Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabriella Toth.
Gabriella, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I am a Hungarian native living in LA the past six years. I started out as a model, I am still currently represented for print and commercial by two LA agencies. Gradually got hungrier for something more so I turned to films. Modeling and acting in Europe are really two different businesses, but here in LA, it seems like a model needs to have a bit of acting talent and an actor needs to have a bit of modeling talent. It seems to me it is very interconnected here, one needs to be able to do a lot of things. Which is fun.
I have been doing commercial/print ad work for over ten years, but such as with most jobs, it can be less challenging after a few years in the business. I absolutely fell in love with acting and LA as a city. It is such a magical melting pot. So many cultures, food and arts. It is the place to be!
I have been in a few short films such as The Summer of Snakes directed by Lara Panah-Izadi, who is an amazingly talented French director from AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women. I have recently worked on an awesome horror called Phone Home.
I had the pleasure to be cast in the new indie drama/vampire flick directed by Geoff Ryan. This is my very first big lead role and it was a hell of an experience. We mainly shot at night in the sticky hot Las Vegas night, so it was surely a physically demanding shoot. But I loved the character, going through the casting process, I had a feeling that it was the perfect role for me. I have so much in common with Darya, the human turned vampire, as weird as it sounds. Geoff wrote such a layered story and character that I think will resonate with a lot of people especially in 2020. This movie has so many things to say. It is about these creatures that are kinda stuck in the past and do not want to or cannot grapple with the new way of life on earth. Not being able to adjust to new modern social, cultural changes. And there is Darya, who did not choose to be a vampire, and desperately wants to maintain a “normal” lifestyle and struggles with immortality and her urges while holding onto her memories from the times of being a mortal human. It is an entirely new spin on vampires in the modern world. Definitely not your average vampire story. This is what drew me to the project. I am always looking for stories that speak to me on a very human level, where characters have the good and bad constantly clashing inside them. After all, we are not all simply just good or evil. The movie is set to come out this summer, we are of course not quite sure yet about the where and how since the coronavirus disrupting the movie industry.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road was never smooth, nor a straight line haha. I believe in having some sort of higher power guiding me through life. If I did not get a certain job or things didn’t work the way I wanted them to work out, it might have just opened a new door for something even better. This way of looking at things helps me to stay healthy about this business full of regular rejection that is inherently just part of it.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I am a model and actor. What sets me apart I think, are the things that I first thought were holding me back: being foreign and English not being my first language. It was a whole journey to feel at home in LA and in the US in general and get comfortable with me being somewhat different. Ultimately I realized this is an advantage rather than a disadvantage in this business. I am most proud of being able to work with some amazingly talented and awesome human beings in LA and I hope it is going to stay that way.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would not have done much differently. I am absolutely sure that if certain events in my life would not have happened the way they did, I would not be sitting here today in LA. Even if there were things that some might consider mistakes, I think there is always something to learn from those.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://iamgabriella.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamgabriellatth/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gabriellatothofficial/
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7397106/?ref_=tt_cl_t2
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