Today we’d like to introduce you to Diogo Hausen.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Oh yes, today I am an actor and a filmmaker; I was once described as “a tropical bird who shows up late for dinner” and it has been a wacky adventure to get here. I was born in Brazil and immigrated to the US with my parents and sister when I was five, living in Connecticut and then Miami. I had the same dreams as any other kid growing up on X-men cartoons and Superman comics: I wanted to be a superhero. Turns out those are fictional, so I settled for trying to become a pro wrestler—a decision that did not thrill my family. Ultimately, time passed and I got distracted from that early dream. I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area for college, studied psychology as an undergrad, followed by becoming a yoga instructor, and then earning a master’s degree program in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine.
A logical transition from wanting to be in the WWE.
In grad school, I swore to never do another PowerPoint presentation ever again. So, to the delight of my classmates and to the confusion of my teachers, I made short films for all my class presentations and my production company Whalesplosion was born. I learned to spontaneously make zero-budget comedy nonsense infused with occasional acupuncture subject matter. I got really into making these videos. It took me back to the days of shooting backyard wrestling videos with my friends in Connecticut, and I felt that rush of collaborating and creating something bigger than myself. I loved directing, editing, and giving my voice to something that people could experience visually.
I also discovered that I loved expressing myself through acting, so throughout grad school, I took acting classes on the side. While I finished my master’s and became a licensed acupuncturist, I established myself with some success in the Bay Area modeling and acting scene. I worked on commercials, booked the lead in a feature film (The Pining), and made a web series based on my friend’s love life (And Then This Happened). As I was working towards a doctorate in acupuncture to specialize in pain management, I realized I had to make some big decisions. I had finished my course load and only had a thesis left to write when I signed with an agent in LA and dropped out of the doctoral program to pursue acting and filmmaking in sunny Los Angeles. A bold move, but a wise man once told me: “the right decision is still the right decision no matter when you make it.”
Hey, if you went back in time and told past me that in the future, I wouldn’t make it as a wrestler BUT I would be a stunt-trained action actor and comedian in LA… I feel like middle school me would consider that pretty solid.
So I am here directing, producing, writing, and acting, and making my dreams come true. I never thought I would regularly appear on a murder mystery show (Solve), perform sketch comedy on stage on a house team (SPLASH!) at The Ruby LA, or even get to compete on the reboot of one of my favorite game shows as a kid: Legends of the Hidden Temple! That’s right, I’m a red jaguar now. Oh, and I am set to appear on an upcoming web series (The Federation)… as a pro wrestler. FULL CIRCLE, BABY!!!! So yeah, I guess dreams really do come true.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Oh my. No. It has not. It was a cuckoo-bananas crazy decision to go through 11 years of school preparing to work in health and wellness (bachelor’s, master’s, and a doctorate) to then decide to step into a completely different industry. Making the decision was easy… but the transition was anxiety-inducing once the reality sank in. It is a lot going from giving people therapeutic massages to being thrown on my back on concrete for a stunt class.
Leaving the Bay Area and a market where I was established and booking regular work to come be a small fish in the big Hollywood pond was a special kind of anxiety – seeing the level of talent in LA can easily overwhelm any newcomer. I felt out of place, suddenly less prepared than I expected, and flooded with imposter syndrome. These were not really new feelings for me. Immigrating to the United States took adjusting to and presented some struggles that prepared me for all of this. Shocking no one, growing up in Connecticut as a Brazilian boy clearly of indigenous descent left me grappling with feeling like an outsider from a young age.
I think the most terrifying thing for me was telling my family that maybe acupuncture isn’t the thing for me anymore. Thankfully, most of my family was and are so supportive and believed in me from the start. But there were a few family members that didn’t get it. I am grateful for them for being the obstacles I would need to overcome because getting them on board proved to myself that this is really my calling in life. That struggle strengthened my resolution and left me all the better for it. You can’t get someone else to believe in you if you don’t believe in yourself first.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
As a filmmaker, I am still making some real zany comedy with my production company, Whalesplosion. Since partnering up with fellow filmmaker David Sachs, we have expanded beyond just the comedic and into commercials and music videos, serious ones even.
We specialize in direct-to-camera comedic video essays and we are really good at it. In fact, Natural Light beer agrees we are very good at it. Our entry into their 2021 Natty Stories competition took home the $40,000 grand prize and is in itself a short history of Whalesplosion. This was very exciting, we are still very grateful for this.
These styles of videos also lead to the creation of the work that I am most proud of – which is our collaboration with Bradford Wilson Golf. Brad (a core member of the Whalesplosion pod) wanted to create an open letter to the golf community called DEAR GOLF, in which he addresses golf’s many issues of inclusion. I believe that all comedy has healing power but DEAR GOLF lifted us up to another level. Being able to create inclusive comedy that has a beneficial impact on society has been an accomplishment that I will treasure forever.
Don’t worry though, we are still doing plenty of action-comedy. My all-time favorite actor is Jim Carrey, so between that and growing up on WWE, I have a special love for over-the-top, ridiculous nonsense. I love the excess. You can see it in our proof of concept for a dramatic reboot of the TV show New Girl called… get ready for it… NEW NEW GIRL. We turned New Girl into a Riverdale-esque CW-style murder mystery because Lamorne Morris from New Girl dared the internet to turn the show into a drama. I think he was expecting just a comment on his Instagram so we may have gone way overboard with it. WORTH IT!
And prepare for our upcoming web series GUARD LIFE… it’s about vigilante lifeguards. Get hyped.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
It’s taken a lot of work to get here and I have had to overcome crippling anxiety to do so. If I can offer any advice to my fellow creatives out there struggling with anxiety, it would be this: find your community and make sure your actions come from a place of love.
In a business with constant rejection, where success is regularly measured by external validation – it is so easy to fall into a place of fear and scarcity and make decisions because you feel like you HAVE to do it and not because you WANT to do it. If I look back at the decisions I made out of fear “because it would make me money” or “because it would look impressive” or someone told me I “HAD to do it” for my career… they were not good for me, or my career. Meanwhile, the decisions I made because I would LOVE to do it because it simply looked fun, well, those ended up being the best for my career.
Now, that doesn’t mean spiral headfirst into hedonism, so here is the most important part: find your community. Make time for the relationships. Find your people who lift you up, who support you, who celebrate each and every one of your successes as if it is their own – because it is their own – and keep you in check to make sure you are still doing the work. The right work. Do the love work and then you will have found the way.
I’ve been making things through Whalesplosion for over a decade because I surround myself with amazing people. Whalesplosion is my pod. A collective built on love. We went through all the usual traumas actors go through, but we went through them together. They are the ones who remind me that I left the healing arts because I believe in the healing power of movies, of storytelling, and of ridiculousness. I treasure my friends, my co-workers, and my wife who is the most supportive partner I could have ever asked for. I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish what I have if I didn’t have her in my corner. Also, my cat is great. Everyone gets a cat. That’s the big takeaway from this article.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: http://whalesplosion.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diogohausen/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC43NvmCuZfcE8dZMrhPmcog
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/whalesplosion/
Image Credits:
John Francis Photography (headshots)
