Story & Lesson Highlights with Hannah Mathews of North Hollywood

Hannah Mathews shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Hannah, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
The first 90 minutes of my day look like making my bed first thing in the morning, freshen up, making coffee followed by a relaxing journalling session & quiet time to reflect and set the agenda at the start of my day.
I love a good, slow, relaxed yet intentional morning.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Sure! I’m Hannah Mathews — a singer, actress, and model with over 15 years of experience in music and a lifelong passion for storytelling and performance. I’ve been singing since I was four years old, and my creative journey has taken me from my home in Kuwait to Southeast Asia, India, and the United States. I spent the last few years growing in my craft and expanding my artistic voice in Los Angeles.

Alongside my creative work, I’ve been walking through a profound personal and spiritual awakening. I completed all three years at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in California, which deeply shaped the way I live, create, and connect with people. My “brand,” if I had to describe it, is a blend of artistry, emotional intelligence, and spiritual depth. I’m passionate about authenticity — about living from peace, alignment, and truth — and I bring that into every space I’m in, whether on stage, on camera, or in everyday relationships.

What makes my work unique is that it’s not just performance-based; it’s presence-based. I love creating spaces where people feel seen, softened, and connected to themselves. My life and art both reflect a journey of courage, surrender, and embracing who I truly am.

Right now, I’m back in Bangalore, India and working on new music, new creative collaborations, and the foundations of a healing practice that weaves together my spiritual training and lived experience. It’s an exciting season of integration, creativity, and new beginnings — and I’m grateful to share it with your readers

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
Before the world told me who I had to be, I was a deeply intuitive, expressive, and sensitive little girl who felt everything with her whole heart. I danced in the living room without fear and believed that life was magical and that all people were inherently GOOD.

I was naturally bright, imaginative, spiritually connected — someone who moved from instinct rather than expectation. I didn’t perform for approval; I created because it lit me up. I loved freely, expressed freely, and existed without the layers of protection that later came from trying to fit in, be “good,” or meet cultural, religious and familial expectations.

In many ways, my current journey has been about returning to that original self — the one who trusts her intuition, follows peace, creates from presence, and isn’t afraid to be seen. She’s still here, just wiser and more grounded. And a lot of my work today, whether artistically or spiritually, is about inspiring others to reconnect with that version of themselves too — the self untouched by fear, conditioning, or performance.

What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
One of the defining wounds of my life came from the way I internalized religion and religious culture. Growing up, I absorbed a version of faith that asked me to suppress parts of my humanity in the name of being “good,” “pure,” or “obedient.” It taught me to mistrust my own experience, to feel guilty for my emotions, and to carry shame for simply being human. For years, I lived with an inner split — the person I truly was, and the person I believed I had to be in order to be accepted by God and by community.

What has healed that wound has been the return to Peace — not the performative version I once knew, but the deep, quiet peace that comes from telling the truth about my own experience. I began meeting what was real in me instead of what I was taught should be real. I learned to honour my emotions, my intuition, my body, and the immediacy of what was alive in me, without filtering everything through fear or shame.

In that process, I discovered a God who wasn’t threatened by my humanity but actually present within it. Letting go of the old narratives allowed me to reclaim my voice, my agency, and my spiritual connection. I healed by coming home to myself — to presence, to honesty, and to a faith that feels expansive, not constricting.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
I’d like to believe so. Yes. Especially over this past year. I’m still learning how to let myself be fully seen & receive the love that’s readily available.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I hope they say I loved well. That I loved, with my whole heart and held nothing back. I hope they talk about my confidence in God, the peace that I carried & how I was a woman of radical faith.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahelizabethmathews/

Image Credits
Cameron Radice Photography