right now
september 2024
walmart's deals of desire
coming soon.
august 2024
home videos & my directorial debut
coming soon.
july 2024
christmas in july ​
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My first feature! This actually came about from the director reaching out to me via a self-submission on Casting Networks - no audition, no tape, no nothing. So naturally, I thought it was a scam. Luckily, it was not!
I shot for three days in LA on location telling the story of a family reuniting for a Christmas meal and celebration with lots of baggage. I played the pregnant fiancee of the oldest son.
Working with this cast and crew was a blast and I definitely made some fun connects filming this!
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A Christmas Reunion is now streaming on Tubi!
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march 2024
grey's anatomy, background, & the last-minute photography session
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One of the more controversial ideas of working in this industry is spending your time doing background work. Background actors are the everyday people you see in, you guessed it, the background of big group scenes in TV shows and movies. When I first moved here, doing background was a great way to get on set, see how various directors work, and make a little extra money doing it.
I've since stopped doing a lot of background unless I need the extra money or really think the show would be fun to be on and that's for a few reasons. One, I don't want any shows I'm doing to not cast me because I've done background. Not likely, but always a possibility. Two, they are LONG days. Like 12-14 hours, early call times, late release times, long days. Three, I get a little resentful! It definitely hurts seeing other actors working, saying lines, having a character on these shows that I so desperately want to be on. However, the day I did Grey's Anatomy was a special background workday, and that's because they wanted me to be... pregnant!
My call time was 8 a.m., late for background, and the studio was so close to my house. It was a stunning set - Grey Sloan was completely reconstructed in one place with the sound stages all clustered together, making walking between holding and various shots minimal. The crew was so kind and because I was playing a pregnant lady in a hospital bed, I got my own fitting and pregnancy bump and special attention from the wardrobe department alongside some of the key cast. I felt so important and valued, which is typically the opposite of how you feel during background when you're 1 of 200 faces.
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The workday was simple - the crew was so mindful of everyone's
time and worked really efficiently, and it definitely didn't hurt that my
scene consisted of me lying in a comfy hospital bed with someone
fluffing my pillow between every take. To top it off, I was wrapped and
out of there by 2 p.m. and still got paid for my full eight hours. I haven't
seen my episode yet, but Grey's Anatomy? 10/10 would definitely
recommend working on that show.
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Several weeks later, I received an audition for a tech company photoshoot. A model I am not, but when my agent sends me an audition, I do the audition. They wanted several lifestyle photos - a smiling candid, a full body shot, a shot mid-laugh, a shot of you presenting, you get the vibes. I meticulously combed through my camera roll and picked my most flattering and prompt-specific pics and submitted my audition within a few hours. A couple days pass, I hear nothing, and I forget about it.
The morning of the audition deadline, I had just finished my workout and was getting ready for my day when I received a call from an unknown Los Angeles phone number.
"Hello?" I picked up the phone.
"Hi, Alessandra?'
"Yes, this is she."
"Hi, this is the casting office for the tech ad. I wanted to chat with you about your submission real quick." My heart started racing.
"Of course! What's up?" The woman on the phone told me she didn't love the photos I'd submitted and wanted to know if I had time to take more this morning. Uh... what?
"Yes, I do... Did you see the photos I submitted? There were five or so," and I started describing them because maybe she hadn't seen the full set! After all, I'd followed the prompts exactly.
"Yeah, I see all those," she said. "They're boring, smiley photos. We want fun original ones." Oh. Okay.
"Uh, sure. I can take new ones right now and send them back in ASAP."
"Great! Looking forward to seeing them." We hung up and I screamed to my boyfriend to grab the backdrop and the camera and started tearing through my closet, flinging shirts, blouses, and jackets all over my room.
"Does this look like business casual? Is this smiley and bright enough? Will they think this jacket is BORING?" Anyways, here are some of the photos we did for my last-minute casting. I did not get a callback and I did not book it.
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july 2023
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writer's strike, several headed beast, deep fake love
Well, it's been a minute. And a lot certainly has happened. I went home for Christmas last December, came back to Los Angeles ready to tackle the acting scene anew, moved apartments (twice), settled into a new routine and BAM writer's strike. It's now July. I've been here in LA for one year and one month. The sun and heat have finally returned. And production is Not. Happening.
The strike has now lasted a little over two months and has completely dried up avenues for auditioning for network television, feature films, and participating in background work. So, me and my friends have started making our own fun. Cue Several Headed Beast.
One of my acting classmates, David, created this production company with some of his friends from school and looped me, Tommy, and Harrison in on it. We've been writing and shooting sketches for several months, have a 7,000 mile long list of ideas for future shoots, and are planning to officially launch our channel at the end of this month. Did I ever see myself in sketch comedy? No. Does this group of people get my humor and make creating sketches really enjoyable and low-pressure? Absolutely. I am so proud of the stuff we've made.
A lot of people told me to get into sketch comedy when I moved to LA (the unsolicited advice you get about moving here to act comes in high volume) but I've never really been that kind of gal. I don't love improv, I don't like dumb humor, I never watched SNL. My experiences with that kind of comedy were Fawlty Towers, Nathan For You, and Portlandia, which all are the epitome of comedy. So when I realized that this group of people wasn't the wear all black and play improv games in a dimly lit theatre thinking they were doing really groundbreaking comedic work (no hate to those people, that's just not my thing), I started to get kind of excited. And then I realized that not only did I think they had funny ideas and they maybe thought I had funny ideas, these were some real legit people! As you know, Harrison writes and directs. David works professionally as a DP and a cinematographer, and a variety of his buddies work full-time in the industry in production, post-production, etc. It's a great group.
And finally, 2023 is the year I made my Netflix debut. In April, I dubbed over a Spanish Love Island-esque show with Roundabout Entertainment and it premiered this month! I dub over a girl called Sara, so keep an ear out for my voice in her scenes.
As for now, I'm writing sketches, memorizing scenes for class, crocheting a ton, looking for ways to get more involved in the industry when it comes back, and waiting for the end of this strike so we can all get back to it.
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november 2022
crying on camera
guys. i did it. I CRIED ON CAMERA!
This skill has evaded me for my entire career. Granted, I grew up on the stage where real tears versus a great body shake are not going to make or break a performance. But since beginning my journey on camera, I always wondered how on earth I was going to be able to drop in that intensely, that seriously, to where my body would actually produce tears. And not by way of the old my dog died or my whole family died or I need to pinch my wrist so hard my eyes water... I wanted to be so in the moment, so connected to the circumstances of my character, that my body just... cried.
So, here's to sharing a small but important (to me) acting win and having a scene where the tears are glistening and the snot is flowing. I performed this scene in class, but in the new year, we're hoping to secure a church and shoot it on location. And let me tell you, I'm ready for the waterworks.
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august + september 2022
gardens
gardens​
a short film
by harrison welter
I've been auditioning like crazy and I am SO grateful for it. However, I am not booking. Sure, I've done a play and a little bit part in a student short and have been recording a new audiobook (should be released this week !!), but I'm itching to put to use the skills I've been honing in acting class and actually perform an entire script instead of a page or two for a self tape.
A month before I moved here, so did my boyfriend, Thomas, and his roommates are comprised of two aspiring writer/directors and a costume/set designer. As this is a highly competitive industry with very few wins along the way (I've been told the average audition to booking ratio right now is 1 booking for every 130 auditions), it's safe to say we're ALL itching to be creative right now. So we decided to just get up and do it ourselves.
Harrison wrote a short script loosely inspired by Thomas and I and we're shooting it over four days at the beginning of September. We had our first table read at the end of August and are now preparing for another pre production meeting before learning those lines and filming! Updates to come.
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Link to Gardens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NyE3fnpO0M
june + july 2022
As I'm understudying the lovely Savannah Schakett, I'll be on for select dates:
July 15, 16, 22 @ 8pm
July 9 @ 4pm
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may 16, 2022
Federation of Drama Schools UK
New York Showcase 2022
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After two postponements, planning for a Zoom showcase, and a potential total cancellation, I am thrilled to finally participate in the Federation of Drama School UK New York Showcase! Students from a variety of drama schools throughout the UK will be performing monologues, scenes, and songs in a theatre in the heart of New York City.
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I will be performing a selection from My Name is Rachel Corrie, a play compiled from the writings and letters of young activist Rachel Corrie, a member of the International Solidarity Movement who traveled to the Gaza Strip during the Second Intifada. She was killed by a Caterpillar D9R armored bulldozer operated by the Israel Defense Forces while protecting the family home of local pharmacist Samir Nasrallah from demolition.
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Monday, May 16th
1pm + 5pm
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dat
The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter​
City Garage Theatre
Santa Monica, CA
Rehearsals for Pinter's The Birthday Party are well underway - we open in two weeks! This will be my first production with City Garage Theatre after joining the company in April. City Garage is known for pushing the envelope with eccentrically reimagined classical theatre that is highly choreographed and quite beautiful to watch.
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The Birthday Party, Pinter's first full length play, is set in a run-down boarding house in a South English seaside town and follows a unique cast of characters who are throwing a birthday party for the only resident of the boarding house, Stanley. Things take a sinister turn when two strangers arrive unexpectedly.
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This play has been a blast to take part in and a welcome introduction to the Los Angeles acting community. Being in a rehearsal room energizes me, and I feel immensely grateful to get to play onstage each evening after spending the days scrolling through casting calls and self-taping.
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I'm so grateful to have found a little community among such a talented group of actors and have really enjoyed working with this amusing, dark, eccentric text. Plus, I get to wear some awesome outfits. We run for nearly a month! Swing by and watch us celebrate.
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