We asked some of the city’s leading artists and creatives to tell us about how they decided to pursue an artistic or creative career. We’ve shared some highlights below.

Bo Electra | Singer/Songwriter/Performer

To be completely honest it feels as if there wasn’t even an option as to, whether or whether not I’d pursue a career in the arts. It was just so deeply engrained in me, since day 1. I’ve always been a performer in some way or another. Starting with competing in high level gymnastics (age 7), switching to classical ballet after a career ending injury and dancing in a company setting (age 16), to now the more independent path of singer/songwriter. Read more>>

Joey Maas | Neo-Pop Artist

I don’t know if I ever really had a choice. I started playing music and making art at a really young age, and they were the only things Id ever want to do. I’ve tried the corporate office job thing and I was always so miserable, I know some people thrive in that environment, but I just wasn’t one of them. I worked as a bike messenger for about 10 years, and that was flexible enough to allow me to tour with my bands. In 2008 we had a pretty awful roll-over van crash on I-5 traveling from San Francisco to LA. The van and all our stuff was destroyed. Thankfully we all lived through it. Shortly after that I left the music world to focus solely on painting and visual art. Read more>>

Sammy Gonzalez | Drummer/Percussionist

To keep it short. Because I simply fell in love with drumming. I started drums at a later age in life at about 18 years old. Before then I played the flute in elementary, middle school, and marching band in high school. The drums always stood out to me and one day when I saw a video of Sarah Thawer (who is one of my drumming inspirations) it hit me that females can also drum and be good at it! Ever since then drumming is the only thing that really gets me going and I’ve made it my goal to do this professionally. Read more>>

Fletcher Michael | Writer & Actor

I’m not sure that a creative career is something one chooses to pursue, per se. For me, it’s always felt like more of a compulsion than a choice. It’s being so obsessed with the honing of a creative skill — acting, writing, claymation, banjo-playing, what have you — to the point that you’re willing to make sacrifices in order to create opportunities for something you’re passionate about. If acting were a career you could simply apply for on Ziprecruiter, then New York and Los Angeles would experience a serious drought of attractive waiters. I’ve often wished that my passion for writing and acting could instead have been an equal passion for hedge fund management or venture capitalism or some other practical, lucrative career. But alas. Read more>>

Ayana Butterfly | R&B Singer-songwriter

Growing up, my dad always encouraged me to find that one thing that I could do for hours, days on end with no food or rest, something that I had an endless well of passion and energy for and dedicate my life to whatever that thing was. It quickly became apparent to me that music is what sets my soul ablaze and when I realized that I set foot on this journey I’m now on and never looked back. Read more>>

Carianne Older | Photographer

I didn’t intend to start a creative career; it happened by chance. I was working a corporate job up until 2018 in the entertainment sector, and I was so burnt out working for someone else (and frankly bored), so I picked up the hobby of photography and started taking photos of my friends for fun. Photography was a hobby until it wasn’t anymore. My early success gave me the backbone to quit my 9-5 and start my own company. Before I could take a breath, I had moved out of my small town in South Florida to start my career in LA. I always say working for myself is destiny because my initials are CEO. I am so grateful for all of the people in my life who pushed me into a creative career, because without it, I would still be working the same unfulfilling 9-5 in a cubicle the size of a closet. Read more>>

Yuxi Liu | Creative Designer & Visual Artist

I was born into an ordinary merchant family. Since childhood, I have been a relatively quiet child, good at thinking and observation. My talent for painting began to emerge when I was five years old. I began to learn painting professionally with my painting enlightenment teacher. In my childhood, what accompanied me most were pencils and colors. I placed my feelings and words in the painting and enjoyed the freedom and happiness that painting brought me. I grew up with art, and I dreamed of being an artist. Read more>>

Christine Zivic | Director, Producer, Writer

I think, as a kid, I just felt unseen and really wanted to be heard. I grew up as the shy, quiet kid among big personalities, and, on top of that I went to English school as a native French speaker, so even when I did want to say things, I didn’t always know how. So, for a while it was hard to connect with others, and really hard to feel heard. Most people who know me now would find it surprising to know I was the shy, nerdy kid, but I think that hasn’t changed, deep down. I think I’m an introvert who just learned to fit in… and speak English. Read more>>

Luca Nemolato | Concept Artist

For me Art is a calling, I was born an Artist and there is nothing else I would have wanted to do in life more than pursuing art. Since I can remember I’ve been able to draw and it’s been the driving force behind any decision in my life. The urge to do art is always been greater than everything else and been able to make a living out of it was my main goal so that I could still do the thing I love most in life and pay my bills at the same time. Read more>>

Kate Chen | Actress. Voice-Over. Writer

I started wanting to pursue a creative career when the my interest budded in college, where I learned about filmmaking and storytelling. As a kid I’ve always loved going to see movies in the theatre, and loved to watch TV with family. I had that whispers in my ears that tell me to pursue a creative career but I find excuses to not go for it at the time. As I delayed the creative pursuit and ventured into other journey instead, I learned many things and perspectives about the world as well as different people’s lives on the road. I started having the desire of wanting to portray stories on the screen, and the whisper became even clearer. Read more>>

Alyssa Dahl | Bridal Designer

To me, that was the only option, I’ve always just felt different… After I graduated high school I went to a community college. I was there for a couple months, and I just said to myself why are you here? This is not where you need to be. And I quit and went to Fashion School. Read more>>

Robbie Joseph | Director/Photographer

If you asked me what I was going to be when I was younger, I would have told you I was going to grow up to design and build Roller Coasters… but after realizing I was creative but really bad at math, that dream subsided. As I grew up, I loved watching music videos. Some of my favorites were Britney Spears, Lady Gaga a lot of late 90’s, early 2000’s videos. It dawned on me that music videos were something I really wanted to make. During my college years I ended up buying a second hand entry level dslr camera from my cousin with the intent of making music videos and short films. Read more>>

Corey Saldana | Filmmaker & Photographer

Growing up as a child, I always had my dads old school camcorder in my hand and filming anything and everything I could in which today we now call it vlogging. I’d film my family outings, stop motion videos with cars and myself singing and dancing as a child. Eventually growing up, there camera was no longer a thing for me and totally forgot about it. Fast forward to finishing high school in 2006, I eventually picked up my first DSLR camera which was also able to film 720p videos. From that point, I pretty much taught myself how to shoot videos and use editing software since there wasn’t much on YouTube during that time. Read more>>

David Moskowitz | Actor/Producer/Writer

Always been artistic and creative: From building pachinko games, go karts and mini pool tables as a kid in Brooklyn (my dad was a shop teacher), to writing for a teen publication while in high school (Tucson Teen Magazine), to making my own stage costume over the course of 13 years to the tune of $1k (I wear it while I play guitar and sing to original songs in open mics). Read more>>

Sara Becker | Comedy Writer & Author

I’ve been writing and forcing my sister and friends to perform plays since I was little. Happily, I channeled all that thinking into screenwriting. At one point I seriously considered becoming a human rights lawyer (my hat is off to those brave attorneys) but I was afraid of having a target on my back. Now as a writer, I get a target on every page. Read more>>

Tong Luo | Film Director/Editor/Producer/Production Designer

As a film editor, director, and production designer, I chose to pursue an artistic and creative career because of my unyielding passion for storytelling and my desire to evoke emotions and inspire audiences. The power of cinema to transport people to different worlds, evoke empathy, and spark meaningful discussions has always fascinated me. Read more>>

David McAdoo | Director, Artist, Writer

I never really had a choice. And, what I mean by that is, as an artist that has been drawing and creating since before I can remember, I’ve never known anything else. If I didn’t make it in an artistic career, then I’d just become a professional “try-again-er”. Something would have to stick. Creating is built into my DNA; drawing, painting, sculpting, writing, and all the skills in between are the fibers that hold it all together. I’m proud of the career that I’ve had so far, but if I die “trying again” I’ll be just as happy. Read more>>

Moisés Miranda Rodríguez | Writer and content creator

Throughout my life since I was a child I always did what was right to meet the expectations of society, I studied at the university, I had some conventional jobs and my way of expressing myself was similar to that of my friends and closest people. , but there came a time in my life when I realized that normality would not take me anywhere, so I decided to embark on a journey of self-knowledge towards myself, in search of my own expression, of my most genuine and original voice. Read more>>

Lamar Neal | Author & Poet

I’ve always been creative. Growing up, I wrote scripts and acted them out with my toys. When I was a teenager, I acted in church plays, wrote poetry and novels, and rapped. Read more>>

Gotaflika | Award Winning Recording Artist

Ghana-African Music has become one of the most popular genres influencing artists around the world. Introduction of hip-hop in the early 90s is starting to combine with traditional songs to generate a new genre (Hip-Life). This has attracted young and talented individuals to become musicians. Music has always been a part of my life since I was a child. Moving to the U.S. has fueled my childhood passion, despite having the ability to perform for my people and the kids back in Africa that love my music. Read more>>

Lorena Cortez | Tailor & Video Producer

I come from a long lineage of artists in my family and ever since I can remember, creativity has been a driving force in my life. I feel lucky to say that my parents have supported and encouraged my artistic endeavors. Because of them, I was able to attend CSU Northridge and receive my Bachelor’s in Apparel Design and Production. This gave me the foundation of knowledge to launch my small business, Ruby Rae Clothing, where I custom make clothing for women of all sizes. Read more>>

Kathleen Strukoff | Modern Impressionist Painter

I was always creating and artistic when I was growing up so I thought it was natural to pursue that in college. Once I started, I decided I needed to get a more “practical” major and ended up in business. For quite some time I put my artistic career aside while I pursued my business career. I finally realized that something key to my spirit was missing…….creating art! About 25 years ago I started slowly seeing if I could still paint and was surprised that it still excited me. About 15 years ago, I started taking workshops and then within the last 5 years I completely dove in and now devote my full time efforts to my creative career. Read more>>

Yana | singer/songwriter

I have always been writing something since I was a kid. It started with poems and stories, I never thought of music being my career but life has a tendency of throwing all kinds of things at us and we have to deal with it. The turning point came with the sudden passing of the late Fergus O’Farrell, frontman of Irish band Interference. He was a singer, songwriter, artist and inspirational human being in many ways who remained optimistic despite the struggles he faced. When we meet people like this it changes our perspective and we realize that our troubles are insignificant compared to people who deal with serious health issues on daily basis. Read more>>

Rodriguez Jennings | Writer & Director

I was practically raised by film and television. Almost everything I’ve learned came from the silver screen. It was also my way of connecting with my family. My mother and father were always busy, but I could always connect with them through movies. I would always make my mother laugh was when I quoted Jim Carey’s lines from Liar Liar or the Grinch, and when my dad had downtime he would alway turn on Star Wars, old Westerns or Kung-Fu Movies, and would spend the whole time smiling or telling me about his favorite scenes, and characters. Read more>>

Michael Lujan | Artist, Designer

I really didn’t have much choice in the matter: I have always been constitutionally ill-suited for working in an office or following someone else’s dictates, and always gravitated toward less regimented ways of being. The irony now is that I have to impose a fairly strict regimen on myself 24/7 in order to stay productive, one that involves a lot of prayer and study. Read more>>