Tuesday, December 27, 2011

2011 - Year in Review, AKA I Really Enjoy Brussel Sprouts!

Hey y'alls!

Wow, I realized that I hadn't updated this thing since JANUARY. And well, it was mostly because I was (fortunately!) super busy! 2011 has been totally KICK-ASS! I'll list some highlights:


  • Started off the year right by freelancing with Jerry K. of DDO Artists Agency in their on-camera department! Thanks to CnC-Studios and Jagger Kaye's training, this was the first time I had ever auditioned in front of an agent, and they were interested in working with me! 
  • WON the CnC-Studios raffle for a "That's How We Roll" t-shirt! I NEVER win these things! Also another great thing!
  • BOOKED MY 1ST NATIONAL COMMERCIAL! It was called "Not Acceptable" R-Word PSA, and it premiered during the season finale of GLEE on FOX! Check it out here:
Turns out that there's also a parody of it on YouTube, and someone is actually playing me! And as Kurt Cobain had once said, "You know you made it when someone is parodying you" --- or something like that!

  • Auditioned for the off-Broadway production of RENT at New World Stages, and GOT A CALLBACK! 
  • Auditioned for my first Under 5 role for a Comedy Central show!
  • Auditioned for a day player role for the HBO show "Girls"!
  • Got my 1st print ad that was displayed at bus stops! 
This print ad was for the NYC Department of Health for Colon Cancer Awareness for the Chinatown Community! The bus stop I'm posing with here is actually the one I used to wait at to take the bus to go to school every day back when I was in high school!
  • Got my very own IMDb page! This was thanks to my professional acting credit from the Biography Channel show "Celebrity Close Calls," playing Gary Busey's ER Nurse!
  • Performed STAND-UP COMEDY for the first time this year, thanks to pressure from Jagger Kaye! Took a class at CnC with Clayton Fletcher, and got to perform at CnC-Fest, and made my official debut at New York Comedy Club! I never thought that I would do it, but I did, and apparently...I was funny!
  • BOOKED my 1st agent-submitted commercial for the CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge through DDO Artists Agency!
  • GAY MARRIAGE BECAME LEGALIZED IN NY!!! (Ok, not an acting thing for me, but I was THRILLED that my friends can FINALLY get married here!)
  • Started freelancing for commercial print with Rick Miller Agency, thanks to CnC-Studios! 
  • Invited by Carrie Preston ("True Blood"), who directed the indie feature film that I worked as a day player in last year to the cast & crew screening of "That's What She Said"! Plus, at the end of this year, we found out that the film was accepted into the 2012 Sundance Film Festival!
And no, Steve Carrell is NOT in this movie!
Carrie Preston is the sweetest woman ever! It was an honor to get to be in her movie!


At the cast & crew screening of "That's What She Said," I got to sit in between Bill Klayer (left), the director of photography for the film,  and Michael Emerson (right), Carrie's husband, and also "Ben Linus" from LOST! Super cool guys!
  • BOOKED a commercial for a major computer company --- spot got KILLED. It was a learning experience though, and made me stronger!
  • Sang at Seth Bisen-Hersh's 150th Showcase Celebration!
  • Had my first ever voice-over audition for a huge national union spot! It was definitely a fun experience! Thanks to Marina Kamen for this opportunity!
  • MET BILLY BLANKS!!! I just happened to walk by a Vitamin Shoppe, and saw an opportunity to meet him, and also enter to win a chance to work out with him! Back in 2000, when I was a freshman in college, he actually helped me lose my first 30lbs in 30 days from doing his Advanced Taebo tape twice a day instead of eating junk food! It was definitely a dream come true to meet the man who pushed me on the tv screen when the going got tough, and helped essentially make me the person that I am today:
I still can't believe I met freakin' Billy Blanks!!! This is soo not a photoshopped pic! And I don't have PhotoShop anyway.

  • Cast in the opera chorus of Verdi's "Il Trovatore" with the Manhattan Opera Repertory Ensemble! It felt great to sing with other opera singers, and get to really SING again!
  • Cast a one of the leads in "The Mole," a one-act play by Barbara Kahn, directed by my beautiful and talented friend Steph Van Vlack, and starring opposite my other gorgeous and talented friend Maayan Schneider! We performed this for the Fresh Fruit Festival at the Workshop Theater in NYC. It went over so well that there will be a short film version of this play starring me and Maayan, also directed by Steph! The three of us are officially the TRIAD OF AWESOME!
Maayan, moi and Steph. I <3 these beautiful & talented ladies!


  • Got a CALLBACK for an equity play that's set to go to London! Didn't book it, but still, a great honor!
  • Worked on another project with the AMAZING Ms. MARINA KAMEN! This time, she really helped me understand my body even more, and I'm going to STAY at this size and weight! And FOR LIFE!!! And she helped me lose 100lbs!!! THANK YOU, MARINA!!!
Marina Kamen is a GODDESS! LOVE HER!!!

Oh yeah, and thanks to the weight loss, I took my 1st ever BIKINI PIC! It took A LOT of guts for me to actually take this pic!

Me in 1999 in Germany at 240lbs. Who is that???

  • BOOKED MY 1ST GLOBAL PROFESSIONAL PRINT JOB FOR HUMIRA! Thanks to Rick Miller Agency for sending me out, and Jagger Kaye for the opportunity for the opportunity!
  • Ran my 6th NYC Marathon (11th full marathon altogether) and not only beat last year's time, but SMASHED IT! Ran a personal best of 4:34:33, beat last year's best time by 37 minutes, AND I FINALLY made it into the OFFICIAL race results for the Monday issue of the NY Times! (In order to make it into the official results, you need to run a sub-5 hour marathon, and my previous best time was 5:12:17 last year!)

It only took me 6 NYC Marathons before I made it into the NY Times!

Look at that Asian girl in the glasses fly to the finish line!

  • Wrote my 1st original song in over 6 years!!! FINALLY broke out of my perpetual writer's block!
  • DEBUTED my original comedy songs at a fundraiser for the Empty Cages Collective (ECC) called "Empty Cages, Full Hearts"! Then got another opportunity to perform them again at New York Comedy Club, thanks to Clayton Fletcher! The audience was AMAZING and really loved my original songs! ***WARNING: The following songs are NOT for children or for those who don't have a sick sense of humor!


Me performing "Is She?", my Taylor Swift-infused style song.

This is my piece de resistance! "Love Eternally" is the first song I've ever written with piano accompaniment. 

  • Performed for the quarter-finals of "Got Talent 2: A Competition to Benefit Autism," and advanced to the semi-finals! Thanks to my AWESOME friends and fans, I made it to the FINALS in the Top 12! I got to perform in the star-studded GRAND FINALE and the judges included "Queen of Mean" Lisa Lampanelli and Eileen Fulton from "As the World Turns"! I ended up WINNING 3RD PLACE!!! Lisa Lampanelli said that I had "The best voice of the night" and Eileen Fulton wanted to apparently date me! Haha! Check out the video of my performance, as well as the judges' critiques at the end:
Me and my magical ukulele on stage again! This time I performed "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" at the Midtown Theater. Last year I was on stage at the Apollo, and won 3rd place there as well!



  • Took my first stab at EDITING, and WON the CnC-Studios Holiday Charity video contest! Check out my winning video here:
Ok, I'm not great, but I used Windows Live Movie Maker, had no clue what I was doing, but my "vision" still came out in this video! I was especially proud of myself when I got letters to pop up on the screen on the bottom! Woohoo! Little things like that excite me.

Now that we've looked at this year, let's compare them to my goals for 2011 that I wrote for myself last year:
  • Join AFTRA as soon as I book another AFTRA gig.Fortunately, I saved up enough money from my SAG jobs to at least make the down payment. *** UPDATE: DONE! The R-Word PSA was my 1st AFTRA PRINCIPAL CONTRACT!
  • Join SAG as soon as I have $2,335. Provided that they don't raise the initiation fee again. Rumor has it that they wanna raise it to $3,000! OUCH! I will hoping book enough AFTRA work to pay for SAG! *** UPDATE: Decided to wait until I booked the job that would "seal the deal". I'm in no rush to join until I HAVE to!
  • Book an Under 5 in an AFTRA project. *** UPDATE: Didn't book one, BUT, got to audition for one, which is one step closer!
  • Book another SAG principal role. I was SUPER lucky to get upgraded to principal in a SAG film this year, I would like to book again! *** UPDATE: Didn't book one, but when the time comes, it WILL happen again! 2012, baby!!!
  • Get an agent, and a GOOD one. *** UPDATE: I actually checked this off the first week of 2011 when I was called in by Jerry K. of DDO Artists Agency! Not only that, but I got to work with Rick Miller, and at the end of the year, for Christmas, I'm now freelancing with Kim Jago of KL Jago Talent! ALL thanks to the incredible opportunities at CnC-Studios and Jagger Kaye! And I'm also proud to say that I have booked work through both DDO & Rick Miller!
  • Take more classes! Besides the on-camera acting classes, I also want to go take dance classes again, such as ballet, jazz, tap, etc...since I DO want to end up doing musical theatre again, since that's always been my bread and butter. I also would like to find a good voice teacher, but my budget won't allow me to do that just quite yet (my Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance still has me in TONS of debt!), but I should update my book of audition songs. I also would like to take improv classes at Upright Citizens Brigade, since improv has always been such a challenge for me, but I know that it's such a great skill to have. *** UPDATE: I've taken hip hop dance, and though I'm not a pro, it was something new for me! I also was cast as a Broadway dancer in an indie SAG film this year! So in a way, I DID get to do more dancing! I also got hooked on Bikram yoga, so I've increased my near-non-existent flexibility! I haven't taken classes at UCB yet, but I did get to take an improv class with Kim Schultz, which helped TREMENDOUSLY, and perhaps the best thing was taking a STAND-UP COMEDY CLASS with Clayton Fletcher! That was truly a breakthrough for me, and I learned sooo much! It has helped me with booking more roles this year! Maybe Jagger Kaye does know what he's talking about. ;)
  • Actually GET SEEN for an Equity audition! I haven't really done much theatre this year, and it's because it's really REALLY difficult to find PAID theatre work. Like I had said above, musical theatre is really my bread and butter, and a majority of my roles have been in musicals. I would love to be on Broadway one day, and that has always been, and always will be, my ULTIMATE GOAL in life. Nothing is as thrilling as being on stage, and as much as I love being on set and working in tv and film, the stage is where I feel the most at home. I know that I can "buy in" to Equity after a year as a member of one of the sister unions (AFTRA, SAG, etc), but, that union card is one where I want to feel like I got it because I went into an audition and NAILED IT, so I booked the role and got my card. I'm DETERMINED to one day be a proud member of AEA! *** UPDATE: Not only was I SEEN at an equity audition, I was CALLED BACK for ALL THREE that I had the opportunity to audition for this year! Let's hope for a booking one day!
  • Run a sub-5 hour marathon. Ok, I know that that has nothing to do with acting...kinda. I got to work as a jogger for the film "We the Peeples" recently, and if I wasn't in shape to run and didn't have good form, I would've looked stupid on camera. I LOVE running, and just ran my 10th full marathon with a personal best of 5:12:17. Not fast, but faster than the other 9. Running keeps me in shape, and therefore, able to maintain my weight. In this business, looks mean a lot (in terms of fitting into the wardrobe for shoots, plus, the camera adds about 10 lbs), so I really NEED to keep myself in top shape so I can keep on booking work. *** UPDATE: I soooo kicked ass this year! Ran NYC in 4:34:33, baby!!!!!!! And finally made it in the NY Times official race results! HELL YEAH! I'm awesome. :)
So that's 2011 in a nutshell! Oh yeah, I realized this year that I LOVE brussel sprouts! I wished that television didn't villainize them when I was a children, so I could've gotten to know their yummy goodness sooner!

One more thing, here are goals for 2012:

  • Book more AFTRA principal work.
  • Book the SAG job that "seals the deal".
  • Get more equity auditions. Get more callbacks. BOOK.
  • Take improv at UCB.
  • Keep on working with amazing agents and managers.
  • Run a marathon as close to 4 hours as possible.
  • Try something crazy and new. Perhaps...stunt class?
I hope that everyone has been enjoying their holiday season! Have a very happy and healthy new year, and let's KICK ASS in 2012!!! Woohoo!!! :-D