Connect
To Top

Meet Shani Drake

Avatar photo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shani Drake.

Shani, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
For as long as I can remember I’ve been a creative person. Even before I fully understood what that meant…

I’m not sure which came first, storytelling or music. When I was five or six I watched the Little Mermaid for the first time. I fell in love with the movie and the songs and taught myself to sing them. Singing is something that’s been a part of me for as long as I can remember, and music came pretty naturally to me. I could hear a song and then play it. I had one of those tiny toy xylophones and I’d teach myself songs by ear. My parents saw what I was doing and got me an electric keyboard. It gave me a lot more range and I started to grow my piano skills. Around that same time I also really liked playing pretend. I had like a million imaginary friends and a huge imagination. I would put on little plays for my parents in our living room and they would sit and watch and probably pretend to enjoy them. My dad had a video camera at the time and I would use it to make movies. I was six so the movies didn’t make any sense and the actors were my barbies and whatever other toys I had laying around but I was storytelling. I was producing and performing and creating. My parents noticed that I liked performing and put me in a theater program. The problem was, I had extreme social anxiety.

Around the age of five, I was diagnosed with Selective Mutism. It’s not very well known but it’s basically an anxiety disorder where you feel like you can’t talk (literally can’t) unless you’re extremely comfortable around someone. I would freeze up every time I left the house. I could only really speak openly with my parents, my siblings, and a few kids around our quiet suburban neighborhood in Houston, TX. Even with aunts and uncles, I could barely speak. A good metaphor for it is knowing exactly what you want to say and wanting so badly to say it but not being able to, as if an actual force is holding you back. The words got stuck in my throat, for years… Though I got better at managing it over time, learned to speak up in class with less fear, eventually needed less time to get comfortable around classmates, and became more comfortable with certain social situations, social anxiety was something I struggled with until around age 23… but through it all I kept my love of performing and storytelling and creating.

Around the age of 15, I decided I wanted to be an actor. You’re probably wondering why I would want to do something that involved being so open and vulnerable in front of people when I struggled with social phobia, and maybe it doesn’t make sense… but acting was an escape for me. I remember the first time I realized this. I was 11 years old and I found a casting call online. I asked my parents to drive me to the audition. We lived in Seattle, WA then and there’s a small industry there. It’s hard for me to remember exactly what made me feel brave enough to do something like that. I guess the desire for what the audition might get me outweighed the fear attempting to hold me back.

Inside the audition room we were given a script to cold read, a short monologue… and for the few moments while I was performing, I felt something almost magical take over me. Something about acting or playing pretend helped me temporarily break out of my shell. After performing that day I remember feeling such a rush. Despite being full of nerves, I’d done it. I’d jumped into the unknown and I felt powerful. I think maybe that was the moment I started to fall in love with acting. I didn’t fully understand it, I just knew that I wanted more.

In high school, I started auditioning for school plays. I barely spoke in school but for those few moments it took me to audition I would become someone else. Someone who wasn’t afraid to speak. This might sound strange but playing pretend was one of the only places where I felt I could be myself. I did four plays in high school. One was an original musical called Spectacular Spectacular where I played Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Getting to act and sing Disney songs at the same time, I was truly in my element. I started studying the career paths of actresses already working in the industry who were around my age (15, 16…) but already doing what I wanted to do; Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez. This was around 2007. I started researching how to build an acting career from scratch. I was serious about it and I wanted to go about it the right way. So I made a plan. I took classes, auditioned for films and theater productions around Seattle, built my resume and created a small reel. Then, when I was 20 I got the opportunity to move to California. My parents wanted to move to San Diego for more sun and my dad, being interested in filmmaking as well, wanted to be closer to the industry while still being outside of the Los Angeles hustle and bustle.

While in San Diego, I started submitting myself for LA acting jobs knowing it was only a few hours away driving distance. I got an audition for a supporting role in a feature film and I remember begging my parents to drive me to LA for it. My dad drove me down, I auditioned, was asked to attend the callback a few days later, and I ended up booking the role. So my first audition in LA lead to a role. It felt like I was right where I was meant to be.

Since then, I haven’t stopped pushing myself. I’m going on four years in LA now and I now have over 20 acting credits on IMDB as well as a few writing/producing/directing credits. I’ve gone through an agent or two. I’ve worked on shorts, web series, and a few commercials. Four years into living here and having worked with so many different people, I have a beautiful network. They tell you about things like your network and how it takes time to grow and most actors (myself included) don’t like to hear things like that because we want everything to happen fast… but it takes time to build an acting career.

Because of my network a lot of my recent roles haven’t been things I or my agent submitted me for, they came from people reaching out to me who know me or know of me or got passed my name from someone. Having that happen more and more has been amazing. I feel like I have a body of work that I’m happy with now in the sense that I’ve done all of these projects, mainly indie films and smaller commercials and now I feel like I can prove to the bigger decision makers (casting directors for network TV and studio films, producers, etc.) that I can bring something valuable to the table. My biggest goal right now is to start getting into those bigger doors.

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?
That’s a difficult question because I’ve had quite a few struggles, many that I hesitate to talk about. My childhood was very rocky in the sense that things weren’t always stable. As a kid and as a teenager, I often had to worry about things someone that age shouldn’t necessarily have to worry about. The instability and constant state of worry that I often found myself in growing up is part of what led to me developing clinical depression. Something I still struggle with. Depression will definitely try and stop you from achieving your goals. It makes it hard to even get out of bed some days and hard to remember why you want to… but it’s something that I push through.

When it comes to pursuing an acting career you could say that the very definition of it is struggle. You get so many no’s and rejection letters and closed doors and there are so many other equally if not more qualified artists out here, some of whom look almost exactly like you and fit the same roles, who are after all of the same things you are. All of that’s just a part of it though. The rejection has never been too hard for me to handle. I think I just moved here expecting it and with an understanding that it’s just a part of being an actor. A lot of times when you get rejected in the acting world there are so many factors at play, you can’t let it get to you. You have to just let it go and move on to the next opportunity because there really are endless opportunities.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I’m an actor for hire. I’m best known for playing Evelyn in the award-winning short, “Avery Road” (now streaming on Amazon Prime), Alex in “Mermaid Down” (horror feature, release date TBD), Kizzy in “V Card” (now playing on Youtube), and Max Gibson in “Batman Beyond: The Series” (now playing on Youtube).

What I think sets me apart is I bring a uniqueness to my roles. I try to bring an honesty and a naturalness to my acting. I like the idea of actually becoming another person for a few moments… As Meisner said, “acting is living truthfully under imaginary circumstances.” I love that magical place between “action” and “cut” where you could be in a room full of crew members but they all disappear and the camera is rolling and everyone is quiet and you’re in the scene… acting. Also, I always try to be professional on set. My job is to give the best performance I can, take direction well, and be a good collaborator.

I also have my production company, Lamaguchi Studios, which is in the very beginning stages. It’s really just a name right now but I’ve produced a few projects under that name.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
From the moment I moved to Los Angeles to pursue this career I hit the ground running. I came with a plan and I immediately started executing it. I’ve always been laser-focused on my career, constantly trying to prepare for any opportunity that comes my way by working on my reel, resume, marketing material, website, IMDB, social media, always with an emphasis on keeping my online presence in top shape. (I can’t tell you how many opportunities I’ve gotten from people finding me online).

That being said I think a big part of acting is luck… but more in the sense of “I’m lucky I checked the casting site that day and didn’t miss that post because this role is perfect for me” or “I’m lucky they’re looking for an actor who’s 5’8″, owns overalls and plays violin because I’m all of those things” haha… There’s definitely a lot of luck or “happy coincidences” involved in this career path. I got my first manager because she found me online. I’ve gotten multiple roles from filmmakers who discovered me through Instagram. I was reading a great acting book a while back and my mom ended up running into the author while exercising in the park one day and they made that connection so I ended up taking her class… That coincidence felt almost meant to be, kind of like me booking the first project I auditioned for out here. Luck definitely plays a role in all of this, but I think maybe the point is if you’re not prepared for the lucky moments then they won’t matter.

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Jacob Kelly, Marissa McCoy, Nate Lyles, Dustin Curtis Murphy

Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.

Related Items

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in