Meet Natalia Ortega | Actress

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

Hi Natalia, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
I used to be a workaholic and just always go, go, go. Without sleep, sometimes without eating, whatever it took (I thought) to move forward in my career. I spent several years worried about being perfect (spoiler alert: it’s impossible). I wanted to act, write, dance, take classes, go to all the parties, paint, exercise, be a good friend, have the perfect hair, the perfect everything.

I was betraying myself and neglecting my body, convinced that one day I was going to be good enough. Until I finally realized that I had to love myself in order to be good enough (for myself).

My mental health improved tremendously as soon as I started resting, eating healthy and balancing my work and personal life.

As a creative is very important to find that balance, because your art comes from you. I found out that I didn’t have to spend nights with no sleep trying to finish a script, because when I slept I had way more energy the next day and could write four times faster. Spending that 1 hour cooking and eating a good lunch would pay off improving my focus later when prepping an audition.
My friends did not stop caring about me for not going to the club with them!

Life can be easy, if you want.

I started doing things with love, rather than trying to make them perfect.
Now I’m happy!

I truly enjoy working, just how I enjoy resting and taking care of myself. I wasn’t aware of how much I was suffering my career, I needed to find that balance to be joyful again.

I you are like me you might feel guilty when taking a break, that’s the trap! Society made us feel we had to be productive all the time, but we are not machines.
Watching that TV Show you like is just as important as your job, just as important as having a hobby just for the sake of having fun. ‘Cause when you have fun, when you feel happy and rested, it’s so much easier to tune into the frequency of love. And it’s so much easier to create from love.

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’m an actress, writer, dancer and creator. I’m passionate about telling stories that help create awareness about social problems that I find important, and that can somehow make the audience empathize with a reality that might be far away from their own.

Last year I wrote and produced the show “Promises” with my colleague Alejandro Cuauhtémoc, with the objective of raising awareness about violence against women in Mexico (I’m originally from Mexico City).
I wrote a script this year talking about eating disorders that I’m hoping to produce in 2024.

My goal as an artist it to make the world a little bit better by sharing my talent and love. I’ve had the opportunity to work with great creatives who share similar views and I’m hoping to give life to more projects soon.

The biggest challenge for me has been coming from Mexico. I feel way more comfortable in Spanish, I have a different sense of humor and come from a culture with different social cues, different traditions.
Navigating through LA and finding my voice has been a long journey. As an actress I struggled trying to get rid of my accent, in order to have access to different characters. But then I realized it’s part of who I am, and the stories I wanna tell are the Latinx’s.

I want to portray Latinx characters and share our different realities with the rest of the world.

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.
I would definitely suggest a dinner at Bossa Nova. It’s my favorite restaurant in LA. Brazilian cuisine, great service and they’re open until 4am!

If you have access to a vehicle I would go check Dockweiler beach and have a fire pit with friends.

You can’t leave LA without hiking so maybe Griffith or Runyon Canyon.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Stella Adler’s Art of Acting Studio

Instagram: @nataliaaortega6

Image Credits
Matt Marcheski Cristina Glezoro Metztli Alegre