Today we’d like to introduce you to Carolina Reynoso.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Carolina. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was born and raised in Orange County, California by two hard-working Mexican immigrant parents. They both speak English and Spanish fluently but decided to have me learn Spanish as my first language, which I am forever grateful for. When I started attending school here in America, my teachers recommended to my mom to put me in community theatre as a way to learn English, since my mom had mentioned to them that I loved to sing and was obsessed with Disney movies. My first show I ever did was a community theatre production of The Wiz. I was a munchkin and I had two lines, but if you had asked Little Caro back then I probably would’ve said I was Dorothy’s understudy. When the munchkin’s were supposed to be doing a certain choreography, I was following whatever the girl playing Dorothy was doing. From then on, I became obsessed with Musical Theatre. I participated in school theatre and community theatre, and when I turned nine, my mom signed me up for TV acting classes at John Robert Powers (JRP) in Costa Mesa, CA. Along with TV acting, I took improv, singing, and even modeling classes (I’m assuming my mom thought I would hit a growth spurt and be tall enough to be one. Sorry mom!)
11 years ago, you could just email agents and be like “Hey! I’m a cute kid can I come in a do a Chuck E. Cheese “monologue” for you and maybe you can sign me?” (not exactly that, but you get the jist). I had an audition for LA Talent and I showed up, did a Chuck E. Cheese “monologue” from one of their commercials, and I was signed on the spot. I was with LA Talent for about 5-6 years and I have had some life-changing work. My first commercial ever, I was nine years old and did the first-ever promo for Burger King Apple Fries and I missed my 5th-grade AstroCamp (totally worth it though). I got to work with Zendaya on a Lowe’s commercial (literally a year before she starred on the Disney Channel) and I even hung out with Justin Bieber for an entire day to be on a Vanity Fair spread.
When I started high school, my mom ended my contract with LA Talent because she figured acting would be just a hobby and I would end up being a lawyer (sorry mom part 2!). Nonetheless, I continued doing theatre in high school and my senior I ended up being recognized by the MACY (an Orange County Musical theatre award show) award judges. I got nominated that year as best comedianne for my portrayal as one of the stepsisters in my school’s production of Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.
As much as I have always wanted to be on Broadway, I wanted to pursue more television and film acting as well as sketch writing (mostly because my ultimate dream is to be on Saturday Night Live). I stayed in California and attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA not AMDA). To this day, I can say that my time at AADA was the best time of my life. All of my teachers were wonderful and loving and the people I got to know and befriend were equally wonderful and loving. While at AADA, my love for comedy grew. I started performing stand up after seeing a couple of my friends perform around LA and ended up loving it.
After graduating from AADA, I signed with Avant Artists, an agency I am still with to this day. I mostly have done a lot of stage productions around Southern California, with some short films and videos here and there, and have continued doing stand up comedy.
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?
A smooth road? GOOD ONE! This has never been a smooth road. Rejection is the biggest thing in this industry. From outsiders and from yourself. When you are hearing more no’s than yes’s, it can be hard to wake up and say “Yay! Another day of auditions where I may or may not get cast in something!” But at the end of the day, you have to know that it isn’t personal and that if you know you’re doing your job right and you’ve done your research and memorized your audition lines and put 110% in, then there’s nothing to beat yourself up over. I am grateful I have been doing theatre since I was little because I got my skin a little bit toughened up from not getting parts that I wanted or not even being cast in certain shows. I think the biggest rejection/let down that I ever experienced was not being accepted into Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA). Some of my favorite Broadway performers graduated from there and at the time in my life that I had auditioned all I wanted to do was move to New York and be a Broadway star. Looking back, maybe that rejection is what made me want to veer more towards pursuing TV/Film. But it also veered me to a lot of fun and amazing opportunities I would have never gotten if I had gone to OCSA.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I was such a character! Even now, I am! I wanted to be the center of attention by either making people laugh, performing a play I had written, or singing a song! I was extroverted, goofy, creative, dramatic, and waaaaaay too obsessed with Disney. My favorite thing to do was put in my Disney sing-along tape (in Spanish of course) in my VCR player and perform every single song on that tape. I’ll never forget when my parents bought me my first portable CD player and I thought for some reason that because I had those headphones on no one was able to hear me belting at the top of my lungs to songs I was listening to. Reading was a huge passion of mine as well. My mom would get mad at me because I would always ask her to buy me a book whenever we passed a Barnes & Noble or a Borders (R.I.P.) and I would nine times out of 10 be done reading the book the same day. I was also constantly starting to write books and screenplays, which I have never finished, and writing out music video ideas for songs I loved. Young me was always doing something creative. One day I wanted to be the next Judy Garland, other days I wanted to be the next Carol Burnett or the next Steven Spielberg.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @caroreyrey
Image Credit:
Dana Patrick, Cameron Rice, Alysia Smith, Heather Enriquez, Jasper Sams
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