Meet Leah Ramillano | CAD Associate at Mattel and Freelance Scenic Designer

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

Hi Leah, what principle do you value most?
Integrity, authenticity, and empathy matters a lot to me. It’s applicable in both personal and professional parts of life, reaching into how I approach creativity and collaboration. In regards to design, I had a mentor in grad school tell me that as a designer/storyteller/theatremaker, I have the sacred responsibility of telling someone else’s story. This really stuck to me and continues to do so because every task, every gig, every story deserves the due diligence of doing the hard work, research, and practice of empathy in order to tell a story in the most honest way I possibly can. It means crawling out of my own bubble of experience – historically, culturally, emotionally, etc – to help support a story. This also anchors how I collaborate with folks; I try my best to maintain clear and timely lines of communication and open my process up for editing, compromise, and evolution so that all departments of design, production, acting, directing, etc can come to the strongest result possible, which sometimes means letting go of some ideas in order to make room for better ones. And at the end of the day, it’s about understanding that the people I am working with all have a the common goal of getting up a show that tells a story in the most authentic way we can; that we all deserve to be treated with kindness and grace while we practice such a open and vulnerable art form.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am predominantly a Scenic Designer, but also enjoy being an assistant designer and also just try my best to maintain a level of creativity that I don’t feel the need to monetize. That’s been a challenge when your profession is art, but well worth the journey finding the balance. I received my undergraduate degree in Theatre Arts with an emphasis in Scenic Design. That summer, I went on to do an apprenticeship with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and then the next summer with PCPA Theatrefest. After that, I went to graduate school to pursue an MFA in Scenic Design at the University of California, Irvine. From there, I got hired by Mattel and continue to also work as a designer outside of my normal corporate business hours.
It has taken a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get here but I am so thankful. Balancing a corporate 40-hour-week (with some weeks having overtime) job with being a freelance scenic designer has been wildly exhausting, and in many ways one part of my career cannot exist without the other. Mattel helps me feel grounded, scheduled, consistent, and financially supported – whereas my design work fulfills my hunger for creativity, collaboration, and offers a healthy disruption in daily routine. I’ve learned that having both – and also practicing when to turn down some gigs – is a continuous evolution and practice of self care and balance. I don’t think I’ll ever get it fully right, but I’m happy learning along the way.
Aside from being a strong collaborator that knows how to get the job done, in a more soft skill sense, I want people to know that I’ve always followed my heart and lead with kindness in the decisions I’ve made for my life, and although the road hasn’t been perfect, I’ve found myself really happy with where I am in my thirties.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Watch a show somewhere, either at the Pantages, the CTG theaters, or even a small LA theatre company. Amoeba music store, restaurants in Ktown – one of my favorites in Anju House (which used to be Yellow House Cafe), a picnic and stroll at Barnsdall Art Park, head down to the South Bay for really good seafood – Jus Poke, Ali’i Poke, or Ensenada’s Surf and Turf Grill (for their fish tacos especially), then walk around Redondo Esplanade and pier, there’s an awesome park in Manhattan Beach called Polliwog Park, walking around Little Tokyo, Angel’s Tijuana Tacos, grab food/produce/goods at the Original Farmer’s Market – but go on a weekday when it’s not bananas in there, or just a really long coastal drive (or one that weaves around so they can see how vast and different LA is)

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’m going to be missing a lot of folks, but I’ll start with design mentors. From undergrad: Trevor Norton and Nephelie Andonyadis. From grad school: Cliff Faulkner and Michael Ganio. PCPA Theatrefest, especially Abby Hogan. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, especially the FAIR program and Gabriel Barrera. Other incredible designers that I’ve been fortunate enough to assist. The folks that survived grad school with me at UC-Irvine. To my friends that have always supported my career – and even the ones I’ve been fortunate enough to collaborate with artistically. To my family, especially my Mom who – although didn’t fully understand why I decided to do this many years ago – has also never stopped me from pursuing this career. And of course, my Dad, who watches over me in heaven.

Website: leahramillano.com