Today we’d like to introduce you to Fernando Zermeno Garavito

Hi Fernando, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?

Since I was a child, I found myself looking to people on stage and screen. Looking for company, being an only child, they were my best friends. Robin Williams, Gene Kelly, The Beatles, Mel Brooks, so many showbiz legends that I looked up to. I also had an aunt, she was a painter and poet, and she always pushed me and showed me (with the 100% support and love from my parents) how the arts could help me be myself. Then in college, I pursued acting, doing musical theatre in Queretaro, Mexico with my best friend and director, Paco Davila. He still pushes me to become my own self and my own actor. As the years went by, after a hip replacement in 2020, the culmination of 13 surgeries, I moved to New York City to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, graduating in 2023 and finishing their Company program in 2024. While at school, alongside 8 other actors, our stage manager, Meg Meschino, and our director, Michael Toomey, we devised a play/clown show based on the story of the man who saved the world, Stanislav Petrov, called “MAD MAD MAD.” We produced it afterwards in September of 2024 in Brooklyn’s Target Margin Theatre. Now with The Humanist Project, devising (alongside a great team of clowns) a new clown show for New York’s Fringe Festival.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?

It hasn’t. Thankfully I have always had the support and love from my parents and friends. From the age of 9 to the age of 28, I had 14 surgeries, inckuding a hip replacement. It has informed my art and made me fight harder for what I love and believe.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?

My goal in life is to keep bringing smiles to people; through comedy, drama, clown, musicals, whatever, but make people leave the place and feel less lonely, feel happy, feel accompanied. So if I work on something, it probably makes me happy first, and I hope to bring that to others. Right now I am working with The Humanist Project to bring a new show to NYC’s Fringe Festival. We are devising a new play called “A Crucible: A Puritanical Celebration of Witches and Turkeys.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?

Keep trying to find my voice, better my craft, engage with more art and more artists, keep creating, keep looking for ways to be happy through art, and if I can make others happy, that’s a win for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.fernandozermenog.com/

Image Credits

Alisson Winkel, Bronwen Sharp