Life & Work with Alita LaShae

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alita LaShae.

Hi Alita, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I moved to LA from Philly in March of 2014. I didn’t really have a plan beyond actually getting here though. I ended up living with someone I met through friends and acquaintances back home. Thinking back to that time feels surreal. I’d never met them until I arrived in LA and beyond living there, I also couched-surfed between his place and others for about a year and a half, maybe two.

When I moved to LA, I thought I knew what it was that I wanted to pursue, but a few months into being here, that pursuit changed. I soon started getting into modeling and then acting, neither of which were my original career paths. I wanted to be a writer, but life took a turn, I guess.

I ended up meeting so many incredible people all at once. I was invited to a party, and I only knew one person, but they introduced me to everyone they knew and honestly, the rest is history. I’m still friends with many of those people today and I attribute a lot of my growth, both as a person and an artist, to them. I’ve been fortunate enough to work alongside many of them in their own projects, as well as being able to talk to them and ask them about their careers, about how I can do certain things or where I need to go to learn to progress. Thinking back on it, I’m super grateful for them.

Today, I am still pursuing acting, which, oddly enough still includes taking classes. I’ve also gotten back into writing on a more consistent basis, but there’s a lot of learning to be done there as well.

When I’m not in class or actively pursuing my career, I volunteer at a horse ranch from time to time! Something I realized during the pandemic was how much I was missing being around animals (I used to be a farmer once upon a time). Then an opportunity presented itself and I jumped on it! These days I don’t get to go as often as I’d like due to other obligations but it’s still really important to me. Other than that, I’m pretty much just your friendly neighborhood barista, and often times I drive an ice cream truck.

I’m very much a person who wants to do and be better always. I want to be better than I was yesterday and somehow get a jump on who I’ll be tomorrow.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Oh man, no, it absolutely has not been lol.

From the start, it’s been a rollercoaster ride. From a year and a half of couch surfing to splitting a one bedroom apartment with a friend. I remember I was pretty much kicked out of a place I was staying once because I guess I surprised the person I was living with by coming home early from a trip? That’s “MY” recollection of it, but I’m sure there’s more to it that I don’t know.

I also didn’t have a car in my first year of living in LA and carshares were a new thing to me, so I walked a lot. I mean A LOT.

A houseless person tried to mug me one night… for a quarter. Literally for $0.25, which I truly and genuinely did not have.

My first-day job was a coffee shop in the heart of Hollywood, and that was a constant source of eventfulness. Every day was a new character, a new possibility of a terrible interaction. Had a guy try to spit on me once, but …he couldn’t? Like he was unable to? Had people locked themselves in our bathroom for who knows what reasons. Eventually had to have a panic button installed! I say all this to say that job did the job of paying my bills, but man did it try to mentally break me. I distinctly remember leaving work one day and getting a call 30 minutes later to tell me that a man stabbed someone down the street, tried to get in our building, then went across the street to the now-closed Jack in the Box. And I still stayed.

Mental health has been a big BIG factor in this journey. I don’t know that I’d ever truly experienced depression until I got here. And learning to see that, to address that has been hard because we all talked about it, but no one was really talking about it (if that makes sense.)

I don’t feel that I take what I do serious enough, so I push myself harder, and I think that runs the risk of burnout, but knowing when to pull back is the key.

I think the hardest struggle has been “being ok with where you are, even when it’s not where you want or thought you should be.” Constantly chasing something and seeing when you get closer, but also seeing when you’re not. Every single time I thought something was going to be “it” or make THE difference, it wasn’t. Not in the slightest (it came in other forms from other places,) but man was it crushing and disheartening.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I mean, first and foremost, I’m an actor.

However, a lot of my success has been mainly in modeling. I did a campaign for Lady Gaga and Elton John back in 2015 and then another national campaign for a haircare company in 2018.

I don’t feel that I’m “known” for anything on the professional front. I haven’t been in much of anything. I’ve done a few TV spots (The Affair, Disney’s “Walk the Prank), some commercials and the occasional web series or short film.

I don’t have any one thing that I’m proud of. I’m proud of everything I do, no matter how big or small because they all add up and contribute to me being the person I am today, to being where I am today.

As far as what sets me apart from others? I really, REALLY wish I had an answer. I feel like I’m supposed to know this, but genuinely, I don’t. I don’t know what it is that makes me any different than anyone else in this industry or who is pursuing this career. I can really only say that I trust there’s something about me that makes a (positive) lasting impression any and everywhere I go. Again, I work hard, and I want to be better, always, but at the expense of no one.

What were you like growing up?
Ha, I actually just celebrated a birthday and this came up.

I thought I was an annoying kid, but I learned from my family that as a very little kid, I was kind of quiet and shy. According to them, I’ve ALWAYS been funny and eventually came to have a big personality. I was energetic and excitable and had a wild and vivid imagination. I literally thought I could do anything. I loved animals and wanted to be a vet. I spent a lot of my time learning about animals for fun, and drawing was a big passion as well. I wanted to be a cartoonist/illustrator as well. I thought I could do it all, I didn’t think I had to pick one career and just do that. I could do everything.

I was also an avid reader. I remember in 5th or 6th grade, we had a teacher who assigned us books to read and one day she snapped at me for drawing, telling me I’m supposed to be reading. I told her “I know, and I finished the book, so I’m just waiting for everyone to be done.” She didn’t believe me, and quizzed me on the book, on the spot, and I answered everything correctly. She then gave me a new book to read, and the following day, I was done with that book as well, so Iw as drawing again. This continued until she gave me 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and I finished it by end of Day. Well, I’d blown through our curriculum for that semester, and I asked her “Can I continue drawing now?” I think about that and it feels like a good example of my personality as a kid.

My interest in animals led to me enrolling into an Agricultural High School, which is where I became a farmer. Genuinely, I tended to and milked cows for about a year and a half, and got paid to do it. It was my first job ever. I think that’s where my work ethic came from.

My interests changed and expanded daily. I wanted to learn so much about so many things because everything seemed fascinating.

I was also a big fan of asking “why,” to adults. Wanting and needing things explained to me, because I felt like there had to be a reason why I was being asked to do things. I think it was very disconcerting for a lot of adults in my life because that just wasn’t done.

My parents told me “You pretty much set your mind to something and then just did it,” and that I was like that always.

Contact Info:

• Website: alitalashae.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/alitalashae

Image Credits
Jackson Davis Maddie Liner Cameron Rice