Meet Andrea Orta | Actress & Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Andrea Orta and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Andrea, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I was born in Venezuela but had to leave when I was 6 because of the political climate. Back then, things were more stable than they are now, but my parents anticipated it getting worse and wanted to get ahead of the wave. Because of this, I moved around a lot growing up, first to Singapore, then England, and Switzerland. I’ve found that my time in each country – whilst still being raised in a bilingual and Latino household – completely formed who I am today. It made me adaptable to changes and curious to know more about different cultures and people’s perspectives in life. I draw from my international upbringing in my art too. It’s important to me to show the commonalities in the human experience, whilst still influenced to highlight Latino voices and the Venezuelan diaspora.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I grew up with a lot of theatre training, taking acting and musical theatre classes outside of school, and later at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. But even so, when I started to make the switch to screen, I realised there’s many technical skills that you can only garner from practical set experience. That’s why I chose to complete a Masters in Acting for Film from the New York Film Academy! Besides a heavy focus on screen acting, it also totally exposed me to the world of production.

A recent accomplishment I’m most proud of is I produced and acted in my own short film, Pretty Bird. Pretty Bird is a dystopian Sci Fi, about a woman isolated in an AI-controlled home. With a severe toxic storm happening outside, she tries to find connection in her final hours though surrounded by an artificial world. I’m drawn to sardonic humour and psychological thrillers, so Pretty Bird was in a way a love letter to other works I’ve enjoyed before. But it’s also starkly important to me that my art have a social commentary, which is why the world of this film is based on the current pollution occurring in Malaysia and Indonesia due to the palm oil industry. I wanted to showcase how society’s obsession with consumption: thus, Sallie’s own fixation on wealth and success has caused her to neglect real experiences and relationships, and she will have to come to terms with the existential question at the heart of the film: Did I mislive?

Other than that, I recently graduated and now work in script development at a production company and as an actress. I think a lot of people try to dive straight into the film industry without education, (and it can go very well for some), but I’m really grateful and proud to have taken the time to build a strong foundation in both acting and production. Moving to a new city like Los Angeles is hard in itself, but I was actually in a different field in London, so this last year and a half has been about getting acquainted with the ins and outs of production, both in front and behind the camera.

The choice to move from Europe to the US was definitely a huge leap, but I consider it as promise to the dedication I give my acting. It was a moment where I decided to commit to being a “working actor”, and take the steps needed to become one, all whilst knowing that this entails more rejection than practically any other trajectory. This can be one of the most difficult things for actors and other creatives to swallow: we spend our entire careers waiting for the next project. It can be extremely inconsistent, so it’s crucial to be flexible but also organised and disciplined. Something that helps me is also recognising the small achievements. Getting a manager, receiving the first audition, receiving a call-back (omg!), should all be viewed as momentum and exposure, rather than just as times we didn’t land the job. I try to go into castings knowing that I’ll make sure they’ll remember me.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’m a newly-formed valley girl, so I’ll first have to take you to Pitfire an outdoor Italian spot and then Idle Hour for their Tuesday trivia nights in North Hollywood just to give you a feel of my classic activities. But of course, we’d have to venture down to Santa Monica and Venice to sightsee. I love going for drinks in Venice because it’s got such an eclectic and vibrant feel to it but if you’re looking for an all-girls brunch or dinner, I’d take you to Elefante in Santa Monica all the way! Other than that, literally any ramen place in Sawtelle or Little Tokyo, and if you’re as much of a boba fanatic as me, we’ll go to Boba Beast, Junbi or Meli Mellow all the way.

But I swear I don’t just live here for the food! The Getty is literally a must visit if you want a gorgeously calm museum day. And my secret place for a beach day is the Marina Beach – it’s kind of out of the way, so there’s always space and they have volleyball nets and paddle boarding there! Now I’m not much of a hiker, but I guess for I’ll make an exception for your special visit and we can go up somewhere to see the sunset and the Hollywood sign.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I was always involved in performance growing up, through dance and school plays, but I found that it was my love of reading and writing that helped guide me towards the creative industry and channel what it was I enjoyed about these outlets. This started first and foremost with my two English teachers growing up, Mr O’Reilly and Ms Seggerson. They both steered me to think about literature and theatre as stories, and it was the act of building stories, either in creative development, analysis or production that I really fell in love with. They also really pushed me to be disciplined in my studies, which is a life-lesson I hold onto in everything I do. I remember Mr O’Reilly even worked with me outside of class on a monologue from Othello for a National Youth Theatre audition! And it was Ms Seggerson’s constant enthusiasm, warmness and attentiveness that got me through a lot of my crisis’ and self-doubt throughout high school.

Website: www.andreaorta.com

Instagram: @aandreaorta

Other: IMDb: https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm12876591?s=8cc1b62a-af61-a684-9c04-4a158dfc6630&site_preference=normal

Image Credits
Jide Kol Pictures