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Sed ut perspiciatis unde.
SubscribeWe were lucky to catch up with Sherry Mandujano recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Sherry thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
What did my parents do right? / Taking a risk.
Sorry, I couldn’t just pick one, but these have been the most defining events of my life.
The old adage of “with great risk comes great reward” must be imprinted somewhere in the soul of all risk takers like my parents. I hate the idea that this quote is attributed to a slave owner like Jefferson, but I’ll appropriate it in honor of my family.
My parents did many things right, but the most monumental was making the dangerous journey to the United States with my eldest sister when she was only 4 years old. Literally putting their lives in the hands of armed men who dropped them in the middle of the desert and had to hide in the desert and walk towards the barbed wire fences of the border.
I am privileged to have been born in the US to such hard working parents. The youngest of three sisters. We are Mexican Otomi Indian and Spanish with Jewish descent. This essentially means that most of my DNA has resided on this continent for over a thousand years B.C., before any invisible borders were created. It also means the totality of my ancestral blood has been fighting for me and my sisters right to exist. Taking the risk and moving across the world and through time. Sorry is this getting a little heavy? LOL!
I was born and raised in the Bay Area, my parents were farmworkers picking the fruits and vegetables our nation eats until I was 6 years old. They received their American Citizenship because of the Citizenship Lottery program for people who have filed their applications.
I had been singing in church and school choir my whole life. Then I caught the acting bug in high school, realized that people got paid to do theatre. I went for it. I applied to drama school and got waitlisted at the Boston Conservatory of Music but got accepted at AMDA in New York. My mom refinanced our house to help me pay for what scholarships didn’t cover but she never once told me not to go. I’m sure she was terrified now that I look back. I was so excited that I was moving to school it didn’t hit me that I was moving over 3k miles away from my family to a city I had never even been to with no friends or family. Without realizing it until recently, I was migrating, looking for a better life. Just like my parents and my ancestors.
Working in an industry that continues to dim the light of Latino and BIPOC artists in general can be very discouraging at times.
My new favorite Instagram meme is of that mouse in the car that says, “THE HORRORS PERSIST, BUT SO DO I”. My mother has always preached persistence. Persistence is the key to my family having survived in a new country, with a new language. We find our allies and community and we persist. We keep taking risks and persist even in the face of adversity because that is who we are. It’s in our blood.
I have many television writer friends who have been told in pitch meetings with studios, “Can we make the character caucasian? Can we make the characters male?” Studios don’t want to take risks so they reboot their old I.P. like Frasier and NIGHT COURT. They replace Latino characters in movies with white actors like Ben Affleck and Carey Mulligan.
We have to continue to take risks and put our faces and talent out there for the world to see so that we don’t allow ourselves to be erased from history.
The risk is worth it.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a Singer, Actress, Director that works here in Los Angeles and New York. I graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York where I focused on Classical Voice, Musical Theatre and Acting. My sister Isabel, who is a Costume Designer for film/tv, told me to come to L.A. and audition for TV and Film. I really fought it at first because I thought I was going to live and die doing theatre in NYC. A very romantic but very poor artistic existence, LOL! She convinced me and I decided to take the leap and leave New York. It took me a year to get representation but as soon as I did I booked an episode of 2 BROKE GIRLS on CBS followed by a string of shows like Ray Donovan, Shameless, I’m Dying Up Here and the role of the Nurse in Downsizing opposite Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig. Sometimes older sisters are right, but we don’t have to tell her that.
I am extremely proud of every role I’ve played on television because they were not written as cliche Latina characters. I know for a fact that one role was written for a man. The roles I’ve played vary from being funny or mean and they highlight that I can bring depth and comedy to bring those characters to life.
I’m most proud of diving into directing and writing and working to bring more visibility to the Latino community in Hollywood. Directing is a new challenge that uses all of my skills and I’m excited to see where it takes me next. I’m also excited to be working with Latinas Acting Up, which was born from the WGA and SAGAFTRA 2023 strike. We needed to show the studios that when they say they can’t find Latino talent for their casts or crew, we are here to prove them wrong!
I sing in a cabaret show called Mostly Musicals here in LA in between working in film and tv so, if you’re interested in hearing this songbird’s pipes, please follow me on instagram.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
MARKETING!! No one teaches us how important it is to market yourself. How to network with other professionals to show yourself in the best light and share your skills in a professional way. This is an invaluable tool for everyone to learn, not just artists. I wish when I was in school someone had taught me how to share my skills and talents in a professional networking environment so that it didn’t feel so awkward and uncomfortable.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I have been on a journey to unlearn HUMILITY. I am an artist first and foremost, but an artist cannot hide their talent and expect to eat. Growing up I was taught by teachers in school that I shouldn’t brag. One teacher literally told me not to brag because it would make Becky feel bad. That was not Becky’s fault. The adults who were teaching us should have done better. I unfortunately carried that lesson my whole life and it has only hurt me in my professional career. I want kids everywhere to know that they should feel proud of their accomplishments and talents. Never make yourself smaller just to make other people feel comfortable.
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Image Credits
Headshot by Stephanie Nelson Photography Television stills from HBO “Ray Donovan”, FX “Baskets’, Showtime “Shameless”, Paramount “Downsizing”, Showtime “I’m Dying Up Here”, ABC “Speechless”, FreeForm “Good Trouble”
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