Meet Mia Jabara

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

Hi Mia, do you have a favorite quote or affirmation?
For me, my favorite quote also comes from my favorite movie of all time: Lost in Translation. The quote is said by Bob Harris, the actor going through a bit of a mid life crisis in the film, and he says “the more you know who you are and what you want, the less you let things upset you”. This always stuck with me and I think as an actor, as an artist and creative, we tend to let things easily upset us. Whether it’s being rejected from an audition we wanted to nail or being told we’re too plain, too tall, too whatever they wanna tell us, a lot can get under our skin. But this quote just reminds me that as long as you develop a relationship with yourself, learn to love yourself and understand your visions and goals deeply, you’ll find it easier to handle the moments of hurt and rejection. It’ll never be an easy journey by any means but taking steps toward this understanding i think is super important as an artist.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
For me, I’ve been acting for as long as I can remember. I think I was as young as 5 when I did my first acting class and stage production. It’s all I’ve ever known and I knew from the very start that this is what I was made to do in my life. However, as it is with any artist of any kind, the journey, you realize, is ceaseless and you will spend your entire life working on, developing and shifting your artistic vision and goals. I think that’s something I never really realized until later in my career, that the journey never ends. It’s not like one day you suddenly wake up and realize “oh, i know all there is to know about acting now. I can take on any role perfectly now.” That doesn’t exist. Once I understood that, I realized that this career and this path is dynamic, it’s always changing and that that is part of the process. The key is to never stop, no matter what changes come and go. In my case, I was in my final semester of my theatre undergrad program at NYU when covid hit. It sent me packing my bags in the span of a few days and on a plane back home to Australia. At the time, no one knew it’s gravity but looking back now, it was definitely an event that shaped the rest of my life. My original plan of wanting to stay in New York and just jumping right into my career after graduating got completely sidetracked. At the time, I felt as if there was no hope in sight. I thought it’s all over and I’ll need to start again from page 1. But at this same time, it’s precisely when the ever-shifting, ever-changing nature of this artistic journey showed itself. I realized then and there that there’s no real way for the world to quash your art, unless you let it. There will always be a way to shine on, to move on no matter what. In those “new-norm” conditions and in that moment in time, I discovered voice acting; something that has ended up playing such a huge role in my life now that at the time I had no idea. I was able to do this work from home, recording inside my tiny closet in my bedroom. It gave me hope again when hope seemed all but gone. At that time I also started making online content, making short films from home and creating TikTok and YouTube videos. My hunger for creativity and just making something, anything, never stopped. And similar to voice acting, this also ended up being a path that I never envisioned for myself but was able to see some success from it that I am now incredibly proud and grateful for. Shortly after, I was also offered work opportunities in South Korea, a country I have loved for a long time. I was able to live and work there as an actor and voice actor and got to work on some incredible projects with some incredible people. This was also never initially on my radar and a path I never thought would’ve been open for me. So looking back at that final semester when I thought my career was over, it was in fact the opposite. It was just beginning. The artistic journey will never ever be rigid and formulaic, as much as you may want it to be, realistically it just can’t be. It will never be a ‘do 1, 2 and 3 to get 4’ kind of career. The important part as an artist is realizing this and realizing that this ever-changing journey is, too, part of your career. You never know when the next rejection, the next failed project or the next global pandemic is the catalyst for the launch of something incredible for you. If you keep going, keep doing your art in whatever form and shape it takes and keep looking ahead, greatness will come. And look, just the other month I signed up for an intensive screen acting program because I felt I needed better showreel material and wanted some more networking opportunities in my field. One might think, “why would you need to sign up for a program like that when you’ve already started your career?” All I can say is, this is all part of the journey…the dynamic, shifting, irregular but wonderful journey of an artist. You start out doing acting classes at 5 years old and take more classes again at 55 to brush up your skills. You get cast as a lead in a feature film then take on a role as a production assistant for your next feature film. You decide to make a short film at home with a few friends thinking no one will watch it and the next thing you won an award for best short at a festival. This is the life of an artist. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Even though I’ve lived in LA for a little while, I still feel like a tourist here for the most part. There’s still so much to explore so if I’m honest, I would want to explore new places together with this visiting friend. But some must see’s for me would firstly be the grove, I know it may be slightly overrated at this point but it never gets old for me. It’ll always be a great place to hang out and shop! If they’re my friend then I’d assume they’d like the same kind of stuff I like which means we would also definitely go out for night drives around the Hollywood hills, windows down and blasting some songs from the 1975, chase atlantic or LANY (LANY hits the best when driving along PCH though). Why not romanticize your life and do a really cliche movie moment. Maybe we’ll stop in at Erewhon and pick up a smoothie (yes, I’ve bought into the erewhon hype now I know I know). And if there’s time, also hit up the Westfield at Century City. If you couldn’t tell, I love malls and shopping. And for dinner, definitely kbbq or soondubu jjigae in Koreatown. If we’re not able to fly to Korea real quick for dinner, then the next best Korean food outside of Korea you can definitely find is in LA’s koreatown. That’s definitely a must!

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 think I’ll always and forever be grateful to my mum for helping me to be where I am today. From taking me to endless theatre classes after school from 1st grade to handling me moving out of home at 18 to go and live in LA alone to pursue my acting dream, she’s always been and continues to be my biggest support and cheerleader.

Website: www.miajabara.com

Instagram: @miajabara

Other: Tiktok: @miajabara