We recently connected with Tania Faria and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tania, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Since around the age of 4, I’ve always known I wanted to be an actor. I think acting and performing is something a lot of children are drawn to at an early age, but for me, the desire for it never wavered. I have many pictures of myself, front and centre on a stage, during school productions, and always remember being the first to put my hand up for the lead roles. The more, however, I was faced with and learned the realities of the “real” world, such as immigrating to a new country, puberty, etc., the more that desire got suppressed. I didn’t have anyone in my life who was pursuing a creative path, and the examples available to me, in the form of Disney stars on TV, seemed extremely out of reach. So, I knew at 4, but I really only got the courage to go for it at 17. I found a committee through TIFF in my hometown of Toronto called the Next Wave committee, which is a group of 12 high schoolers who are passionate about film and together, we helped curate our own film festival called the TIFF Next Wave Film Festival. This is the first, but not last time, I truly felt at home in a community of creatives and artists. This experience helped solidify my future in working in film and propelled me into new experiences, such as becoming a PA after graduating high school on film and commercial sets. Once COVID hit in 2020 and productions shut down, I found a full-time job and put the creative side of me to the side, until I got to the point of being so fed up with my job, that I knew I owed it to myself to fully dive in to my true passion of acting in 2022, which I haven’t looked back since.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Hello reader! My name is Tania Faria, and I’m an Actor/Producer based in Toronto, Canada. I have also written and directed my own projects in the past. Collectively, I have been in the film industry for 8 years, first starting in 2017. I have done various roles from PA and Art Department to Producer, Director and Actor.

For my acting, I’ve trained at various school in Toronto and most notably at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City for 9 weeks. I’m actively seeking representation.

I’m most proud of the creative community I’ve built in Toronto so far. One of my main goals in my career is to uplift and bring Portuguese creatives to the forefront in the film industry, as I was born and raised in Portugal before moving to Toronto. I’m extremely proud of all that Portugal has become recognized for, such as food, tourism, and literature, but there’s still work to be done with film and visual storytelling.

Outside of my creative pursuits, you can find me running, puzzling, baking and watching movies!

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I believe society, and governments specifically, can provide more funding and emphasize the importance of artists/creatives and partaking in artistic/creative activities for one’s physical and mental health. There is a reason that acting is one of the oldest professions known to man, and that’s because of the many benefits that allowing yourself to be creative and artistic brings us. Acting and performing, in whatever capacity that might be, can be a great tool to explore a lot of emotions that we’ve been taught to suppress in our day-to-day lives, such as grief, anger, empathy, joy, and many more. There should be more funding for community theatre and volunteer-based classes and groups, as well as advertisement of these programs. Nowadays, the biggest struggle is making time for these activities since there’s not a lot of if left after a typical 9-5 workday, but with enough government support and a slight societal perspective shift, being creative and artistic could be used to treat the current mental and loneliness epidemics, making for a more emotionally in-tune society.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is meeting like-minded people and feeling like you’re part of a community who understands each other on a deeper level. Being in NYC and studying at the Stella Adler Studio felt like being able to take a breath of fresh air for the first time in a long time. The artists I met there and the support and openness we provided each other with allowed me to be my full, authentic self. I know for sure this was also due to the nature of the work that we were doing, and as well from the support and encouragement from our teachers, pushing us to go just a little bit further than we thought we were capable of. All of this made for the perfect components of a life-changing experience for me, and it’s a part of the industry I’ll never take for granted.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/t.aniafaria/
• Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/tania-faria-4801b8154
• Other: IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10078560/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_1_nm_7_in_0_q_tania%2520faria

Image Credits

Picture 1, 2, 6: Kamila Love
Picture 4: Andy Wright