Mid-Wilshire Inspiration

The heart of our mission at VoyageLA is to find the amazing souls that breathe life into our city. In the recent weeks we’ve had the privilege to connect with some of Mid-Wilshire’s (and K-Town, WeHo, Mid-City) finest artists, creatives, entrepreneurs and rabble rousers and we can’t begin to express how impressed we are with our city’s incredibly deep talent pool.  Check out Mid-Wilshire’s rising stars below.

Bria Russ

Ever since I was little, the kitchen has been my happy place. Some of my favorite memories are being beside my granny! Learning her recipes, laughing, cooking, dancing, and sneaking a few tastes along the way. Holidays always meant traditional meals and, most importantly, desserts: lemon pie, pecan pie, sweet potato pie, and my absolute favorite, banana pudding. Read more>>

PHARAOH KAHN

Ive been an artist for more than a decade. I believe when I moved to LA in 2019 I entered a new phase of my artistry. Coming from St.louis, Mo I was excited to make my mark in a bigger ‘pond’ so to speak. Since then ive grown into a multi hyphenate artist crossing mediums of film, design and production. Read more>>

Leah Anne

I’ve always been passionate about visual storytelling. I used to direct and edit music videos for fun in early high school. I taught myself how to edit videos and freelanced professionally after graduating with my bachelors degree in marketing. However, I wasn’t happy living in Virginia (where I was born and raised). Read more>>

Le Dib

Leandro Dib Gabriel, professionally known as Le Dib, is a Brazilian producer, songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist whose career has moved through several distinct chapters—from guitarist in a Los Angeles rock band, to electronic artist with tens of millions of streams, and ultimately back to Los Angeles as a producer and songwriter. Read more>>

Noelle Campos

I’m originally from Brownsville, Texas, a small predominately Hispanic town in South Texas where creative opportunities were pretty limited. Growing up there made me appreciate the opportunities I did have, but it also gave me a real craving to see more, experience more, and push myself beyond what was familiar. Read more>>

Kendall Phyfier

Kendall Phyfier is a Los Angeles-based Licensed Esthetician and the founder of COCOLEAV SKIN CARE, a plant-focused skincare and self-care brand rooted in education, nourishment, and intentional formulation. With over six years of experience in the beauty and esthetics industry, Kendall specializes in customized, results-driven skincare for all skin types, including sensitive and acne-prone skin. Read more>>

Allison Padilla

I’ve never really fit into one box. At my core, I’m a sales leader, a businesswoman, an entrepreneur, and a media woman, but I’m also an artist and a creative. For a long time, though, I didn’t really give myself permission to express that side of myself. Read more>>

Lily Forte

I’ve been singing since I was 8 years old. I started out with Hillary Duff covers in my living room and eventually found my way into jazz, blues and classic rock. I then started singing at any venue that would allow an 8 year old perform in the South Florida area. Read more>>

Betty Nguyen

I’ve always been ambitious and curious, but I don’t think I always knew exactly what I was working toward. For more than 15 years, I had a career in corporate law in Silicon Valley. Read more>>

MinYoung Jeong

안녕! An-Nyeong! This is your Korean girl Cali! You can call me Cali like California!!! and I’m from South Korea. I’m living in the beautiful state of California along with iconic city in LA now since 2018. Read more>>

ROYAL CARTER

My journey began in Brooklyn,New York and the Hamptons. From a very young age, I was surrounded by music, art, fashion, and creativity. I took dance classes, modeled, sang, and explored art. I was always drawn to the creative world. My parents, however, had a different vision for us. Read more>>

NiK Kacy

My story has taken a few different forms since we last spoke, but creativity has remained how I make sense of the world—especially now—and how I try to change what doesn’t work. As a queer, Trans, nonbinary Asian immigrant, I know what it feels like to move through spaces that weren’t designed with you in mind. Read more>>

Nick Coleman

I was born in Kentucky, but because of my dad’s work I moved around a lot early on – New York, then the Washington, D.C. area, and eventually back to Kentucky. Growing up, though, I really only cared about sports. Basketball became my thing, and for a long time I assumed that would be the path I followed somehow. Read more>>

Feraz Ozel

I started doing stand up comedy when I was a sophomore at UC San Diego, where I was studying theater and political science. Back then I never thought I’d actually pursue a life in comedy, and figured I’d go to law school or work in politics. Read more>>

Qiman Tsai

I started my career as a model in Taiwan, and that journey eventually took me to Shanghai and Europe. In those early years, I was figuring out much of the industry on my own — approaching agencies, navigating unfamiliar markets, and trying to understand where I belonged. That experience shaped the way I see the fashion industry today. Read more>>

Lisa Bender

My path to tattooing was anything but linear — and I think that’s exactly what shapes the way I work today. After studying Business Administration and Banking for 2 years, I quickly realized that the corporate world left little room for the part of myself that mattered most: my creativity. Read more>>

Grady Smith

I was poor and orphaned at a young age – probably why I like horror movies so much. When you see the things I’ve seen and been through the things I’ve been through, horror feels the most ‘normal’ compared to other genres. My childhood was filled with violence, danger and death. Read more>>

Lelanie Slater

My journey as an artist has been a bit of a winding one. I’ve always been creative, and making things has been part of my life for as long as I can remember, but becoming a full-time artist wasn’t something I planned from the beginning. I grew up in South Africa and eventually moved to the UK in 2022. Read more>>

Viviana Liang

I began my career in the performing arts at 18, working across film, television and commercial productions in Taiwan and across Asia. Along the way, martial arts, movement and physical training became a big part of my life. I learned how to make my body stronger, more capable and more disciplined. Over time, I became curious about what existed beyond physical strength and performance. Read more>>

Socially Awkward

‘I think my journey as a visual artist has been quite a long one, since I started enjoying drawing back in elementary school—and I still do it just for fun.’ Read more>>

Terry Braggs

My journey began with a love for bringing people together through food. Over the years, I’ve worked across restaurant kitchens, private dining, and culinary education at Stanford. Each experience reinforced something I’ve always believed: the most memorable meals are about more than what’s on the plate—they create connection, conversation, and community. Read more>>

Mariah Bruner

I started playing with makeup in middle school when I was allowed by my parents to start wearing it! I experimented more in high school and I probably looked crazy for school. A year after I graduated, in 2015, I did bridal makeup for a girl I went to high school with and her sisters. I charged $20 for each of them lol. Read more>>

Kseniya Wilson

It won’t be that easy to put my story into a few words, but I’ll do my best. I moved to NYC almost 10 years ago from Russia with big dreams and lots of ambitions, like many others who come here for the same (I guess). We’re all just trying to make it here, right?! Read more>>

Katie Hillen

Dr. Katie Hillen, DPT Growing up, soccer and basketball weren’t just sports to me— they were my identity. But two ACL tears, first in high school and again in college, left me labeled ‘the girl with the bad knees.’ It wasn’t until physical therapy school that everything changed: I realized my body wasn’t broken, and that my past injuries didn’t define my future. Read more>>

David Austin Serna

From a young age, I grew up with heavy social anxiety and felt lost within my sense of community. After getting my first job, I purchased a heat press to make shirts for fun. Little did I know I’d found the gateway to creating a ‘brand.’ From the age of 16, I found a fond passion for directing, creating, and promoting mental health. Read more>>

Nick Cahill

I grew up spending two weeks every summer camping in Yosemite, this was our family vacation. My dad would commute back home during the week, and come back for the weekends. Those trips gave me an early connection to wild places and are a big reason I make fine-art landscape photography today. Read more>>

Suki Skye

Our path to DACHA began long before there was ever a restaurant. Katya escaped Russia in 2014, after the government began persecuting LGBTQ+ individuals and she knew it was no longer safe to stay. Read more>>

Yvonne Diaz

I’ve always been a creative and have a very Alpha personality aka I like to be in contro! After many failed attempts at growing to enjoy a 9-5 I just found it wasn’t for me. Entrepreneurship and Philanthropic work is more my speed. I have a dark past involving drugs, prostitution & organized crime. Read more>>

Anabel Gutierrez Ruiz

Hello! My name is Anabel. I was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. After finishing high school, I moved to Canada for a year because I wanted to discover what I wanted to study. Living abroad opened my mind and my world in ways I couldn’t have imagined. When I returned to Mexico, I studied languages and became an interpreter and translator. Read more>>

Chloëbeth Hamer

It all started when I was a 5 year old little girl. I would sit on the windowsill in my mum and dad’s farmhouse, staring up at the sky whenever I heard an aeroplane in the distance. Read more>>

Bäsmini Hayes

When I started my (public) creative journey in 2018, I moved with music. I started off very small with singles like ‘End of time’ featuring Kaya Jade, ‘little kingdom’, and ‘Man up’… eventually leading to my most popular singles ‘Emergencies’, ‘Wait’ featuring Ballad, and ‘What’s the Tea?!’. Read more>>

T 8

I’ve loved fashion since I was a little girl, but joining the military is what pushed me to actually pursue that dream. Being in an environment where everyone was expected to look the same made me realize how much I valued individuality and self-expression. That’s what inspired me to create T8 and start sharing my personal style online. Read more>>

Tanielle Jai

I started wearing makeup in high school because I was insecure. It gave me this sense of confidence I didn’t have otherwise, but it also meant I was constantly getting in trouble for wearing it at school. Funny enough, something I wasn’t even supposed to be doing became the start of my whole career. Read more>>

Egemen Tosunbaş

My journey with music started when I was a kid growing up in İzmir, Türkiye. I started playing violin around the age of nine, and a year later I picked up the guitar, which eventually became my main instrument. My musical education has been mostly self-taught. I learned by listening, transcribing, experimenting, and playing with other musicians rather than following a traditional musical education/conservatory path. Read more>>

Cierra Bliss

I was raised in Las Vegas and have been a dancer my whole life, training in all styles and loving being on stage. I began singing and doing musical theater throughout school, and I received my BFA in Dance Performance with a speciality in Modern dance at UNLV, as well as a BA in Creative Writing. Read more>>

JEWELZ CHIESA

Briefly walk us through your story, how you started, and how you got to where you are. I was born in the Hudson Valley of New York to Artist parents, and Artist siblings. Dad made money building houses, selling Antiques, and made Art performing poetry. Read more>>

Riley Mekcley

I didn’t start posting because I had some huge plan to become a content creator. I just wanted to be myself in a space where most people try to pretend like they are somewhere else. And that space, is social media. Hi, my name is Riley and I am a 22 year old teacher from Long Island, New York. Read more>>

Olga Avet

Right now, I work as an AI creator. I create visual campaigns and advertising content for brands, including international clients. My story actually started about ten years ago, when I got into photography. It’s a pretty classic story — I was on maternity leave and wanted to find something creative to do. Read more>>

Oscar Lopez

I started my career in the security industry when I was just 18 years old. At the time, I was going to school while working in security, trying to build a future for myself while gaining real-world experience. Over the years, I worked my way up through the industry and eventually became a supervisor for several large security companies here in Southern California. Read more>>

Andrea Turk

I’d say I started out like a lot of kids, glued to my computer growing up. At some point I got a CD player and I started singing along to the records that were playing while I was in the middle of playing UberStrike, which in hindsight is a pretty funny way to discover you can sing. Read more>>