Meet Bianca Mariska of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bianca Mariska.

Hi Bianca, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story starts in the Netherlands, where my mom & I resided in an apartment together in a city called The Hague. I have fond memories of riding on the back of her bike with the wind rushing by giving my little body the feeling of flying, stopping by the bakery for bread & getting an extra one to feed the ducks on the way home. The ocean was cold but I’d stand firm with teeth clattering, turning blue, insisting to stay longer. I was still very young when my mom decided to pack up & move us to the states. I started school with barely any English, which caused both me & my teachers to struggle. They sent me to the ESL class, where they were still lost because they were only prepared for the Spanish-speaking kids. Growing up in small rural towns, some with a single stoplight to define its existence, I was excited & nervous moving to my first city, Austin. I moved there after graduation & started looking for any opportunity to act. Getting used to buses & parallel parking was overwhelming for me at first. I worked at a bakery & as a dog walker while picking up children’s musical gigs, independent shorts, anything that let me act. My first festival experience was with a series that premiered at SXSW in 2018. People are surprised when I tell them I was paid $75/day for that! But I was just happy to be involved. I will always appreciate the passion on those smaller sets, where you can tell everyone cares about the well-being of the story being told. Eventually when I felt I had done everything I could in the small, big city of ATX, I moved to LA where COVID hit six months later & put everything on hold. I’m sure we can all define our era before & after everything shut down. I used that time for introspection, building stronger connections with my community, & re-evaluating what success looks like to me. With a restored sense of what creating means to me, I’m looking outside of myself for guidance less. The industry has been slow, especially for actors, but I’ve loosened up the grip of what my journey within that is supposed to look like. I will sing and dance and laugh & use my imagination until my last breath. That is a successful life to me.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The most difficult hurdle in my path was losing my mom. That really changed me & I lost a huge piece of myself. Right after it happened, I used escapism in work to avoid sitting with the feelings of it all. I kept myself busy working as a dog walker, back-to-back acting jobs, writing music, getting into pole dancing, anything that could distract me from what happened. I dyed my hair purple & moved to Los Angeles. I think I was running, going through motions of pursuing my dreams – because she wouldn’t want me to stop living my life. But you can stop living while being alive, & I definitely found myself there when 2020 arrived along with quarantine. Being forced to sit still made everything catch up to me & I broke down.
I started therapy, got on medication, & piece by piece put myself back together. I don’t think grief is something you can recover from but rather, you learn & gain the strength to carry it.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Acting will always my first love & everything I learn about or explore feeds that. Theatre was where I first found that feeling of pure expression. I had normal parents that wanted a normal life for me so I didn’t get to pursue much beyond school productions. But as soon as I graduated I moved to Austin, which led me to do really cool projects like international immersive events like SXSWestworld & Game of Thrones’ collaboration with American Red Cross, Bleed for the Throne. The latter being extra sweet because a portion of the money went to a good cause! I’ve acted & modeled in commercials for Apex Legends, Alienware/Dell, Bose, & more. The changing landscape of the entertainment industry has forced a lot of people, including myself, to shift to other outlets for work & creativity. It forced me to recognize how tunnel-visioned I’ve been on pursuing acting that I didn’t give myself space to pursue other things. I’ve leaned into singing & dancing performances. I began streaming on Twitch (@peachxdivine) to connect with my audience more. I recently had the honor of writing an astrology article in Femme City, a magazine for sapphic girls that are lovers of chaos, art, fiction, astrology, theory, babes, & just gay thoughts! Making art with friends is the literal dream & I hope to do it for the rest of my life.

What do you like and dislike about the city?
What drew me immediately to Los Angeles was the diversity of culture. I distinctly remember my first visit, walking down the sidewalk passing by various conversations, each a different language from what I heard on the block before. It was unlike anything I experienced in rural Texas. I fell in love with that.

It’s preaching to the choir but how LONG it takes to get anywhere. Even if you’re staying within your own neighborhood the roads are so congested that it’s never a quick in-and-out (ba dum tss). The streets feel like they were built on a whim & there’s no rhyme or reason to the structure.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: biancamariska_
• soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/peachdivine
• Other: peachxdivine on Twitch