from my childhood years. I grew up thrift store hopping with my family. If I ever came across a piece that I was debating on whether or not to buy, my sister would ask me, “well, does it make you wanna dance?” Read more>>

Ben Busch

I started back in high school in Rochester New York, just photographing for class and filming skate films with my friends. Photography really set in as something that I wanted to do when my teacher Mr. Elling wanted me to enter some of my photos into local competitions. I remember winning my first award and thinking, “wow people actually like my stuff”. So I started looking at my work as more of a path over a hobby. After high school, I went to Savannah College of Art and Design for a major in film & television and a minor in photography. I chose SCAD because I’m not much of a classroom setting learner, I like to learn hands on and be able to fuck up a bit. The best way to learn is to learn on the job. In college, I got to work with some of the best people who are now great friends, all doing their own work in the industry. Read more>>

Eliza Maher

I started out in the industry as a musical theatre actor in NYC. I pounded the pavement & worked pretty consistently, but I grew tired of living out of a suitcase and had a nagging feeling that there was more for me to discover about myself as an artist & creator. S0 – 5 years ago, after finishing a long term theatre contract, I ripped the bandaid off, packed up my storage unit in NYC and ventured across the country to Los Angeles. Sparing you every dirty detail of a very difficult transition, five years later I’ve set down theatre and opened my eyes to every other area of the industry including film, TV, commercial work, writing & producing. I’ve co-written two pilots -one of which placed at Austin Film Festival last year and finished my first solo pilot over quarantine. Read more>>

Lotara James

Two weeks before 9/11, I transferred to a school in Greenwich Village to finish my bachelor’s degree. I had moved from the quiet forests of Northern California to a lively and noisy new reality and was so excited to be at a school that reflected my values around education. What happened leading up to and on that day is a whole long story in itself, suffice to say I learned so much and the experience was so dense that it took over a decade to unpack. A month and a half later at the strong urging of my family, I went back to California, incapable of understanding how deeply I had been affected, likely because I was still in a state of shock. Read more>>

CJ Ballesteros

I’ve played drums, guitar and sang in bands for about 12 years, my current project being Trash Castle, which I describe to people as slacker rock. I moved to LA about five years ago and played in a band called birdluck before starting Trash Castle about two years ago. Basically, every band I’ve ever played in has been pretty DIY so Trash Castle has always been a pretty self-sufficient effort, I recorded our first EP and our bassist Lexi does most of our photography. The last thing that we did with the project was a couple of singles we released called House Party and Wild West right before the pandemic (boo). Read more>>

Blake Hilton

Freshman year of high school, I was accidentally placed into a drawing class. I tried really hard to switch to a different elective because I had no experience with drawing or painting, but there was no room in any of the other electives. That turned out to be one of the best things to happen to me because it helped me find my passion for the arts. I quickly became hyper fixated and would draw every day. That’s how I ended up studying art at Chapman University where I met a lot of people who were studying film. I got involved with a few student films there and found that I really enjoyed production design and pretty much threw all my energy into that. I really value both studio art and production design for different reasons – studio art for the control and solitude, production design for the collaboration and community. Read more>>

Nina Koyfman

I began doing black and white film photography in 8th grade all the way into my senior year of high school. I knew from a very early age that I wanted to make films and I took all the art classes I could throughout my childhood to supplement me not having a video camera. My parents weren’t supportive of me becoming an artist like they are now and urged me to study Economics in college which I hated but still did because of some sort of inner fear of myself I guess. I transferred into the Economics program at UC Davis and started living in a 100 years old home filled with artists. I filled up my student schedule with film and economics classes and started failing all my high-level Econ courses to the point where I got kicked out of school and had to re-enroll. During which I finally changed my major to cinema and digital media. I found myself as an artist during this time and it felt heavenly. Read more>>

Callie Haun

I was raised in a tiny home-surrounded by tons of love. I credit my family for their insistence that I never feel limited due to my gender. I realize my privilege for so much the older I get. My parents lived a quick bike ride away from my grandparents & great grandma (she lived to be 104). Being able to daily access everyone in my clan contributed to my falling in love with storytelling-from each viewpoint offered an enormity of insight. My paternal grandparents have interchangeably shared the title of “best friend” throughout my life (& still are). My hometown of under ten thousand in Northern California was quiet & idyllic with its location being in the center of “The Wine Country.” A plethora of orchards, agriculture, dairy farms & endless grapevines. Because of this bubble, my imagination was my main outlet for being creative. I was eager to escape the oasis that felt limiting for artistic growth & lack of diversity. Read more>>

Mani Yarosh

Well for starters, I’m an actor. I was born in New Jersey. I’m the oldest of four and I grew up with parents who really pushed us to be as well rounded as possible. So I guess I had an early introduction to acting, but more so through the lens of an extracurricular. Of course, what good is a suburban summer vacation without at least one round of local theatre camp? At this point, I should mention that I grew up with health issues which only increased in severity as I got older. By the time I was in high school, I had compromised mobility, a compromised immune system, and piss-poor class attendance. I was either kicked off of or had to quit any sports I was involved in, which was devastating. The bright side is that if it weren’t for any of that, I wouldn’t have been able to really discover something I love doing. Read more>>

Natalie O’Brien

I started out as a kid in denial. My mom was an English Major and a painter, and I thought I might try out science instead in my undergrad and not follow in her footsteps. Though within the first semester of my first year at UCSB, I took an English class and it was all downhill from there. I have always loved stories. As a kid, my mom would walk in on scenes of peril in my room on a regular basis: Harry Potter tied to my bedpost over a burning pit of despair on trial in a court of evil Beanie Babies, to soon be rescued by Padme Amidala. From a very young age, I was lucky enough to feed my appetite for story through lots of books and Disney movies, running around in a Robin Hood costume in my spare time. In college, I thought I might go into academia and make literature a 24/7 part of my life. Within two months after graduating, reality came crashing down on me. I needed money. Read more>>

Sophia Ortega

How I first fell in love with photography was by taking pictures of my sister’s toys. From that moment, I knew this is what I wanted to do. I then began to shoot landscapes and portraits. I know shoot portrait and still life photography. Read more>>

Alex Sheriff

I got started in the same way that I assume most everyone got started, which is by just starting. It’s rare to meet someone who has never once started making some sort of art thing. I mean, they even make you do it in school. I find it a bit funny too when artist bios start like “I’ve been drawing since I was old enough to hold a pencil.” Obviously you were, and so was I. Pretty much everyone was at the very beginning, I think. A big chunk of people seems to stop at some point, but I do think that everyone starts in some degree. “Artists” are maybe more stubborn, or weird, or determined, or addicted, or fortunate, or whatever enough to not stop? I don’t know. Read more>>

Hollywood

Eliud Nieves, Tank Corleone

I started doing photography at the age of 20 from going to music video sets with my older brother. He’s been a director for more than ten years now (@moral_pixelmotiv), I was always so intrigued while being on set with everything that was going on I started off as an assistant for the shoots like holding lights or setting up for scenes until I got my hands on a camera from a close friend. I started taking bts photos to see how far I could go with my eye and started progressing on my craft. It wasn’t until 2 years ago spring of 2018 while getting better I decided to save my own money and bought my own camera. The rest is history and nothing but blessings to be honest. Read more>>

Alyssa Caliendo

My career in coaching movement and athletic development took off in 2007 when I took a position training clients as a swim instructor in NYC. After receiving my degree in Dance and Biology in 2011, I continued to coach swimmers, dance in a company, and take on positions volunteering under physical therapists. After spending years with clients and learning more about the recovery process in the clinic, I became increasingly interested in preventative care through strength training, postural alignment, and wellness coaching. Read more>>

Selina Elise

According to my Mom, it all started when I was one year old. Selena Quintanilla was performing “Como La Flor” on TV and while she was in the kitchen cooking, she heard some mumbling and singing coming from the living room. Of course, she dropped what she was doing to come check it out and lo and behold, it was yours truly trying to mimic every word Selena was belting into her microphone. My Mom and I looked at each other, smiled, and I continued singing. As I grew older, I would blast music in my room and in the car on my way to school while singing at the top of my lungs. To be honest, my twin brother and my mom didn’t appreciate it so early in the morning but for me it was an everyday concert and my chance to perform. When I was nine, The Disney Channel was life! Lizzie McGuire, That’s So Raven, and High School Musical were a few of my favorite shows/movies. Read more>>

Katherine Diaz

I knew I wanted to be an actor by the time I was eight years old. One month after graduating high school, I packed up an RV, hitched my little red Mini Cooper to the back, and moved cross country. Right away, I jumped into an array of different acting studios to soak up as much information as possible about this fascinating craft. I started auditioning for student films, worked on a lot of USC projects, and booked a small role in a short film called ‘The Answers’ starring Daniel Lissing and Rose McIver. In 2014, I returned to my theater roots by landing a role in a Neil LaBute play called ‘Some Girl(s)’ for the Hollywood Fringe Festival. That experience was so memorable that I decided to co-produce and star in another play the following year called ‘Happy’ by Robert Caisley. Read more>>

Diamond Batiste

Right after I finished my time in the US Army, I started filming skits for social media. After a few months, I started working with some of the biggest social media influencers such as Lele Pons, King Bach, Kway Rogers, and Adam Waheed. I wanted to learn more about actual film so I decided to pursue my Master’s Degree at Chapman University in Directing. During that time, I started filming for celebrities such as Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Nick Cannon, Tiffany Haddish, and many more. Now I am working on building my production company writing short films, web-series, pilots, and my first feature. I plan on going through some of the diversity programs available for upcoming directors, getting representation, and telling the kind of stories I hope will inspire others. Read more>>

Carlos Harrison Canals

Early back when kid, me and my sister used to make fake radio stations, changing our voices to play so many different characters. Also, I was sister’s actor, she definitely was the director, she would dress me like dad or mom or as who whatever came through our imagination at that time. I have to say that since then, I knew the arts, the performance was definitely a part of me. Also, I would like to mention that every year my uncles would have a little play with Skechers for us cousins to perform in little performances and to show to the family on Three Kings Day. Long after, back in high school, I found out theater was that branch of the arts that I’d fall in love with. My first big character to play was Willy Wonka in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” this was the first time I experienced a big audience, still remember the humbling proud pleasure of that experience. Read more>>

Kylie Pavlich

I was born and raised in small town Boerne, Texas with my younger sister. My dad moved to the United States from South Africa and my mom was a Texas native. As you can imagine, there isn’t much to do in a small town like Boerne, so one of our favorite weekend family activities was trekking over to San Antonio and going to the movies. Most children’s parents would take them out of school early to go to the doctor. My mom, on the other hand, would sign us out of school early to go see the latest installment of Lord of The Rings. Entertainment played a pivotal role in how I bonded with my family, related with friends and in inspiring my own imagination and creativity. It was from my childhood that my love of storytelling grew. Read more>>

Claire Frias

I was born in a small town in Mexico Jalisco called Yahualica. At almost six years old, my dad moved my family to the United States for a better education and bigger opportunities. I come from a line of artists of all kinds who never had the chance to pursue their passions. Being so young during our move to another country, I became thrilled at the fact that maybe things would turn out different for me. As a child, I was raised to be “still” and “proper” in front of others, therefore my dramatic performances would only be for me in my room. Being afraid they would make it seem too unreachable and or silly, I slowly had become terrified at telling my parents I wanted to start acting. Until 13 years old, when I came across a small Performing Arts Studio near me called The Looking Glass Studio. Read more>>

Dorothy Zhu

I was born in China but spent most of my childhood in the south side of Chicago. Less than a year after I began learning English, my school submitted a story I’d written to Young Chicago Authors, and my story won first place. That was probably the first moment I realized that stories could become more than my childhood’s means for escapism and that I could be good at creating them. Another crucial moment I remember was the first time I saw Guillermo Del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth”. The film was the most gorgeous thing I’d seen and the subtitles moved along too fast for my novel English skills, so 10 minutes into the film I gave up on reading and watched the film with no understanding of the dialogue. I remember leaving the theater in awe because I had a perfect understanding of the narrative, the characters, the world Del Toro had created, and the meaning behind it all. Read more>>

Abhi Patel

I was in 4th grade when I first started to learn music that was in 2004 and I started learning Indian Classical Vocals(Hindustani Sangeet). Then in 7th grade along with Vocals, I Started learning Tabla (Indian Percussion Instrument) as I has much more eagerness to learn it because when I hear any songs or tune, I use to hear it and start playing along that song or tune so Rhythm (Beats) was like a God Gifted to me, then slowly my teacher started to teach me some hand percussions, Shakers and all, with that I started loving to play percussions like anything and for a period of time during my schooling I use to playing beats on the bench and stool of my classrooms. Then one day, I got chance to accomplish as a percussionist for an inter school music competition and then for eight years, I have been accomplishing as a Percussionist for several competitions, performances, etc. Read more>>

Caihui Chen

I have long been interested in graphic design since middle school. I graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University in 2019 with a B.A. in Law and English, and then I came to CalArts. I am pursuing my MFA in Graphic Design at CalArts now. Read more>>

Artemis Huo

I developed an artistic interest from an early age and have dwelled in the world of imagination since then. With pastels and a sketchbook, I could sit doodling for the whole day; drawing seems to be a natural gift I have to communicate and connect to the surroundings. I’m very convinced that I was born to pursue art. Back then, I was supported by my family, and I was thought to continue a family legacy for my grandfather was a painter himself. It wasn’t until high school that I met the first dilemma in my artistic career. I had encountered fields of variety: oil painting, digital drawing, installation, and so on, but when it comes to college major, I couldn’t vision one thing I would want to pick as a lifetime career. Read more>>

Durell Bowes

Since I was a kid, I’ve always been into the visual arts, specifically film and television. There’s so much that goes into the making of a film and tv series but I knew from an early age that the writing step in the process was the most intriguing to me. Writing has also been a strong suit of mine. My interest really sparked once I became a teenager and started creatively writing short stories. The feedback I received made me realize that writing was something that I’m good at and could possibly make a career out of it. I enrolled in college as a FILM major where I learned how to really write for film and television. One of the best experiences I’ve ever had. After graduation, I relocated to Atlanta, Georgia and that was where I was first introduced to the Acting side of the film and television industry. Read more>>

Kyle Krauskopf

It all started when a man named Kurt sought business insurance and met a woman named Risa while doing so… kidding! But not really. My name is Kyle Krauskopf and I am from a small town in Indiana called Peru. Always a dreamer and an imaginative person, I’ve come to find that because of the safe and comfortable upbringing my parents (Kurt and Risa) provided for me I’ve been more apt to take risks. My pursuit of the arts has always been present from my first hilariously poor proportioned drawing of my grandma to my contributing hand and work at the Getty Museum in LA. When presented with the option of renting my first studio and gallery in Indianapolis Indiana I signed on the dotted line having no idea how I would afford it- but I made it work. Read more>>

Héctor Oliveras García

I grew up in an average, if privileged, Puerto Rican household, the son of two lawyers, and a baby brother to two older sisters. The first kid in my family born after a very long baby drought, I got used to standing at the center of attention. It was no wonder eventually I’d discover my first love: theatre. Between high school and the top-tier theatre training I got at the University of Puerto Rico, I focused on acting for the better part of a decade. That is until I figured out that the feeling of richness I got from acting, the intense satisfaction of inhabiting a character I loved, could only be amplified in grander, more imaginative ways, in ways I hadn’t yet figured out how to express. So, writing came naturally. Read more>>

Mid Wilshire

Xander Rawlins and Taylor Harrison

LAIKIPIA has become what it is as a direct result of how we started along the path of developing it. No expectations, no specific objectives in mind. It began simply as an excuse to experiment with sounds, writing and production between a singer-songwriter (Xander), and a classically trained electronic music producer (Taylor). The timing of our meeting helped hugely. Xander had just moved to Los Angeles following a career in the British Army and film; Taylor, an LA native, had been digging into the world of electronic music, both behind the scenes and artistically. We were both in a place where we felt something was missing on our independent paths creatively. Joining forces for a few sessions felt like a good opportunity for us to explore. Read more>>

Sammy Jean Wilson

My career as an illustrator found it beginnings very early on. Always in a mode of constant observation, I draw from my experiences in childhood and the things that I hold dear especially nostalgia. Originally from rural Wisconsin and Detroit, I spent most of time experiencing the depth that both places provided for me. Both environments brought so much of a duality to my life. Experiencing the clandestine outdoors and the calmness of rolling pastoral hills of the country brought a lot of humbleness. Being able to see everything just be and flow around the natural attributes of the earth helped me gain an appreciation of my surroundings and how we connect with them in tactile ways. Seeing all of the cultural diversity aspects of what a larger city can provide inspired me to focus on fashion illustration early in my career. Read more>>

Katie Leonard

I started to dip my toes into the ‘health-and-wellness’ ecosystem after college when I realized yo-yo dieting was not working for me. I simply didn’t know what “exercise” was or what a “balanced plate” looked like! I would “eat healthy” on weekdays, and have “cheat days” EVERY weekend…then feel awful and regretful every Monday.I then decided to make a pivot in my life: I wanted to feel invincible ALL days of the week and not start my weeks so negatively by hanging onto feelings of self-punishment! So, I started finding workouts that were fun, high-intensity, and easy-to-follow (shoutout to Kayla Itsiness & the SWEAT® program!) and choosing clean/balanced meals. For example one protein (i.e., chicken or salmon), one-two carbs (i.e., sweet potato and broccoli), and one fat (i.e., avocado or egg). I now eat intuitively, find healthier kitchen swaps, and do workouts that get me EXCITED to sweat!! Read more>>

Celine Diano

I was born in France and decided to move to Los Angeles after obtaining my law degree. I knew it was time to find a way to truly express my creativity and decided to pursue my dreams of working in the film industry. I started my experience in the art department on the WB’s TV pilot Fastlane, I quickly found my passion designing sets for various projects, from movies (Unpregnant, Poms, Kings, among many others) to commercials, TV/web series (On The Verge) and even theater plays (The Way You Look Tonight, Mutually Assured Destruction), developing each character’s universe by using the subtle power of colors and textures. Read more>>

Orange County

Michelle and Dirk Uys

Our family came to the USA, the land of opportunity, in 2003. We wanted to live in a safe neighborhood and provide our kids with opportunities. Due to work opportunities, we ended up in Temecula, CA and decided to stay. In 2009, we bought 3 acres in Temecula Wine Country and decided to plant a vineyard first instead of doing landscaping around the house. In 2012 we made our first wine and kept working on improving our craft. After winning several accolades with our wines, we decided to start sharing our experience by offering an Airbnb Experience tour called “Discover off the Beaten Track Winery” Two girlfriends visiting Temecula booked a tour with us. They showed up a little late and out of breath. They explained they rented bicycles for the weekend to tour Temecula Wine Country but was not expecting the hills in the area to be so many and so steep! Read more>>

Mary Esposito

I grew up on a small ranch in California. My mother passed on her love for art and I spent many days working alongside my grandfather in his workshop. I have always loved animals, especially dogs, and began fostering and training rescue dogs at a young age. Enter Riley. A charming, sweet, goofy Golden Retriever who would be my service dog. The tasks he was trained gave me my confidence and independence back but it was his friendship that got me through tough days.I started my journey working with leather back in 2012. I had been battling with health issues for some time. It was shortly after graduating from high school that I went to bed with a headache and woke up with permanent central vision loss the next morning. Read more>>

Nur Mirza

When I was studying for the MCAT, I opened up an Instagram account to share my watercolor art, lettering and calligraphy. It was just for fun and I had no formal art or graphic design training. Then, when started medical school, I got an iPad to take notes. But because I was moving away for school, I also had to leave behind a lot of my watercolor supplies at my parents’ house in Orange County. I discovered the app Procreate and decided to teach myself a little bit about digital art and design. In between classes, I loved trying out new projects on my iPad and teaching myself different techniques! At first, I worked on florals and watercolor, but as I grew more comfortable with the app and following other artists on social media, I looked into trying different styles of art as well. Read more>>

Rachel Williams

As a full-time musical theatre and theme park performer, I was faced with the harsh reality of my field being shut down when COVID-19 hit America. I had just closed my first puppeteering role at Knott’s Berry Farm and was gearing up for a summer of improv acting in their summer experience, Ghost Town Alive when quarantine hit and our park closed. It’s detrimental as an artist to have no outlet to create. I found myself seeking out any creative outlet I could- Tiktok, poetry, and eventually I stumbled upon resin. On a whim, I decided to dive right in and start creating earrings. It quickly became a passion of mine and I’ve since launched an Etsy shop. Read more>>

Cathrin Machin

Today is a new day. And if you want, you can choose to be a totally new person. You have permission to reinvent yourself day after day until you find a “you” that works. Five years ago, I was a high flying video game executive producer and I hit a point of no return. Working seven days a week and away from home for 16 hours a day, I couldn’t function. I had a pretty intense nervous breakdown followed by a handful of ayahuasca ceremonies, rather unsurprisingly it leads me to realize what my life’s purpose is…to connect people to the stars. Read more>>

Aerrol Ampeloquio

I began acting during my senior year of high school in my hometown of Danbury, Connecticut. I had auditioned for the Spring Musical, “Footloose”, just for fun with some of my friends and somehow had landed the lead role of “Ren McCormack”. I pulled a full “High School Musical” situation and quit my sports to take on this role, and I loved it. During the time, I was going through some depression and had no idea where to express my emotions, but acting gave me an outlet for that. But it wasn’t until the opening show, where my eyes were fully opened to the effect of acting when a member of the audience came up to me and told me that the monologue I delivered helped him feel like he could get through the problems he was facing in his life. Read more>>

Brandon Smith

I attended school at Virginia Tech and majored in Electrical Engineering. From there, I immediately hopped into building power stations on the East Coast, focusing on wind, solar, and combined-cycle natural gas stations. Later on, I started a t-shirt company with a friend and created/sold shirts featuring lines and jokes from infamous TV show “The Office.” It was an overnight success and we ended up selling shirts around the world! We even received Twitter recognition from Rainn Wilson (who played Dwight Shrute) for our “Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica” shirt. There are a million imitation shirts out there now, but we were the first. Read more>>

Rwan Abdelmonem

My professional background is in Mechanical Engineering, and after almost five years in the industry, I realized that this was not my passion. I have a great eye for detail which helped me excel in my career, but I knew I wanted to take it further. Being a bride myself three years ago, I knew how stressful planning a wedding was. I spent two years planning my own wedding to ensure everything was exactly how I wanted. One thing that was super important was hiring an event planner to help me with all the tiny detail and be there the day of the wedding to take care of all the craziness that goes on the day of. Read more>>

Zach Sharma

I never let myself get bored as a kid. Whatever object I had with me at any given moment became the main character of a story I’d think of and often write down on several sheets of loose leaf poorly stapled together. I spent a lot of time watching television and playing video games with my brothers, but since I was little I’ve never stopped working on something creative. Whether it meant singing and playing music for my family or writing and doing illustrations for books, I loved keeping others as entertained as I had kept myself. My first experience with filmmaking was a story about a bank robbery that I shot with my brother and cousins at a family party. I was seven years old, and it was the beginning of several improvised videos, my brother and I made with our family. Read more>>

Angela Reiner

I’ve been riding for about ten years but it really started rising more when I attending women’s riding events. Babes Ride our in Joshua Tree was my first on my Harley 48 sportster then I quickly evolved to my 2019 Street Bob as the trips became longer. My first solo ride was to Oregon to the Dream Roll where I met many amazing women with the same passion as me. The idea for the shop sprouted when I was looking for comfortable, stylish riding pants. I waited for Atwyld to attend Born Free so I could try the pants on because I just didn’t want the hassle of ordering online and not fitting into them properly. I started thinking that other women probably had the same problem and by the end of the year, we were looking for shops in the downtown area. Read more>>

Jaquan Barnett aka Artis

I am CEO to music label Beautiful Noize Entertainment, my independent Black-owned business. I write and produce my individual music as well as develop and collaborate with my label artists. My journey to becoming who I am today has many paths, but was sparked in college when I was in a four-man music group called B.A.S.I.C. meaning, “Black and Succeeding in College.” I wrote my own lyrics as well as produced and managed the group. It was during this time in college that I built my very first studio. We marketed and released an album together and performed our original music on campus in front of a very large crowd of students, faculty and non-students. Read more>>

Mary (Mehrnoosh) Kian

I am a multifaceted artist with an academic background in graphic design, illustration, and painting. My artworks have been published in forms of product packaging, tabletop products, children’s books, and magazines. I have more than a decade of experience in the above-mentioned areas as well as typography, photography, toy design, jewelry design, apparel design, and digital media. I have been very fortunate in my life to be surrounded by supportive family and friends who always bring joy to my life and help me achieve my goals and dreams. Read more>>

Litzy Rosas

I was born in Garden Grove, California. I was interested in music since a very young age, considering I’ve been around it all my whole life. My dad’s side of the family all have a musical ability, whether it’s being a singer, songwriter, or a musician. Some of them even have their own band! Their music consists of norteñas, which is a genre originated in Mexico. I’ve loved singing for as long as I can remember but because of my family being so talented and musically oriented, I never had the courage to perform in front of others. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school that I joined theatre. I landed an ensemble role on the play, “Peter Pan”, it was such a fun experience that I decided I would join the theatre program. Read more>>

Thrisha Senthilnathan

It all began on a post-it note and the dream of a National Girl Scout Gold Award scout. It now has turned into a major movement with more than 500 volunteers in over 50 schools nationwide. We Rise Above [WRA] is an organization founded by Thrisha Senthilnathan and which was established to educate the community into fully understanding the effects of sexual harassment; how to identify and prevent it. Thrisha started in one school in La County, conducting an entire sexual violence program using awareness weeks and workshops. After gaining support from the entire community, WRA started to grow not only within the SOCAL region but also online and throughout the country. Read more>>

Isaac Gray

I started playing music when I was 11 years old in my church worship team. I grew up in a very musical family and I was in a band with my dad and older brother. Our band name was AlwayzGray since our last name is Gray. I started on drums and then slowly learned to play the guitar and sing. I always wanted to be a musician and when I graduated high school, that didn’t change. Shortly after graduating, I went to play drums for an event at a school my friend attended, that school was Norco College. After the event, I knew I had to go to this school. I attended Norco College for the next two years, meeting the most beautiful hearted humans/artists I’ve ever met. I recorded an EP titled “Homesick” and released it on all streaming platforms. Read more>>

Pasadena

Deqn Sue

I’m an indie alternative pop artist… singer/songwriter. I started singing in church and I found performing came naturally to me. I sang in choirs, took theatre classes in school, did musicals, dances classes… anything really to be on a stage. It was a no brainer kinda…. One day, I decided that performing was what I wanted to do and that was that. I’ve been super blessed and lucky to have done some dope things like being featured on NPR Tiny Desk and having my music used in “Orange is the New Black” and T-Mobile. I’ve come a long way but there’s so much more to do. Read more>>

Nick Dunn

I am a full-time nutrition, strength & conditioning, & boxing coach out of Pasadena, CA. Straight out of high school, I had ambitions of going to physical therapy school. But, during this time I fell in love with the sport MMA and pursued amateur fighting. Throughout this short-lived fighting career and receiving some serious head injuries, I realized that the pursuit of prizefighting was not a good fit for me. I began to coach middle schoolers at an after school program and slowly began to start coaching at Pasadena Fight Academy, a gym which I’ve trained at for eight years. I fell in love with coaching and through much consideration, I decided to pursue a career in coaching martial arts. Read more>>

Phylicia Fuentes

I was born in and raised in the Pasadena area and spent most of my youth living in South Pasadena with my mom. My mother and grandmother in particular were incredible about providing me with art classes and amazing creative opportunities, and my dad is a musician, so I am lucky to have had support and encouragement from my family to pursue art at a young age. I was fortunate to have attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, a small public high school on the campus of Cal State LA with a limited acceptance rate. While I was there, I had the option to take a hand-drawn animation class but didn’t end up doing so because my friends were so exasperated by how tedious it was and it made me not want to give it a try. It wasn’t until college that I finally explored 2D animation – I was attending a small art college in Boston that didn’t force anyone to choose a major. Read more>>

Chris Oeurn

I’ve always been interested in the arts whether it was painting, music, or performance. In high school, we began creating videos in group projects for our AP Language final. There was beauty in spending hours with students from other walks of life I would have never found myself connecting with. That’s when I realized people make careers out of being outside their element, broadening their perspective. I wanted to frame stories among the eclectic. I was raised in the San Gabriel Valley by my single-mom, an immigrant, retired seamstress, Cambodian refugee, and survivor of the Khmer Rouge. My mom hustled really hard to make life as normal as possible. She was quite successful in this way because I was convinced food stamps and section 8 living was “middle class”. I’m still thankful for the kind of comfort I felt being nourished by these resources. Read more>>

Kira Vollman

I started a long time ago. Some might call me a veteran of the LA art and music scene. I am a multimedia • sound and visual artist. Basically, I am doing the same things that I did as a child. I make music. I make art. I always have. As a visual artist and a sound artist, my creative process is much the same, only the tools differ. I do not distinguish between these mediums but instead, think of them as parts of a whole. Some people only thought of me as a sound artist. Some people only thought of me as a visual artist. I had spent so many years performing music, that when I started showing my visual art, I wanted to make it obvious that the two mediums were actually part and parcel of the same thing. At a certain point, I decided that I needed to merge what others thought of as different mediums. I also wanted to engage the audience as participants with the work. I started making sonic interactive wall sculptures. Read more>>

Alli and Tommy Stein

Tommy and I met in Margaret River, Australia. He was running the kitchen at a local wine bar, I was running the bar – at the other wine bar in the small town. We both come from a background in hospitality – he in the kitchen, I in the front-of house. Tommy has been working in kitchens since he was 14. When he turned 18, he took off from his hometown in FL to pursue a career in fine dining – he attended the California Culinary Academy and worked in some of the Bay Area’s best restaurants. Before he was head-hunted over to Australia, he was sous at the 2-Michelin-star restaurant, Aqua, in San Fransisco. I worked my way through every style of food service before discovering fine-dining, craft cocktail bartending and wine. I studied as a somm though the International Sommelier Guild and the Court of Master Sommeliers. We left Oz to be closer to family when we started a family of our own. Read more>>

Leonie Tran

Growing up, I didn’t have the best health. I was born very prematurely and as a young child, I struggled with asthma, allergies, and digestion problems. Because I was the firstborn, my parents (especially my Mom and Grandma) were pretty protective over me. As I got older, most of my health problems went away but the desire to keep me safe and protected didn’t leave my Mom and Grandmother. Because of this, I grew up hearing “get a stable, comfortable, desk job when you grow up” very often, especially from my Grandma.Ironically, I have a serial entrepreneur for a mother. She had a W2 for the first 11 years of my life but switched over to several business ventures. Watching her was very inspiring, but to be honest there were times I felt there was more comfort and less worries when she was at her W2. Read more>>

Mark Bouldoukian

My journey to becoming a photographer began in 2010 Kousba-Lebanon (Middle East) when I started helping my dad with his own photography business (weddings, engagements, graduation parties, baptisms….) I remember sitting in his shop and editing everyday photos, selling cameras etc… One day my dad decided to give me one of his cameras, I was so excited and always wanted to go out in nature and start taking photos. I remember falling in love with the process of creating something with the camera. I started showing my landscape photos to my friends and family and they all said you have the eye kid! You should consider doing this as your profession. I think you’ve got a future in it”. After hearing that, it clicked. From that point on, I decided that I wanted to do work with my camera for the rest of my life. Read more>>

Andrew Chang

I grew up in the city of Cupertino, one of the major cities in the Silicon Valley. Naturally, growing up surrounded by some of the largest tech companies in the world such as Google, Facebook, and Apple especially, there was a major expectation for me in my family to eventually work in the tech industry. Growing up in a majority Asian American community, all my classmates and friends would talk about would be what Ivy League university they wanted to get into, which major tech company they wanted to work at, but I never got interested in any of that. While others were learning how to code, how to work with circuitry or other engineering skills, I spent my free time drawing in my sketchbook or doodling in the empty spaces of my homework during class. Drawing was the one thing that I was interested in, and it was what I saw myself doing as a career. Read more>>

 South Bay

Michelle Valenzuela

I started my work as a music teacher long before I became a working musician as a singer-songwriter. It was in my college years of music school where I got my feet wet as an instructor and fell in with the art of developing young musicians. Fast forward ten years later, I was now writing for film and tv, releasing my own music as a singer-songwriter and working as a session singer. I also became a popular teacher at some of the top music schools in the South Bay of LA for my work with young singer-songwriters. I developed a curriculum to teach my students how to compose a great pop song from beginning to end. Most importantly, I wanted my students to be able to write a song without my help by the time we finished a record. When my schedule started exploding, I decided it was time to open my own school. That’s when MV Music Studio was born! Read more>>

Christina Ashkarian

Where did it all start? Taco Bell, actually! It was my first job when I was 15. In my short time there and my take away from that was job was a profound realization that I would one day work for myself. I didn’t know how, when, but I held that belief with me until I was 24 when it came to fruition. I was volunteering in Armenia and at the time, I was feeling lost, so I went with the intentions of going to have a good time of course! But on a personal note, I wanted to figure out what I wanted to do career wise. So in short, that’s what I did. I wrote it down to get clear on what I wanted. When I came back home, I worked at a few lash bars, from there I gained the confidence I needed to go out in my own. Doing things like buzzfeed bits, putting myself out there more, building strong relationships. Read more>>

Aleks Pevec

I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. Although I’ve been a working actor on Broadway for the last decade, I currently live in Los Angeles, California. Outside of my professional career in stage, film, and television, my spiritual passion is spending time out on the ocean on my surfboard. Surfing is my church. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve used surfing as a way to connect my body to nature and my soul to the world. Gliding across the pulsating belly of the ocean has always provided me with a deep peace that I try to carry with me every moment of the day. Catching a twenty-second left pulsates a deep and meaningful satisfaction to my heart. There really is nothing else like the feeling of holding nature’s hand, giving yourself over to the elements, and working together to achieve that satisfaction. Read more>>

AdaPia d’Errico

In late 2016, I began an important life-transition when I left the company that I helped to build in the real estate fintech space. Because my entire identity and sense of worth were intertwined with that company and my 18-year career, I was blind to the internal evolutionary process that was actually asking me to break out of my career identity and find my authentic essence; a more permanent and unshakeable sense of self that could be, do and take on any role – without being defined by said role. My outer life: career, husband, home (under construction), finances, social network, and family all came under pressure. How could I keep my life together when everything inside of me was falling apart? I couldn’t find meaning in almost anything that I previously valued, other than my husband’s love, but that relationship was straining, and I was terrified of losing him. Read more>>

Melissa Mel

After moving to LA from CT in 2018, I met so many amazing creatives & entrepreneurs chasing their dreams & *killing it!* I was both empowered to believe I could achieve more than I’d ever thought was possible, and inspired to become more intentional with my own spending and help others do the same to support small businesses over big brands. At the beginning of 2019, I launched a weekly series on my Instagram Stories to shout out women + minority-owned small businesses & review their products, WoMi Small Biz. I started with Eniale Cosmetics, which was the first brand I modeled for in LA, and kept up with it for 5 seasons. Season 2 featured short IGTV interviews with local LA brick & mortars that offered safe spaces for marginalized communities, from Junior High LA to ComeUp LA. Read more>>

Vincent Nguyen

Modern Color started back in 2014 kind of in the ashes of other bands that we had been in at the time. We all grew up around each other playing music in the same local scene and when those bands had ended, a few of us got together to try something different and that was Modern Color. We had experience with how we wanted to work as a band and ideas of what we wanted to sound like and this was going to be our first actual concentrated effort towards it. Initially, we knew practically nobody in terms of who was booking shows, the local bands in similar style, what record labels we needed to be on, etc. but because of that I took on a more DIY approach with booking our own shows and tours, figuring out our own releases and presentation, and eventually we were able to carve our own spot in the scene. Read more>>

Devon Stewart

I was born in Torrance, CA, and am still based in the South Bay. I suppose the best way to describe myself is to borrow a term from one of my favorite musical projects, Celldweller: “creatively schizophrenic.” By this I mean, I have always had a wide variety of interests, and I’ve always been creatively all over the place. From an early age, I was always coming up with stories, taking inspiration from the movies (both animated and live-action) and cartoons that I watched, and this led me to start drawing. Unfortunately, in middle school, due to a limited support group and a tendency to keep things bottled up and not share what was troubling me, I got discouraged, and for a long time after, gave up on drawing and artistic pursuits, not resuming them again for years. Read more>>

Jen Hartry

I ventured into adulthood, as many others do, leaving my college experience behind, without much clarity about what I wanted to actually do with my life. I graduated from Cal Poly – SLO with a degree in Social Science emphasizing in organizational behavior, but I really wasn’t sure how to translate my true passions into a career. I grew up with a love for music and storytelling and people – my idea of a perfect day was sitting outside getting lost in a book or listening to music with friends. It never occurred to me that these extracurricular activities could become the foundation for my life. I spent a couple of years post-college jumping around from job to job until I found myself working for a non-profit independent record label in Orange County. Read more>>

LacQuan Scott

I was born and raised in Paterson, New Jersey. Always have been a little of an odd kid when it comes to my interests (games, art, comics, music). Not that these aren’t common kid’s interests, but the fact that you are “supposed” to outgrow most of these things. I didn’t, I knew I was meant to be a creative, my older brother and my mom are both into art and are my earliest inspirations. Literally have been drawing as long as I can remember. I started out with the typical things like looney toons and anime, pretty much any early/late 90s pop culture. I went to Passaic County Tech high school and majored in Advertising Art & Design. I was convinced that the only money in art while living was through the advertising industry (bad advice). Though I was a fine artist at the time, I am thankful because this is where I was introduced to the basics of graphic design. Read more>>

Jennifer Graves

In 2009, we moved from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. The move opened up a new world for me artistically. It’s here that discovered my love for Letterpress printing and bookmaking. I mean I always ooh’d and awed over letterpress cards and stationery, but I had no idea how much I would love the process of letterpress printing. Over a period of time and throwing myself into taking classes and spending countless hours honing my skills during open lab at Otis College of Art and Design, I secured a part-time job working in the Laboratory Press studio. Along the way, I began assisting Rebecca Chamlee in her Book Structures class and discovered I love bookmaking as well. About five years ago, I taught my first Letterpress workshop at BookArtsLA and now teach Introduction to Letterpress at Otis College of Art and Design Extension. Read more>>

Brittany Stewart

TheHangerXchange came to me in 2011 as just an idea of wanting to sell all of the amazing thrifted items that I would pick up from yard sales, thrift stores, and antique sales from time to time. I started off with selling on eBay, but with school, work, and life, I wasn’t able to go as hard as I wanted to. Fast forward to 2017, I got married and decided I’d begin selling my clothes on my own website. I was having a great time selling all of my great finds, however I knew that I wanted more. I love to wear thrifted items, but I also love to wear new and more contemporary pieces as well. So I decided that I wanted to merge both my love of thrifted items and contemporary fashions. In 2020, I relaunched TheHangerXchange adding new Collections to accompany the awesome thrifted pieces. Read more>>

Hakeem Pope

I was born and raised in Atlanta, GA. As a kid, my mother always told me, “You can literally do anything you set your mind too” With that statement, I took it upon myself to find this magnificent gift of being a Graphic Designer. It wasn’t easy to find this gift I must say, you have to be able to find yourself and reflect on it immediately. I’ve picked up a passion for Art in my senior year of High School. During that time, I’ve realized what I’ve wanted to do and make a career out of it. In 2015, I’ve decided to settle in Huntsville, Alabama to attend the college of Alabama A&M University and take my art very serious. In the beginning stages of my art career, I was just doing the normal portraits of celebrities, athletes, etc. and make a post about it on my social media. Read more>>

 South LA

Vanessa Perez, Briana Raygoza, Vannesa Gonzalez and Jasmine Cardenas

Our story begins in Downey, CA. We met while working at a salon in 2009. In 2017, we decided to part ways and opened a suite salon that proved to be extremely successful and it was the best business decision we could have ever made. We gave ourselves five years to move into a storefront and we beat our goal by doing it just three years later. Briana (Bri) Raygoza, Vannesa (V.G.) Gonzalez, Jasmine Cardenas, Vanessa (V.P.) Perez became The Beauty Lounge! Read more>>

Brandon “BrandElsa” Wagner

My journey into the arts began in high school when I auditioned for the Spring musical during my freshman year. I got cast and remained connected to the theatre department for all four years. When the time came to attend the University of California, Riverside I was set to pursue a degree in science working toward becoming a veterinarian, a childhood dream shared by many 7-year-olds. After my first term and taking a college-level theatre course, I realized my heart would always belong to the stage. So I switched my major, consequentially losing a $16,000 scholarship, and began to work toward a theatre arts degree. Read more>>

Brandi Johnson

My business started very organically. At the beginning of this year, I was looking to improve my health and fitness. I started juicing to detox, reset my system and lose weight. I shared some of my juices with my friends and they loved them. They are packed with fruits and veggies. They started offering to buy detox bundles for themselves and the first part of my business was born. After the pandemic struck and everything closed down including gyms, I started researching other ways to lose stubborn and unwanted fat other than plastic surgery, that conventional workouts weren’t resolving. I discovered body contouring which is non-invasive and can assist people in achieving their goals. I had a few sessions myself and was impressed with the results. Read more>>

Kenneth Goodrich

With an ensured professional pursuit of racing motocross growing up, music was nothing but the fuel for another ambition. I could write a whole separate article about that. A lot of wins and losses. Injuries came with the territory, but one truly ended it for me. Being bedridden on & off for three years, I found my new pursuit—music. I was 16 at the root of this injury. I was lost and became depressed for a good minute with lack of direction, but quickly picked up music. It started as just freestyling with friends and having fun, but I knew I was good, so why couldn’t I make something serious out of it? I mean I couldn’t be the athlete that I was, so why not give it a shot? The same ambition I put into motocross eventually blended over into my pursuit for music. Read more>>

Essence Jourdan

As a young girl, luxury’s like hair appointments weren’t always in the picture & like anyone else I wanted to look my best. In 6th grade, I got my first weave installed by my aunty Asia and since I couldn’t afford the upkeep, I started to watch tutorials on YouTube and learned to install my own. I’ve always been a very creative person so in middle and high school, I came up with so many different intricate styles to try on myself and I would get good feedback when I went to school. I eventually started to do my classmates and close friends’ hair which led to me styling some of my teacher’s hair. After I graduated high school, I went to beauty school and moved into my first salon in 2016 and now here I am five years later. Read more>>

Jesus Lopez

I chose art as my path after reading the Alchemist. I knew then that music was going to be part of my personal legend. I was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. My love for music began with a combination of oldies my parents played non stop, and Spanish baladas my Abuelito would bump. Parts of those songs would stay stuck in my head. Little did I know I was finding loops that would later help me to produce my own music. Being born into the cholo culture and growing up in the hood gave me the motivation to be myself, not what I’m expected to be because of how I look. So I got into skating and graffiti when I was in Jr. High. For a while, I kept rapping to myself until one day, I started rapping aloud with my friends. I got positive feedback so I pursued the interest. Read more>>

The Valley

Josh Cumbee

Pop music was something I grew up with; I was almost always either listening to it or attempting to play it (to the displeasure of my piano teacher, who couldn’t keep much of my attention on a classical piece despite her best efforts). However, I never thought for a second that music could be a career – it was a passion, something that consumed my free time.. and maybe, just maybe, I could go to school for music business and get a job in the industry so I could spend my working hours as close to it as realistically possible while still affording a roof over my head. My pursuit of that degree brought me to USC and began my permanent residency in Los Angeles, and from there the snowball began to roll. Read more>>

Sara Morgan and Briana Sandford

We became friends about ten years ago while skating for the same roller derby team. We very quickly bonded over our mutual love of skating, Disney, vintage clothing, drag queens, and all things and horror. After a decade of attending conventions, local haunts, and horror movies. After much trial and error, we thought, “Wouldn’t it be great to start a podcast with some helpful hints for various events? What pass to buy for specific nights, what to do when attending a convention, where to park, how to get advanced screenings of movies, and so on?” Thus, the Squad Ghouls podcast was born. We had intentions of beginning it sooner, but like many others in quarantine, we found ourselves with some free time on our hands. Read more>>

Breann Olivier

The thought of starting my own business always intrigued me, being an entrepreneur, doing things my way, a chance for open expression; this was definitely me. At the age of 19, I began working at a retail store and what intrigued me was providing the best customer service to every customer. Fashion however was a given and I always had an eye for it, so it was just a matter of a push before I could make it all come together. When I left retail my mom and I decided we would go into business together. We began our business venture in 2016 and through the challenges and learning process, I will say four years of hardwork I am finally opening up my own storefront. Dedication is the key!! Read more>>

Warren Fok

I am originally from San Francisco, born to two immigrant parents with an older brother and an older sister. From as far back in my life as I can remember, I have always had drawing as a thing I just always did. It started off with the basics for any child; markers, crayons and color pencils that I used to draw on blank sheets of paper that I would steal from my dad’s fax machine. I drew all the time. I drew my favorite characters from cartoon shows and videogames, from Power Rangers to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Dragonball Z. I remember I used to draw Dragonball Z characters with nearly seven biceps on each arm; they ended up looking like something gross your dog would leave out in the yard but, “the more muscles the better,” I thought. I don’t even think I knew what a bicep was at the time. Read more>>

Emily Cahill

It all started August 2013. I was living with my boyfriend at the time and his kids. I’ve always wanted to do something crafty to earn some side cash and at the time, hair bows were really popular and I wanted to try it out. I didn’t even know how to go about doing it so I didn’t even bother with the hair bows. Instead, I started dabbling in jewelry making and teaching myself how to make jewelry. I ended up really loving it and got to be really good at it. I continued to design and make jewelry and eventually started branching out from stretchy string bracelets to using metals and chains and making necklaces and earrings. Fast forward to July 2017 where I’m talking with a director about designing and making jewelry for his short film. Read more>>

Jennifer Tallent Joseph

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, Canoga Park & Winnetka to be exact, I was lucky enough to begin my schooling at the early learning & education center at Pierce College, I think that is a busway now. Throughout my younger years, I was always watching the strong ladies of our family; business owners, entrepreneurs and go-getters and I knew it would be a long hard road to be the pillars they are/were but my Grandmother, a Fernando Award Winner & my Mother, the dream maker & creator of our family farm made a path I could not be more proud to follow. Read more>>

Yingyi(Connie) Zhu

I made a major decision in 2018 which is to leave a Fortune 500 company in China and go to the US to study Graphic Design. It was a hard decision. I had worked for the company for 18 years, long enough to have grown with it through its ups and downs from a junior employee to a senior manager leading a MARCOM team in Marketing. Almost everyone was surprised by my decision – my colleagues, my family and my friends. They didn’t understand it because I was not seeking a better company or a higher position but was quitting a good job and going abroad to study something new and challenging. They wanted to know why I was ending a promising career path in order to pursue something seemingly far and beyond and full of uncertainty. Read more>>

West LA

Alice Maples

I am a mission focused person. My goal is to make the world a happier and healthier place. The journey I’ve taken to get to where I am today has been a global voyage and exploration. Below are a few notable points along my journey that have lead me to today. I studied holistic healing and community health in Costa Rica. I studied Traditional Chinese Medicine modalities in Beijing, China. I worked for the Non-Profit HealthCorps in a low-income High School, teaching Health Education, ran wellness programs, collaborated on school and community-wide events, and did quite a bit of mentoring. Became a wellness professional and have worked with numerous companies including Equinox, Yogaworks, Gympass, Elevation, and a few other boutique studios. Read more>>

Natasha Marie

My story is the story of every artist struggling to be recognized in the modern world that values productivity and commerce over creativity. I identify as an artist and storyteller. The written word has always resonated with me the most. However, I never thought I could make a lucrative (lucrative being the operative word here) career from writing. I grew up poor. Poverty informed my decisions regarding pursuing art as a career. Well-intentioned family and friends were in my ear, discouraging any artistic venture because it wasn’t considered stable. I have spent most of my adult life stifling any creativity in lieu of making ‘responsible’ decisions. I have also spent most of my adult life inundated with the sentiment best described by the French as – ‘ennui.’ Misery is a powerful motivator for change. Read more>>

Amy Kim

I began my career at Ford Motor Company, where I was one of the first female automotive designers at Ford. After leaving Detroit, I moved to New York City, where I led product development for clients such as Motorola, P&G, Gucci, and Microsoft. I was living in NYC with my dog Monkey when I was looking for a pet crate for him. I didn’t like the wire crates on the market because I felt bad about putting my dog in there. I was surprised to find that there was absolutely nothing on the market! So I set out to design the best looking and functional pet crate for him. A few years later, I moved to LA and decided I was going to start my own company because I believed in my product/idea so much. Read more>>

Karly Treacy

The KT Method was born of 25+ years of studying the body and movement and my own pelvic floor challenges. I had been an athlete and was teaching fitness and movement for years leading up to my pregnancies. My body had always “bounced back” well and I felt strong! After the birth of my 3rd child, I noticed I had some skin hanging out of my vagina. When I went to my doctor to ask if they could “snip it off” because it was uncomfortable, they informed me that that “skin” was in fact, my bladder. It had prolapsed, and above that, my bowel and urethra had prolapsed as well. This was devastating news to me. I couldn’t fathom how this had happened to my body. Not to mention, it felt like there could be nothing less sexy for a 36 years old mother of 3 to hear! I mean sure, I was peeing my pants all the time and that wasn’t sexy either but this… this felt worse. I was referred to a Urogynecologist to discuss my options. Read more>>

Ricky Lyon

I’m 26 and grew up in Temecula, California. A city not really known for anything but wine. And life moved at a much slower pace than I’ve become accustomed to in LA. A typical big dream I recall from my classmates at Chaparral High School was usually being a teacher, starting a wine and beer company, or becoming a nurse. I started college in San Diego with a focus on business but felt like I was missing something and wasn’t focused on a true goal. I had to rethink what I wanted to do in life and revisited my fascination in the entertainment industry, particularly music. I’ve always loved singing and songwriting, finding interest in every music genre possible. When my family tried pushing me in to law enforcement, you can imagine how disappointed they were when I told them I was moving to LA to pursue my real passion. Music. Read more>>

Jocelyn Thompson

I graduated from USC in 2010 and thought I wanted to be a talent agent. The idea of representing gifted people and helping them reach their goals seemed fulfilling and exciting. After working at a talent agency as an assistant, I quickly realized that the industry culture was not what I was looking for in a long-term career. I had a friend who owned an e-commerce business and I was so intrigued by the idea of owning something myself and being the direct beneficiary of my hard work. I decided to start EPIPHANY LA in 2017 and dove in head-first. Within a year, I had designed the product and it was available on Amazon and my website. Since everything was put together so quickly, I’m now in the process of refining the company, rebranding, improving, and scaling. When looking back on my aspiration of being a talent agent, I laugh a little because I feel that’s essentially what I’m doing now. Read more>>

Krista Jacobs

My fitness journey started after I had kids. I was a soccer player when I was young, always active. I had my kids and needed to get back to me. I was 215lbs and embarrassed to run with my kids. New to the fitness world and no idea where to start. Ventured through different types of fitness trying to find where I fit in. Zumba, CrossFit, but nothing was the spark I needed. One day I decided to become and instructor and lead other moms toward their goals. I started to teach Strong Nation, which is a music-based HIIT training class. It was the spark I needed. It struck the heart and boom Krista was back! After that, it became a game for me to see what I was capable of and where I could take my body. One goal after the other, I was hooked. The more I learned the more I tested myself. Read more>>

Christian Gisborne

I started “Velvet Starlings” at the end of 2016. It started just playing covers at farmers markets and pizza parlors and eventually formed into a rock n roll band. Read more>>

Luciana Tagliaferri

I am originally from Argentina and graduated from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) in 2003 with a Bachelors and Master’s degree in Architecture. I spent most of my summers in Los Angeles studying at UCLA, after graduating from UBA, I moved to United States where was offered a full-time job to begin my professional career at Templum Architects, a small architecture firm so specialized in designing and permitting residential and commercial projects. Later I joined Studio Pali Fekete Architects, known as SPF:a, where I focused on projects ranging from high-end single-family residences to multi-family housing, mixed use and educational projects, all with a focus on contemporary architecture and attention to design and detail. Read more>>

Satya Reyes

I was in esthetician school about 20 years ago and we had a visitor come do a short training on “energy work”. I don’t remember details, I only remember feeling like I was hole somehow and within a year, had my first spiritual teacher, Diane Vaughn, a Reiki Master Teacher. Within six months, I’d received all three initiations and opened my first business in Hermosa Beach, I united my energy work with natural facials, sold crystals, handmade soap and of course, skincare. After my initiations and with the guidance of my teacher, I learned the depths of my sensitivities and that they were gifts, not detriments. Honestly, it’s pretty much taken the entirety of the 20 years of devotion to my healing to accept myself and honor my gifts. Read more>>

Dennis Williams II and Jesse Martin

CampSight Studios is an award-winning production company focused on narrative and unscripted films elevating the diverse perspectives of minority voices. CampSight is also the parent company to BandoFest (bandofest.com). Founded by Dennis Williams II and Jesse S. Martin, CampSight Studios garnered wider indie recognition for the first time with the award-winning short, Note to Self, an official selection of the HollyShorts Film Festival, LA CineFest, Charlotte Film Festival and the Jack Daniels Film Fest, while winning the NYC Indie Film Awards. Read more>>

Christian Hill

I’ve always lived in Southern California; summer beach trips were almost a daily routine. The soundtrack to my youth would be a ‘Best Coast’ greatest hits album. After high school, I took a short drive south from LA and enrolled in UC San Diego to study Management Science (basically toss math, economics, and business management into a crockpot, and voila). My first year, I joined Red Bull’s marketing team. The role had me take students skydiving, throw action film premieres, help plan an aerobatic airplane competition… the list goes on. Read more>>

Ameya Saraf

I was really lost, I knew I wanted to do music but I had a hard time finding my niche in the world of music. My journey in Film Scoring was a complete accident. I used to have a small recording studio set up with a friend in his garage and we used to record our band and a few local musicians back in Mumbai. One night, a friend walked in at midnight. He was working on a short film for 48-hour film festival in Mumbai and was in urgent need of music, 8 hours before submission. He asked to record some guitars for the film as the score and I happily obliged. He started telling me the story of the film and I immediately got inspired and composed something right on the spot. We recorded it and played it back with the opening of the film and I immediately fell in love with the whole process, and that was the moment I knew I wanted to pursue this. Read more>>

Kimmy Seltzer

So much of life is impacted by outward appearances. Decisions are made, judgments are formed, relationships shift, lives are altered–all by what we perceive on the outside. What we see becomes what we inadvertently believe. Most often, our mindset dictates how we show up, whether in relationships or in our own personal pursuits. If we are not in the right frame of mind, our actions and demeanor reflect that. Especially when it comes to social settings, we don’t dress the part until we feel ready, aligned and have fully embraced our confidence. Read more>>

Shayan Pourmohamad

I had a concept for a Pirate themed beer and wine store for several years. A place that’s trashy, free of judgment, and run by an evil mascot, which would be Blackbeard himself. Most importantly, I wanted a business that’s fun and carries its own unique personality. I’ve come a very long way to get where I am at. I used to be homeless, and I lived in my car for six months. I worked two jobs and went to school at the same time. All I have done my entire life is work. A little over six years ago, my brother passed away, he was also the one supporting my mother. She’s a very strong woman, but no parent should have to go through the loss of their child. I had to do something to help her and take some stress off her shoulders. Read more>>

Amy Friedman

POPS stands for Pain of the Prison System, and POPS the Club is a nonprofit I co-founded in early 2013 following a long career as a newspaper columnist, author and ghostwriter. POPS creates and supports school clubs for teens whose parents, siblings and other loved ones are or have been incarcerated. We designed the program based on the model of the first LGBTQ club created in the US in 1988 at one school in Massachusetts–that ultimately blossomed into the Gay Straight Alliance and a movement. I sought to create a supportive, nurturing environment for these kids because I had been married to a man who was incarcerated. Raising our daughters, I experienced the stigma and shaming the girls endured, and the silence that stigma engendered. Read more>>

Sam Chin

In the past few years, it grew really apparent to me how sick and confused I had become of being extremely self-critical. I had carried low self-esteem paired with a facade of confidence since I was in grade school, and by the age of 23, I was just done with it. I was tired of feeling nervous to be myself while everyone else in my life only showed me love. I was tired of not believing in the Me that others could see, and I felt like I was holding myself back from some feeling I didn’t know yet and couldn’t fully understand. The idea of “self love” sounded nice to me, it sounded helpful, but I couldn’t wrap my head around not noticing and addressing my flaws while loving myself fully at the same time. Learning to completely love who I am sounded like a fairytale that I may or may not reach later in my life. I thought that this mentality was for certain people, a more evolved time in my life, or just might not be possible at all. Read more>>

Janell Dusi

I am fourth generation in the grape farming business as my Great Grandparents immigrated from Northern Italy in the early 1900’s. They settled into Paso Robles and planted Zinfandel vines in 1925. After five generations, we have only expanded our vineyards into more acreage and keeping these old vines preserved and cared for. As I grew up on 100 acres of Old Vine Zinfandel, the grapevines were our playground, our livelihood and our way of life. I became obsessed with keeping some of our grapes and turning them into a Dusi wine. I began at a very young age of experimenting with grape fermentation and continued making small batches of homemade wine throughout high school and college. I am a hands-on, labor-intensive farmer’s daughter and learned everything about wine from hand-on experience and working at other wineries. Read more>>

Gwen Beloti

I’ve always loved fashion and all things stylish – clothes, jewels, shiny pens, cool notebooks, you name it. Today, I am a certified fashion designer but before designing my own apparel line, I relied heavily on accessories to make statements with my look. At a young age, my style was influenced a great deal by accessorizing. With my weight fluctuating for most of the earlier part of my life and dealing with body image, it was difficult to find stylish clothes that fit well. What did I do? I accessorized my little heart away. My personal experience as a long-time consumer first, and trained designer second – is the foundation of my collection today. Read more>>

Thayer Gowdy

I am a photographer/director/designer. I have been named top wedding photographer by Harpers Bazaar in the world for the last few years. I shoot for clients such as Burts Bees, Hush Puppies, eBay, Amazon, Domino and Minted. When I am not on set, I have a serious love for renovation and design. I am on my third renovation and this one is the best yet! At my current project Rancho Wilder I have extended from inside the home to outside, designing a drought tolerant landscape and hardscape. I consult direct with homeowners on ways to improve their spaces with my scandi/ wabi sabi vibe that is modern yet comfortable, fresh while still being timeless. I am heavily influenced by natural materials and my love of Southern Spain and Portugal. Incorporating design elements in a functional approach. I collaborate with other designers that want to incorporate my style into their projects, some hire me for my sourcing obsession! Read more>>

Kate Zarouk

I grew up in Akron, Ohio. I proudly attended public school and came from a family that has always been committed to doing their part to give back to their community. I was the kind of child that was studious but had a wicked sense of humor and a desire to work hard. Desperate to leave the Midwest, I attended college in Washington, DC at The American University and then attended law school at Brooklyn Law School. After working in New York City for a few years, a family emergency set the stage for my return to Ohio, which I remember saying would just be for a year. That year morphed into 13 years. In 2016, I relocated with my mother and two dogs in tow to Los Angeles so that we could be closer to my brother, Jesse Garson Zarouk, who lives in Santa Monica with my nephew, Asher. I joined the WBC as Executive Director in 2018 after working in the education and legal industries since 2000. Read more>>

Myriah Marquez

At age eleven I became really ill, being in and out of the hospital taught me quickly how precious life was and that I wanted to experience all that I could. At age eleven, I also picked up Skateboarding, more as a security blanket within the lifestyle rather than the sport. At age 18, I hit the road and never really looked back, I’ve always longed for a sense of community and involvement. I ended up in Venice, CA at age 25 and met a few other Womxn that skated. We started just with intentions to meet other Womxn to skate with. This quickly grew with such incredible support from the community, so we decided to expand, we have now hosted; skate mentorships, parties to raise money for local and abroad non- profits, bi-weekly skate meets, as well as now have “chapters” in New York, San Diego and soon Brazil. Read more>>

Dre Scott

I grew up in Connecticut but came to LA to go to USC where I ended up majoring in Music Industry. I was always musical (in school chorus/acapella groups/musicals) growing up, but my real music pursuits began when I took a recording studio elective my freshman year of high school. We learned how to make beats on GarageBand in that class and my friends and I got obsessed. A few months later, we thought it’d be pretty dope if we rapped on our beats as well and that’s when I started to put a much bigger effort into everything. Read more>>

Paul-Mikel Williams

I was raised by my mom in a single-parent home with my two older brothers. We had a history of doing print modeling and commercials in the family, but my mom did not want me to be involved with Hollywood. When agents approached her, for years she would tell them she was too busy for that and let her think about it but really she had no intention of following through. I had a lot of energy so she put me in different classes to keep me busy. One day when I was about eight years old, I had a dance and acting recital. The emcee called out sick, so my teacher filled in and asked me to co-host along with her as she fed me the lines impromptu. I got a standing ovation with encore calls and afterwards chased by ballerinas and autograph requests. Read more>>

Robear Landeros

Growing up in Compton, California wasn’t an easy task. Just cause you’re from the “hood” doesn’t mean you have to be of the hood. Cut to, now I have my salon in Beverly Hills. I have transformed the second floor of the Gavert Atelier Salon into my oasis which I call the PENTHOUSE. Hence why I titled this story “from the hood to the hills”. The moment I decided to hair back in 1993, I said I was going to do celebrities. “I’m going to be famous & takeover Hollywood!! Well, at least I accomplished 1 of those things (I do celebrities) lol. I’ve done every red carpet imaginable, from the Oscars & the Emmys to Grammys & MTV Music Awards. Pretty much every Hollywood award show, I’ve styled hair for them. Last year I was blessed to become the Head of the hair department for the Steve Harvey show. Read more>>

Anna Spearman

As a child, I always requested the latest gaming gadget to entertain my love for technology. My favorite gadgets in elementary school were the Gameboy, Wii, PSP, HP Desktop and any gadget I could get my hands on. In sixth grade, I received my first brand new Macbook laptop. I finally quenched my thirst for technology when I participated in a robotics summer camp, which propelled my interest in Computer Science and robotics. As a result of the robotics camp, I joined the robotics team at Marlborough School. Upon entering Marlborough, I met with my counselor who suggested based on my Math and Science scores that I explore STEM-related classes. He also suggested that I switch from Spanish to Mandarin Chinese, which would help me in the tech world. Read more>>

Addae and Nya Jahdai-Brown

We’re a couple of New Yorkers living in LA. We’ve been married for 15 years and have three children. We’re trying to find balance between work, side hustles, children, family, and “us” time. We love listening to podcasts about current events, pop culture, life hacks, spirituality, and anything to make our lives more productive and enjoyable. Addae being a life coach/educator, and Nya a Chiropractor, people would always say we were both knowledgeable and funny. We realized they were right, and we have a lot to share! We started the Black Spark Podcast in January of this year and we’re loving it. Read more>>

Sean Evora

I launched EVORA SWIM in March 2019 with the goal of making a difference. I wanted to create lifestyle brand focused on creating a meaningful impact and helping those in need through comfortable, fashion-forward swimwear that helps people look good & feel good at the same time. With every piece of clothing purchased on evoraswim.com, we donate a portion of sales directly to Arrive In Kenya. Arrive in Kenya is a non-profit focused generating positive action and sustainable advancement to empower children in impoverished regions of the world by providing shelter, promoting good health, offering access to education and giving at risk children tools and opportunities for a successful, independent, and fulfilling life. Read more>>>

Tenice Holman

It all started when I was 24 and needed to get a grip on life and make a big shift. I decided to become an entrepreneur and start what would be my first business venture as a wedding & event planner. As I went through the journey of developing that business, an experience occurred at an event where I shifted in the moment to another business that I currently run today. The story: I was a panelist at a business mentor’s event under my old business as an event planner. At our table, my guest and I were discussing ways to better organize and style her office in order to allow a better production flow for her business and operations. When I was done, she looked at me and asked why my business wasn’t in organization, and I told her, “I don’t know?” In that moment, that sparkly light bulb went off, and it was like uh duh Tenice! Read more>>

Laura Luna

I grew up baking in the kitchen with my mother using my Grandmother’s cake recipes. As I got older, I explored with different flavors and began baking cakes for close friends. For years, baking was a favorite hobby of mine. When friends, neighbors and co-workers began asking if they could order cakes, my husband encouraged me to start my business. As a stay at home mom, raising our three boys, I decided to put more time and energy into my cakes. Lately, my business has really taken off and I’m really excited for the future. Read more>>