Story & Lesson Highlights with Valery Rozo

We recently had the chance to connect with Valery Rozo and have shared our conversation below.

Valery, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
A moment that made me feel truly proud happened recently on October 15 at my college. We had the opportunity to perform a full show in front of the entire theater academy — something we all worked hard to put together. From the transitions to the music, choreography, and lip-sync, everything had to be prepared by us.

At first, the whole idea caught me by surprise, and I started to feel some self-doubt. I decided to choose “The Dead Dance” music video by Lady Gaga for my performance. I don’t consider myself a perfect dancer, and that made me nervous. But as the weeks went by and I kept rehearsing, I started to improve. Still, part of me felt like it wasn’t enough of a challenge — until my classmate, Angeles Bahena, asked if I wanted to dance with him.
At first, I told him, “Let me think about it,” because I knew it would mean changing my choreography and learning new steps. But just about five minutes later, I went back to him and said, “Yes! Let’s do it!” From there, we started rehearsing together. It was still the same song, but this time, we decided to recreate the dance from Wednesday Season 2 mixed with Lady Gaga’s music video. We pushed ourselves to the max, supported each other, and gave our best.

In the end, we delivered a great performance alongside the rest of our class. The energy from the audience was incredible — they even gave us a standing ovation during our final bow. Right after the show, many people from the audience came up to us to say how much they enjoyed our performance and how we had set the bar high for future students. I felt so proud of everyone involved for giving their all, and especially proud of myself for embracing every challenge along the way and facing it like a pro.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hello to everyone who is reading this, since we had broken the ice already then let me introduce myself:

My name is Valery Rozo Palacios, but I go simply by Valery Rozo. I’m from Bogotá, Colombia, and I moved to the United States about four years ago—not for a vacation or just to visit, but to seriously pursue my creative career.

I started with modeling, where I had the chance to meet some great people and make connections that eventually led me to my very first on-set experience as an extra. Funny enough, I always wanted to start with acting before modeling, but life doesn’t always go as planned—and sometimes, that’s a good thing.

After getting into acting, I began paving my own path toward my goals. I’ve been lucky enough to work with the right people at the right times. Currently, I’m officially enrolled at the LACC theater academy, taking college classes and fully enjoying every bit of it. I’m constantly learning more about this beautiful and passionate craft.

Outside of modeling and acting, I’ve also started teaching myself how to make music from scratch. It helps keep my mind active and creative—especially during those moments when I’m off set or out of class. It’s a fun way to express emotions that I can’t always let out through other outlets, even though it is not perfect.

I also enjoy doing makeup, painting, drawing, and crafting. Even if I don’t do those things as often as I used to or want to, I still love them and hope to make more time for them again.

And that’s a little summary of who I am and what I do.

Okay, so here’s a deep one: What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
Something that I used to believe about myself as a child was that I was an introvert — someone who didn’t like to speak out. But as time passed and I grew up, people around me started telling me that I wasn’t actually an introvert, that I did many things an extrovert would do. So, I began to explore that side of myself.

In the actuality, I don’t consider myself an introvert anymore. I see myself as someone who loves expressing herself out loud, though I still fear how others might react. Either way, I push myself to ignore those thoughts and just do it — to be openly myself.

I think my confusion about believing I was an introvert came from past experiences with public speaking, which created a heavy feeling in me and made me less confident in my own voice, leaving a bit of a scar along the way. But I’m slowly healing and overcoming it. Funny enough, I chose acting as my career, which means I have to face that fear of speaking and be loud enough for even the back row of the theater to hear me while I’m on stage.

What fear has held you back the most in your life?
A fear that has held me back in both my life and career is the fear of not being capable of doing the things I’m expected to do/or expected to be. The fear of failing everyone.
Because of that, I’ve often avoided things just to avoid the pain of failure.

I know I can’t keep running from my fears. I’ve started confronting them, with the help of many things—like long, honest conversations with the people I appreciate most, the ones I don’t want to let down. Opening up to them about my concerns and receiving their unconditional support has made a real difference.
Therapy has also been an incredible help in beginning to overcome my fears.
And then there’s what I call my “group therapy”: my theater classes. Sometimes, it really feels like that. A space where I get to witness others facing the same or similar fears—people opening up, being vulnerable, and daring to follow their dreams, just like I’m trying to do.

There is something that my professor Miami said and it stuck with me:
“Failure is experience. We are all failures—and that’s okay. That means we’re experienced actors. And what the world is looking for is to cast experienced, professional actors—not perfect ones, because perfect people don’t know how to act.”

Another professor, Mr. Fairbanks once told us that the root of pain are the fears we hold inside along the lack of permission we give ourselves to be vulnerable—and to be compassionate with ourselves in the same way we are with others. We are our biggest judges in life, but we are rarely fair and kind to ourselves.

Getting to know this information got me thinking deeply and reconsidering my way of seeing things, to even be more soft and caring to myself, is still a process I’m going throught till the day but I hope one day I can become the best version of me.

I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
For me, my biggest project in life is my career as an artist, specifically as an actress. This is a goal I am fully committed to, no matter how long it takes for me to reach the point I dream of achieving. Pursuing a career as an artist is not something easy to do — it’s not like going to university, getting a diploma, and then finding a stable job because of it.

Acting is something that must be pursued day after day, casting after casting, and so on. Being an artist means sacrificing many things in life with the hope that, in the end, it will all pay off. It requires patience, passion, dedication, and even a hint of craziness to follow this path and not give up along the way.

I am also aware that to get somewhere meaningful, you have to work for it for at least five to ten years — and I am fully willing to do so. I want to do whatever it takes to become the person my younger self would be proud of, to become living proof that Latinos can be so much more than the harmful stereotypes out there.

Luckily, I have the support of those closest to me, and that makes the weight a little lighter and the path a little less harsh. In the end, all I want is to become the person they believe I can be — and the one my past self always trusted I would become.

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
If I knew I only had ten years left to live, I would probably stop hesitating so much in my decisions. I would start failing more without fear until I make it — because the more we fail, the closer we get to becoming experts in the field we’re working in.

I would stop overthinking everything around me. I wouldn’t constantly worry about the future, because I would already know when I’m dying. I think everything would actually feel easier with that essential piece of information — you wouldn’t have to keep thinking about doing everything right now or as soon as possible out of fear that time will run out.

This is something I think about often. “What if I die tomorrow?” is a question that runs freely through my head. It pushes me to make decisions that often turn out to be good and helpful, but that have also led me into situations that marked me deeply in the wrong way.

So, if I knew I had only ten years left, I would probably stop trying to rush everything and focus more on living in the moment before my time comes. I’d stop treating life like a race. Normally, people want to do as many things as possible and cross them off their bucket list before their lifetime ends, but all I’d want is to slow down and take my time with life.

For now, all I can do is try to learn how to enjoy the process of everything I do — to stop rushing through life and take time to appreciate what I’m living right now. I want to love my present, stop carrying my heavy past, and welcome my future as it comes, because I can’t control any of those things.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://valeryrozoportfolio.my.canva.site/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaf8luMRKovccCccRb_9IOnRbnhjCNjdCSG0yRHvm7Zb-iphvMGZod2kwNN6hg_aem_aOyCkWtPFTUNdVngnVIeCQ
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsvaleryrozo/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHH4BZSzU5_QyZo4u6DjyiA

Image Credits
Main pic by: Miguel S Romero (@msr_photographt13)

Headshot pic by: Abiu Izquierdo (@omniemon)

On stage dance pic by: Micah / boy Atoms (@boyatoms)