The Valley 11.13.2017

Levon Akopyan and Natasha Root

My father is a second generation cobbler and I began helping him in his first shop in LA during my teens. He wanted me to learn the craft as it was passed on to him from his father in Armenia. Read more>>

Ron Santiano

REDCAPE CINEMA PRODUCTIONS: After a trial run as an actor in the mid to late ‘80s, I found my desire for the industry shifted more for behind the camera, rather than in front of it, and ponder on how I was to accomplish this new goal. During the 1990’s, I had sidetracked into graphic design, were I ended up working at Universal Studio by the late 90’s. Read more>>

Habiba Faisal

To be really honest, I never even thought of writing and photography. I had always been interested in technology but as I grew up, I had this urge in me to write about everything, whether it bothers me or just another lesson I learned in life. Read more>>

Evan Stein

My business partner Martin Weiner and I have known each other since we were kids. We are both huge music fans and have always been fascinated with the use of music in movies, television shows and advertisements and it’s ability to create an emotion. Read more>>

Stephanie Bien

My journey started 35 years ago when I decided to become a psychotherapist with children and families, rather than a special ed. teacher. It happened when I was chasing a 2-year-old, autistic boy down the hall. At this exact moment, I realized that the kids were doing fine, it was the parents who were struggling. Read more>>

Gwithyen Thomas

Born and raised in New Zealand, Chef Gwithyen discovered his passion for cooking at the young age of sixteen when he left school at the Birkenhead College to pursue a career as a chef, scoring his first apprenticeship in the kitchen of local New Zealand restaurant, Iguacu in 2006. Read more>>

Ebube Agu

The LAYSR Vision came about while planning an epic 25th birthday in May of 2015! I, like many other humans, wanted to throw the biggest, baddest, self-centered birthday party ever for myself. At this point, I was into Snapchat and how creative I was able to get. Read more>>

Stephanie Davidson, Narineh Hartoonian, and Angela Williams

Stephanie and Angela met during graduate school and went on to intern together at Didi Hirsch. She later met Narineh during her post-doctoral fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Read more>>

Jennifer Shamma

I got started for the love of food and the love of adventure. I felt it was time to take my schedule into my own hands. The last job that I had as an employee was wonderful but having any time off to travel, explore or just rest was impossible. Read more>>

Rafal Cwiok

I was introduced to filmmaking at the age of 12 and would film practically everything after I got my first camera, compiling the footage into little music videos at home. I moved from Chicago to LA to pursue a career in acting when my ambitions steered me to switch over to the other side of the camera. Read more>>

Julie Davine

Three Lollies was started by healthcare professionals who saw how debilitating nausea can be for pregnant women, cancer patients, bariatric patients, and others suffering from chronic nausea. They wanted to find a natural, drug-free remedy to help ease nausea symptoms and dry mouth. Read more>>

David Andrade

How I started in the restaurant business is really odd by most accounts. I took a job at a law firm a few months after graduating from Pepperdine. I worked at this firm for a couple of years and realized that I didn’t feel fulfilled. Read more>>

Jackie Rodman

I moved out to Los Angeles in 1999 after graduating from film school. I made my living in the TV/Film Industry as a Sound Editor for 14 years, working on network dramas like ‘House’ and ‘Law & Order’. Read more>>

Jenna Edwards

I often say that I was a “walking statistic” growing up. By the time I was 18, I should have dropped out of high school, had children, been married and living in poverty. Instead, I had a strong mother who stood up for her life with the help of my now-stepdad. Read more>>

Alexx Calise

I’m a singer, guitarist and songwriter. I was lucky to have grown up in a very musical household–my parents played us everything from Mozart and Stravinsky to Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. My father is a guitar player, and he’d always play for my brother and I when we were growing up. Read more>>

Pierre Ivan Arreola

Pierre Ivan (a.k.a. Pierre Boogie) is a Hip-Hop, Hip-Hop and community advocate from Pacoima, CA with 7+ years of organizing locally and globally. As a youth, Pierre came together with his friends to form “The GR818ERS” (pronounced ‘great-one-eighters’), a positive community movement utilizing Hip Hop culture to uplift and empower their community. Read more>>

Ted Krogh

Hospital Label Systems (HLS) got its start in my father’s home office in the mid-‘70s. He was working for a large label company in the San Fernando Valley prior to that, and he decided he wanted to start his own label business in order to provide specialized, one-on-one customer service and make a better living for his family. Read more>>

Holly Castillo

I started being interested in photography in middle school. I had a cheap 35mm camera and would develop the photos at Walmart. Although it was a lifelong interest, and I even did really well in my High School photography class, going to college I never once considered photography as a career move. Read more>>

Rosanne MacDonald

I began my journey to become a Certified Hypnotherapist in 1999 after working for over 20 years as a legal secretary and law office manager of law firms. I came home from work one day, looked my husband in the eyes, and said, “I can’t do this anymore!” He immediately said, “Why don’t you become a therapist? Read more>>

Jamie Anderson

The best thing about Jamie and Josh is that they are still kids at heart, designing their enrichment programs according to the motto, “Fun Comes First”. In 1986, she started teaching after-school karate classes and within two years had partnerships with many schools in Los Angeles. Read more>>

Justin Clark

About 2 years ago I was trying to help my brother Brett Clark (also a co-founder) with finding clients to tutor. My brother Brett was going to school for his Master’s degree in Physics at the time, so he didn’t have time to work a full-time job. Read more>>

Vatche Markarian

I started my company in July 1992 when a custom car stereo systems and auto alarms were as important as an oil change. Of course, some businesses change. Our profession is constantly changing and evolving, Vehicles started coming with remote keyless entries and many of them with decent sound systems. Read more>>

Jessica Lauren

As a kid, I dabbled in community theater in my hometown of Lincoln, NE, but mainly as a dancer. It never occurred to me that someone could make a career out of the theater. At the time, it was just a fun activity to do after school. Read more>>

Edgar Alexander Navas

I was born in El Salvador a country in the heart of Central America. In 1982, at just 14 years old, I immigrated to the U.S due to a civil war, which forced many Salvadoreans to flee our country to find safety in Los Angeles. Read more>>

Aliyon Richardson

Honestly, this company was conceived out of heartbreak and that’s why it’s so near and dear to me. I went through a rough time in my love life and I had to put my energy into something where I could get back to the “old” me. Read more>>

Rocco Guarino

I grew up in NY writing songs and producing music for my bands and my friends. I ended up in Florida (it’s okay, I survived), and in 2002 I packed all my stuff into a Saturn called Able Mabel and drove across the country in search of musical fame. Read more>>

Jon Majarian

When I began my career as a realtor, I noticed how unappreciated and invisible most realtors were in large corporate firms. Hence it was my desire to open a boutique real estate office where every agent is heard and everyone works as a team for the ultimate goal of helping families achieve the American Dream of success and prosperity through real estate investments. Read more>>

Ryan Crean

5 years ago, I came up with the idea of “Unplugged”, the Cordless Hair straightener. I have been a stylist going on 13 years and am always doing photo shoots and styling hair on the go! Read more>>

Omid Naim

I am a Western trained psychiatrist who came by his clarity about the need for more holistic, spiritual and community-based approaches to health care not through a sentimental vision of an idyllic past. While in General and then Child Psychiatry residency at the University of California San Francisco I saw the limited value of the mechanistic and dehumanizing approaches I was being trained to offer my patients. Read more>>