Today we’d like to introduce you to Claire Marie Parker
Claire , we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
At 18 years old I decided to leave home in South Florida to create a life for myself filled with creativity and guided by autonomy. I had less than $100 to my name and no clear plan as to how I would financially support myself but I knew I needed to leave. I haven’t moved back since. I moved to New York where I fell in love with acting and had the privilege of working with some of the greatest teachers. During that time, I struggled to keep myself afloat, so I flew to LA in the hopes of things becoming easier and learning film production. My first few years in LA were anything but easy and extremely challenging for me to adapt. I continued to struggle and dropped out of school. I worked various unconventional jobs and went through a period when I was constantly moving between friends’ places, staying for weeks, or sometimes just a few days, with no place of my own. I went through difficult personal relationships and dynamics that tested my boundaries, strength, and self-awareness. I lost sight of everything and wasn’t sure why I was even still in LA.
I decided I owed it to myself to choose resiliency over the chaos and turmoil that had come with this city. So, I stayed and finished school. I started slowly working on set through people I had met until it became a continuous stream. Now, at 24, I’ve starred in 15+ short films, directed and written three, and currently freelance as a 1st AD and Production Manager. While my first few years in LA almost made me completely lose myself, I took all of that energy and channeled it into my writing. I now have a book set to release in 2025 about my childhood and young adulthood experiences with the hopes to connect to others that endured anything similar. I used to think my emotions were a setback in reaching my goals, but I realized, on the contrary, that my sensitivity was what fueled my passion as an artist in ways I never could have imagined.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I don’t feel as though anything in my life has been smooth. It’s felt a lot more like holding on for dear life and hoping to make it to the other side. I never came from money and have been working since I was 15. I dealt with grief and witnessed drug abuse and saw the effects of incarceration early on in life through those closest to me. Consequently, I saw the world differently. I didn’t know anything about filmmaking when I began and it was certainly not easy navigating that. My biggest struggle has been balancing my passions with the work that provides me income but it’s gotten much easier through the years and I’m lucky now to have found income-based jobs I actually like. Every job up until this point was a bit soul-sucking, draining all my ambition. When you’re working constant double shifts and stressed about making ends meet, it’s not exactly easy to relax and do the things that bring you joy, let alone believe you can actually get there. What’s kept me going is the reminder of why I left home in the first place. To create a life for myself that reflects all the color, magic, passion and creativity I’ve always wanted. I once screamed on the side of a bus stop, “I hate LA!” I can now say, I actually love it here.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a storyteller because I want to showcase the full spectrum of the human experience. I believe in celebrating life’s highs just as much as I believe in grieving its lows. I feel the anger as deeply as I feel the joy, and I want my work to reflect that balance— the beauty and the horrid, the calm and the chaos. I want to show the raw, unfiltered things people go through, from addiction and pregnancy to poverty and lack of resources. Different cultural backgrounds and religions. I believe in making subjects like sex and sex work less taboo. I want to normalize and humanize experiences that are too often marginalized. I aim to amplify the voices of those who have been silenced or ignored, and to challenge societal norms and ideologies. My goal is to spark existential questions and create stories that resonate with others on a deep, personal level.
Everything I do stems from a desire to connect with others and explore the freedom within self-expression. I create like I breathe—not for the hopes of fame or success, but because it’s how I process life. Art has always been a vulnerable way to share hardships, to allow people to feel seen, less alone, and to better understand experiences far beyond their own. That’s the power of storytelling for me.
I currently manage social media for a production company and work in online marketing. This has only expanded my understanding of audience engagement and all the ways art can be seen in the digital world. Alongside my writing, I also do photography as another means to capture moments. As an artist, I believe every role I take on becomes integrated into my other work. Everything is interconnected, and I approach my work with that mindset. For me, it’s just as important to understand the work of a PA or stylist as it is to study acting and cinematography. Each discipline enriches the other, and it’s through this, that I’m able to bring a holistic, authentic perspective to every project.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
I’ve found that everything good in life comes from when you least expect it or you have applied consistency and effort. So continue pursuit of your passions and if something is meant to find you, it will.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claiireparker/
Image Credits
Photographers: Whitney Woerz, Thao Kieu, Michael J, Aleksandra Semenyuk
