Rising Stars: Meet Joel Celaya of West Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joel Celaya

Hi Joel, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in Mexico City, but my parents raised me as an American in many ways; even though both of my parents are Mexican, my dad only spoke to me in English and my mom in Spanish since I was just a baby, so I grew up bilingual and got the best of both worlds, haha! On top of that, we moved to Cancun for a few years, hence talking to American tourists (along with people from all over the world) became an everyday thing for me, so I grew up being heavily influenced by American culture.

When I was a kid I loved being on stage for school plays, but I could say that my acting career truly began at 18 when I got invited to do a very interesting non-visual church play about Jesus’ crucifixion, using only my voice to tell the story, rather than using my body. I later learned that that type of theater was called Theater for the Blind. Right after that, I enrolled at the university to get my BFA in Theater and Dramatic Literature, with the objective in mind of specializing in playwriting, but I ended up liking acting more, though, haha! I take it as God’s calling for my life. I said: “Well, God, if this is what you want me to do with my life, I’ll go as far as you want to take me”. But I never, ever, in my wildest dreams thought He would bring me to Hollywood!

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?
Well, the road here hasn’t been easy at all. My family and I went through a brief period of homelessness after surviving the 2017 Mexico City earthquake; we lost our apartment along with most of our possessions and I ended up with severe PTSD. Our local church helped us find a new place and after realizing I was given a second chance to live, I went hard on auditions for film and TV. After a couple of years, I booked more than 20 short films, a couple of TV pilots and commercials, wrote and directed my short film (starring blind actors), went to many film festivals, and started to audition for American features shooting in Mexico.

Meanwhile, the Art of Acting Studio LA was doing an audition tour in Mexico, so I showed up and, to make the long story short, I was offered a spot in their Professional Conservatory and they granted me a full scholarship, right in the middle of the pandemic! I could barely believe it! So I took a leap of faith, sold a gold bracelet I had, and with the money I bought a one-way ticket to LA, no backup plan. I was housed by two beautiful families, a Mexican and then an Argentinian, and after a couple of years, I got my MFA in Acting! Me! After I went through homelessness and financial difficulties in Mexico I ended up studying on-camera acting and doing theater just a few blocks away from where the Oscars take place every year. Talk about a good story arc, haha!

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a multi-hyphenated artist. I love producing my own content and helping others to bring their ideas to fruition. When I was in college, I put together acting and playwriting, which eventually evolved into directing and screenwriting, and came full circle learning how to video edit according to my needs. On the other hand, everyone who grew up in Latin America understands the need to learn how to do a little bit of everything (becoming a “todologo”, as we call it) by a lack of resources, haha.

Because I started acting doing Theater for the Blind and worked alongside incredibly talented blind actors for a while, that profoundly shaped my perspective on acting and forced me to look deeper into the characters, finding the light in the darkness, hope where there’s none and truth amongst the shadows (no puns intended; for real, haha). A few years later I ended up writing and directing “The Beauty in Your Eyes”, a 16 mins short film starring two blind actors, in which I had a blind actress playing a regular-sight character, something that, so far, I haven’t heard of anyone else who has done that yet! The short film will premiere shortly in film festivals, will keep you posted!

What was your favorite childhood memory?
Growing up, my dad used to come home from work with a new DVD to watch together. During the weekends we used to go to Blockbuster to rent movies; I remember we asked specifically for the 2-disc editions. We watched the movie during dinner and then, when my mom took naps, my dad and I watched all the bonus content: the behind-the-scenes documentaries, the interviews with actors and crew, and even watched the whole movie again with the director’s comments! He truly made me love every part of the filmmaking process from its conception to the premiere and that passion has guided me through my journey as an actor. Every time I’m on set, rehearsing my lines, or video-editing I can feel my dad’s with me. And to this day, we still watch all the bonus content together, haha!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9978963/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joel.celaya/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoelCelayaOficial
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/J_2Myr80WZE?si=EslbVunTZreDwBn4
• Other: Headshots, resume and demo reels: https://www.shine.us/joel-celaya

Image Credits
Kate Urban
Mark Daugherty
Joey Snap
Justin Ebenhack