Today we’d like to introduce you to Henry Alexander Kelly.
Henry, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born in 1992 in San Francisco, CA to a wonderful Nicaraguan family! I was always surrounded by entertainment, because Nicaraguan culture prides itself in music and rhythm. From salsa, merengue to the traditional Palo De Mayo dance, there is so much storytelling and magic in these dances.
Palo dey Mayo Video: https://www.youtube.
Theese fueles my creative spirit but the moment that changed my life was when I was seven years old and saw “The Sound of Music”. The beautiful sweeping shots of Julie Andrews singing in the green hills as the music crescendo’d gave me goosebumps! I thought to myself “Woah… this is awesome and there are singing kids! I can do that!”
In high school, I got involved in our school’s drama department and my first play, “The Outsiders” were I played Johnny Cade at 14 years old! It was a huge rush to be on stage! After high school, I graduated and went to community college for about two years, doing community and regional theater in the bay area. I realized that after two years, school was not for me; so at 20 years old I decided to move down to LA and work at the Disneyland Resort. I wanted to be in the “Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular” show, but that did not pan out, so I started working at the attractions department and then became a tour guide!
While working as a tour guide I still did some regional and community theater in the area and even went back to school to continue to work on acting and singing. For four years I was working and kind of doing art. I wasn’t happy. One day I realized “I need to go out and live my dreams fully. I need to go out and give it all I got! Whatever that means!” I booked my first show at Casa 0101 in Boyle Heights and started to connect with people from the LA art scene and the rest is history. I acquired this huge drive in my heart that I never had and began to participate with theater companies, join writing groups, go to workshops, watch a lot of theater, and truly get a sense of what it means to be a working actor. This passionate drive that awakened in my heart helped me get new head-shots, put an acting reel together, fine tune my craft and learn from different mentors and acting establishments, to be patient with myself, book my 1st feature film, participate in new works of art, write a one-acts and a full-length play, call Ensemble Studio Theatre Los Angeles my home and find a manager and agency who I love.
I am so thankful for all the amazing people I have met on my journey and I am here today because of the beautiful artist community in Los Angeles that pulled me up on feet and gave me a warm embrace. Everyday is a new day to create and be a part of this vibrant community.
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?
Nope! Not at all! My road has been filled with struggles of self-doubt, anxiety, major depression, lack of motivation, and lack of self-worth.
Being a big guy I always tried to hide my body and make myself seem smaller than I am. Whether that was wearing more clothes or not even showing my full potential because I didn’t wanna be in people’s way in audition rooms. Finding and owning my body was something I struggled with for years.But now I love my body; curves and all!
The darkest parts of my life was when I felt like I was awful to be around with, that my mere existence was a problem. Ideas that I had in the realm of creating characters or storytelling I would swallow them because I thought “Well… it doesn’t matter it’s not like this idea is any good, and people are probably annoyed by you. You should stop.” You begin realize that, that is not true and that you are finding yourself and your voice through these dark times and re-shaping your mind and heart to unlearn the things that made you think this way.
I also had a tough time in school on my journey. I believe that learning is important but having to follow the structure of school wasn’t the the way to go for me. I love learning from experience, from specific things that focus on my craft, from mentors and personal accounts that I can relate to in this business.
We’d love to hear more about what you do.
I am an actor and a writer who loves creating and working on stories that are fun/funny, really unique and different, give an out of the box perspective on situations you thought you knew, empower minorities and new work! New work is such a rush to me because every moment is a discovery. I am a huge advocate of the LGBTQ+ community. As a gay male, it is so important for people in the queer community to tell their stories so that other people can understand and have empathy.
I am most proud of my first feature film Murder Bury Win in the role of Barrett. He will forever hold a special place in my heart for so many reasons!Trailer for
Murder Bury Win: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzxdpGjJQx0
What sets me apart from others is that I leap into projects I love at 100%, even if I don’t know exactly what to do. I learn as I do and I don’t have a fear to fail anymore.
I am also a huge activist and am currently involved with an event to help Nicaragua. The country is currently at war and my people need help. Please join Amigos De Nicragua: Azul y Blanco at our Gala on Saturday April 6th in Los Angeles. Their will be food and entertainment and all the proceeds will be going to aid Nicaraguans in need.
Information: https://www.nicaazulyblanco.org/anab-gala/
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Luck to me is when preparedness meets opportunity! There have been moments in my career when opportunities have come my way, and I wasn’t prepared, so those opportunities weren’t achieved, but that door closing took me to another door where I was prepared, and an even better opportunity arose.
Being prepared is key to this business, but we are only human, and we are not prepared for everything that can be tossed at us so in those moments where you feel like you missed an opportunity know that everything happens for a reason.
I used to beat myself up about opportunities I missed; but living the day to day and just letting life do it’s thing, you realize that the correct opportunities present itself. You start to worry less about, where is my next opportunity or “gig” and start to enjoy life more. As an actor our goal is to be “human” on screen; how can we be “human” if we are preoccupied on what is next and not living moment to moment?
Contact Info:
- Website: www.henryalexanderkelly.com
- Instagram: henryalexkelly
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/henryalexkelly/
- Twitter: henryalexkelly
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7091896/
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
