Today we’d like to introduce you to Analisa Moreno.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Analisa. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
I’m an actress, writer, producer born and raised in Panama City, Panama. I knew I wanted to pursue acting at the age of eleven when I was a part of a theatre adaptation of Alice in Wonderland in which I played the caterpillar’s daughter. I immediately fell in love with the stage, the process of rehearsals and going up on stage to make people feel and think. I grew up watching old cinema with my mom, she would play us all the classics, and let me watch almost any movie, and so I was always intrigued by the film industry.
Once I graduated high school, I decided to follow my intuition to go find a good film school and major in acting. A year later I shipped myself on blind intuition to a city I’d never been in, and I moved to Los Angeles. When I started school, I was in an amazing in an environment in which I was able to develop writing and learn how to produce. The most joy I ever felt is when I wrapped my first project in school, knowing I had contributed in creating something. The following months after I finished school, I wrapped my first project, I.C.E. CREAM.
As the saying goes, ‘it takes a village,’ and I was super lucky to have had an amazing team around me, supporting me at all times to be where I am. I am grateful for the opportunities I get, especially when you get to see the product from beginning to end and be proud of it, either if it’s acting, something I wrote or helped produce. It’s amazing.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No, it hasn’t, everything in life has its ups and downs, I just ride the wave and follow my gut to take the best decision at hand. There were many struggles along the way, the cultural shock of moving to a new country and not be close to my family is hard, especially when you lose a family member and you can’t be there.
Also learning to navigate the industry as an immigrant, an outsider, is interesting because you won’t always be the look they’re looking for, or you don’t sound right. So learning and understanding the process of auditioning has given me a lot of strength to keep pushing forward. Another challenge has been knowing who are the right people to have around you, it’s important to keep a good support system in this big city.
We’d love to hear more about what you do.
I’m an actress, writer, producer, and every so often model; my main focus is acting. The project I’m most proud of is called I.C.E. CREAM, which I wrote, co-produced and acted in, it was directed by Aditya Patwardhan. I’ve never felt joy as much as I did when we wrapped the set in summer 2017, I could feel it like rays of sun bursting inside of me.
I got to be a part of the conception of I.C.E. CREAM all the way to the end of post-production and film festivals. My biggest reward is when audience members approach me and compliment my film and tell me how it made them reflect on the story. I also have played the lead in other projects like ‘The Door’ directed by Krystina Mi-Young, ‘Sheepskin’ directed by Julio Ramos, ‘Faith’ directed by Chelsea Wingo, ‘La Luna’ directed by Ivan Castro, and my most recent ‘Codex Gigas’directed by David Hemphill coming soon in 2019.
What sets me apart from others is how I seek to portray a truthful emotional moment between the characters, without being phony. I seek to portray more of my Latino culture and who we are without having to play the same stereotypes and boxes we’re put inside. We’re more than the maid, prostitutes, and drug dealers, we are seen as. I want to change that storyline for us. I want to be a trailblazer for our community.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Luck has played a big portion of my journey. Either good luck and bad luck, I look at it like the ups and downs of life, as I mentioned before, if you’re in the same place you were five years ago, you’re stagnant and not moving, not growing as a human being.
My luck was when I was able to come to America to learn about the craft of Acting, having the luxury of going into a classroom, to be able to fail and grow from that failure. I was lucky to be able to branch out into writing and producing, lucky when I found the right team to surround myself with.
My bad lucky moments were moments in which I opened my eyes, even I wanted to keep them closed, and that gives me the courage and resilience to keep pushing forward, to find a solution to the problem at hand. So even when I was unlucky, I was deep down always lucky and making the best of the situation.
Contact Info:
- Address: 519 E. Valencia Ave, Burbank, CA, 91501
- Website: www.analisamoreno.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/analisamichelle/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/analisamichellemp/
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/icecreamshort/
Image Credit:
Silvia Pangaro, Panamanian International Film Festival, Official Latino Film Festival, Jon Graham , Evan Butka, Julio Ramos
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