Today we’d like to introduce you to Camryn Adele Portagallo.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I have always been very drawn to human emotion, anecdotes and history. I romanticize everything so I am surprised I didn’t find acting sooner, but it manifested through a lifetime of dancing. I grew up in New Jersey and I never was a theatre kid, but instead believe I was trained through dance, where I found my story telling through movement. I’m also very attached to music, and it’s been the source of most creativity in my life. I grew up singing and playing piano, now I play the guitar, and spend lots of time songwriting. My first exposure to acting was through an intensive at 16 years old, and, very gratefully, became represented by Sheri Talkovsky and Leslie Zaslower at Buchwald Talent Agency. From then on I knew that acting was ‘it’ for me. I also have a random pipe dream of archaeology on the side… I want to wear khakis and excavate. So, I left New Jersey and went to college at Loyola Marymount University in LA, where I am about to finish my degree in Theatre Arts and a minor in classics & archaeology. While there, I’ve had two fruitful leads in main stage productions, I dance on an all-female crew called Kuumba Beatz with some of the most talented people I’ve ever met, a little radio segment through KLMU, modeling gigs through CESD LA, and I was able to take a break from auditioning to study theatre in Europe last Spring. This experience began the process of becoming more of the person/ artist that I want to move towards. It made me realize I spent too much time living in fear and grief, and that I need to be living in self-confidence, movement and the spirit of creating. So right now I am doing my best to live in that and appreciate what comes my way – reading lots of plays, working on music, auditioning, and recently joined the team at ONYX Film, an all-female production company run by Jordan Pfeifer and Anastasia Zavodnick. I’m also writing a mini-series which I would love to talk about more!
Great, 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?
It has been a very fortunate road but not always smooth. Looking back, I’m coining myself as ‘green.’ I wish I had educated myself more about technique, preparation, and industry lingo before auditioning in front of important people. It was a bit of a ‘learn as I go,’ type of process, which resulted in many pitiful but comedic mistakes I still want a redo at. I struggle at self- promotion and putting myself out there. That’s something I really need to work on and this interview is a step forward. Even if I am proud of a project, I have such trouble wanting to show it to anyone. It’s like I have chronic second-hand embarrassment for myself. I’ve been lucky enough that every ‘struggle’ has brought gifts and growth, and a clearer path to purpose. I can’t even begin to express my gratitude for my agents at Buchwald. I don’t think people could be more uplifting and kind. I owe everything to them and what they saw in me, and the audition opportunities they were willing to get for someone with very little previous experience.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
Right now, I am writing a limited series called “ When You Don’t Live With Your Parents Anymore.” The story’s conception arose from a particularly ridiculous breakup I went through, as many ideas do. I was just so miserable and disoriented for months. It was the first time I had to deal with something deeply painful with no family around. I developed disordered eating, I was barely sleeping, I had to walk out of classes almost daily because I would sit there listening to lectures, hysterically crying and laughing at myself, all in public. I did the most cliche thing ever and bought a cheap flight to Paris to escape. It was all becoming more pitiful and warped and starting to feel very hilarious and cinematic. So the age old thing happened, where I was like…. “ I’m going to have to create something out of this.” I let my ideas sit a bit, letting certain music and albums inspire episodes and ideas. I have a friend group of such eccentric artistic people and storylines, they already seem written for TV.
At home, I live with six females, all deep wells of emotion. While I went through my own stuff, I watched them go through theirs, and we lifted each other off the ground for months. Then the pandemic hit! We were quarantined together in our small house for three months and I was able to closely see the differences in us, the way we were coping, the isolation, the cluelessness, the changes, the inner workings of pain. There was one night, where LA got hit with an earthquake at the very moment my friend Bella and I were in a wormhole of YouTube conspiracy theories. During the earthquake, time stopped-it was like a slo-mo of disbelief at realizing how clueless we all were. I thought the front yard was being bombed, one of my roommates was hiding under a table, we were hyperventilating on google trying to find if the “ stand under a doorway” instruction was debunked or not. Another roommate was cracking up, another trying to call her mom.
The day after the earthquake I decided I was going to run with my idea and write a show called “ When You Don’t Live With Your Parents Anymore,” revolving around six girls living together who all co-exist in the same unique friend group, but have very diverse lives, struggles, and relationships. The continuing theme will be of circumstances that arise when young people stop living with their parents; when they’re left to their own devices. It is a frightening, fruitful and very funny experience to leave home. Each actor will partake in the writing process of their character, so it can always remain raw and truthful, and so no one is writing about something they do not understand. Being a young woman is a bit hard, and I think we can all agree on that. Especially growing up as a young woman today, social media showing us the fun, luxurious, perfect life we ‘should’ be living or way we ‘should look’ is a huge source of anxiety, dysmorphia, and toxicity. When you’re young, you always question ‘am I doing enough’, ‘am I even enough?’ You get your heart broken, you lose friends, your body suddenly changes – life just rarely looks perfect. But that’s the fun of life! I want to create a show that shares the stories of versatile young women and how their experiences – even comedic amounts of pain, can yield bountiful growth, strength, love and unity.
So, I have been writing all summer with my close friends Bella Hartman as co-writer and Caroline Gillespie as editor. The creative team will remain all female. We plan on shooting this Fall using our friends who act and study film production, but the pandemic yields lots of uncertainty about that possibility. It’s self-funded for now. We know we want it to be as high quality as possible, and will wait until we can film everything safely. I know that the script, characters and storylines have loads of potential. So, if you’re reading this and fancy our idea, we are always open to more people and resources to get this off the ground.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
For me, I don’t think anything tangible. Being cast in a project feels great, but the inner feeling of being really proud of the progress and potential come from moments in class with professors and coaches or conversations with agents and mentors. Breakthroughs in an acting class, a personal conversation with an agent that is very affirming and honest, give me those proud feelings. This past May, the LMU theatre faculty gave me a ‘Sustained Achievement in Acting’ award, and that was really lovely. This career path can feel so unstable, there are so many forks in the road. So when I’ve been told I’m moving in the right direction, or that I did a great job at an audition by casting, I feel very proud of myself.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 7327575023
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: Camrynadele
Image Credit:
Ivanna Alcantara, Arden Sanchez, Po Wei Su
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