We asked some insanely talented artists, creatives and makers to tell us about when they know they were going to pursue a creative career.

George Bisong

Music has always been a passion of mine, but I’ve never let it be a priority. from children’s Bell choir to varsity singers in high school music has always been something I did in my free time. Being a first generation American with my parents hailing from Cameroon Africa. My career choices were made clear from an early age. “Doctor or Engineer :) “ So that’s what I trained for mentally. I knew it wasn’t an easy task, but I knew if I put my mind toward it I could achieve anything. Read more>>

Sandra Jockus

I’ve been drawing since I was a child, and it’s always been a constant presence in my life, even as a hobby. I studied fashion design and making in Tokyo, where I naturally gravitated toward the fashion illustration classes — those were always my favorite. Read more>>

Uranbileg Angarag

I was 5 years old. My grandparents took me to see the Mongolian National Circus show. The moment I watched the contortion act, I was completely mesmerized. I knew this would be my career and nobody could tell me otherwise. After enough begging and rolling around the house, my parents had no other choice than t0 take me to the circus. I auditioned for my contortion teacher at 6 years old. I was accepted and that was 25 years ago! Read more>>

Lily Rapoza

As a child, I’d tell anyone who would listen that I was going to be a famous singer and actress. It was something I assumed every kid wanted until I was told otherwise. I was shocked. Who doesn’t want to be on TV? My dream only grew as I turned to songwriting in the wake of two serious chronic illness diagnoses. I was a healthy child and then I wasn’t. Public school, sports, and friends were no longer things I had access to due to my health. Writing was my only outlet. It meant so much to me to find a way to express myself, and I threw my whole heart into it. As I grew older I only wrote more, and I decided to learn audio engineering in college as a way to support my creative efforts. I always wanted to be in music. It was my illness that pushed me to commit. Read more>>

Leah Reitz Winter

Art was always a part of my life. My father is a landscape architect and my mother was a homemaker. Together we made a lot of gifts for friends and family. She always had interesting ideas to create and often sell at craft fairs, etc. I would go to work with my father sometimes, and watch a colleague of his color his drawings for clients. I said “I want to be her when I grow up, and color for a living.” Through the teen years when things often felt confusing, I would retreat to my space and work on projects. I would teach myself by perfecting realism, still life drawings, coping works to figure out technique, and learn beyond what I was learning in school in art special. Read more>>

Don Pedigo

I’d say becoming who I am today has been an ongoing journey that began with my first band at age thirteen. My interest in songwriting really took shape in the back row of English class during my junior year of high school. A lot of small moments led up to what I consider the moment—that turning point came when I was eighteen and got the call to play lead guitar for a signed artist. That opportunity gave me my first real glimpse into both the craft and the business of songwriting. Once I had a taste, I was hooked. From that point on, I knew I was exactly where I was meant to be—and I’ve never looked back. Read more>>

Kaeli Tall

I don’t think there was a single moment when I realized I wanted to pursue calligraphy professionally. It’s been a gradual journey — one of continual learning, improving, and building confidence. As my skills grew, so did my desire to do more with it. Read more>>

Cameron Field

My Mum was a Gymnast her entire life. When I was young, she owned an academy that also offered Dance training. I remember being around the age of 7 or 8, trying a dance class for the first time and falling in love. I was the only boy, which meant of course I was the lead. That EXCITED me! I never wanted to stop. As I got older, I ended up transitioning to a bigger (& better) Performing Arts School that focused on working from a young age. I got the chance to work on my first professional job, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang The Musical, at the age of 12. I saw that pay check and was blown away. That exact moment taught me that anything is possible and if I love what I am doing then it will work out. Read more>>

Gabriela Ferreyra

I didn’t always plan to pursue a creative path professionally — but looking back, it was always part of me. I managed retail stores for years, where design, visual storytelling, and creativity were part of my daily life. Read more>>

Robert

When I (Robert Bernard) think about the moment I first knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally, I trace it all the way back to 2005. That’s when I discovered Buzz Out Loud, a tech podcast from CNET. The concept blew my mind—radio, but on the internet? I became obsessed. Back then, podcasts weren’t a tap away; you had to subscribe to an RSS feed and use a dedicated reader just to tune in. But I didn’t mind. I tuned in religiously, soaking up insights from Veronica Belmont, Molly Wood, Tom Merritt, Leo Laporte, Brian Tong, and Brian Cooley. Read more>>

Deepti Kingra-Mickelsen

I think, deep down, I’ve always known that the arts were my calling, even from a young age. Growing up, I was naturally creative—though a big part of that came from not having much to work with. I came to the U.S. when I was young, and my parents had to rebuild everything from scratch. We spent years living on the bare minimum, which, honestly, pushed me to think outside the box. You get creative when you don’t have many options, right? Read more>>

Gretchen Pickering

I had a relatively simple path to becoming an artist. My mom is an artist so I grew up in an environment where creativity was highly encouraged. I was always drawing and painting, no empty surface was safe from me. In school, my favorite subject was art and the older I got the more I realized that the joy I got out of creating was something I wanted to (and could) do professionally. Obviously my parents were thrilled that I decided to be an artist and not a lawyer, but no matter what I studied they were always there to support me. Read more>>

Michelle Ionescu

As a little girl, I found inspiration in books, movies, and the world around me, spending countless hours trying to create. Sometimes I would draw, and other times I would embark on practical builds, using whatever materials I had available to me. My art teachers in middle school nurtured my artistic curiosity and craft. I vividly remember the night I walked into an art store to buy supplies and saw a pair of college students purchasing their own art materials, and I could see myself embarking on a similar journey in the future. My path was not straightforward–it was filled with twists and turns—and ringing with discouraging advice. However, I remained steadfast in my creative dream, applied to SCAD, and began an ongoing journey of growth and exploration in the world of art. Read more>>

Andrea Del Hoyo

I’ve been drawing dresses and shoes for as long as I can remember. Fashion was always my thing, so choosing to study Fashion and Textile Design just felt right. That’s when I really fell in love with fashion illustration. At first, it was just a fun creative outlet—something I did on the side. I never imagined it would turn into my full-time job, but it naturally grew into something bigger, and now I get to do what I love every day. Read more>>

Anthony Tang
‘

I feel like I have always wanted to be in a profession with music. Since I was a kid I used to love dancing, growing up watching step up and especially watching Michael Jackson performances and concerts, I was like woah that’s so cool. As I grew older and grew out of the dancing stage I picked up an electric keyboard for the first time in middle school and started playing and playing everyday. I would listen to songs and recreate them on the keyboard from ear, I had no idea how to read notes. This prompted me a few years later to want to learn music producing because I had so much joy in recreating the drum patterns, melodies, and the whole process of making songs on my keyboard. Read more>>

ODINAKA Ugwu Emmanuel

Well, being the first artist in my generation, it wasn’t easy at the beginning. I didn’t get much support from my family, who didn’t understand what it was like for me – an eight-year-old child always making sketches of cartoons and pictures of my family members, and sculpting with mud during rainy seasons. Thinking about it now just gives me nostalgic feelings. Read more>>

Elle Brightly

I have always wanted to pursue a career in the industry, especially in music. I would write down any little song idea I had in a journal, filling every page with lyrics after lyrics until i would have to buy a new one. My parents were so incredibly supportive, so they put me in several music lessons such as violin, guitar, and bass. The moment I truly knew i could pursue this passion professionally was when i was in middle school. I came into my parents room and begged to be sent to auditions for labels in my area, or any musical opportunities. That next week I was on my way to my first audition for a record label in Austin. Read more>>

Dion Pollard

I always tell everyone who ask this question, I was born an artist. My mother was an artist. I started creating around the age of 3 and more seriously around the age of 13. My high school future occupation in the year book says Artist. I knew from the time I could create. It was and is a part of my very being. Art chose me through God. It is merged with the very fiber of me. Read more>>

Aaliyah Sullivan

I’ve always known I was meant to be in the entertainment industry just not how to get there. I’ve always been outgoing, confident, and always made a positive impact on so many others around me. Read more>>

Melvin Nesbitt Jr.

For years, I’d been taking painting classes and painting, with very little success. In an attempt to improve my paintings, I began making small collages of them first, to work out color and compositional issues, before painting on the canvas. I enjoyed the process and results of my collages more than painting. When I was invited to participate in a group show at DC Arts Center, my sister-in-law (and close friend) had just passed away. I was grief stricken and could not focus on painting so I decided to try to make a big collage instead. The process of collaging felt right for this moment in my life because I was hurting, feeling broken and fragmented. Read more>>

Abby Nkoma

I’ve always been a singer—for as long as I can remember, music has been a part of me. As a little French girl, I’d spend hours watching High School Musical or Lemonade Mouth, singing along even when I didn’t understand the lyrics. I performed for my mom, memorized every dance, and wrote songs in my diary—not because I had a plan, but because it felt natural. Read more>>

Michael Smallwood

I had made the decision that I wanted to work as a professional storyteller before I was ten years old. In second grade, my class mounted a production of Rudolph the Red-nose Reindeer for a Christmas showcase. When the question of who would play Santa arose, I volunteered along with a few other kids. So my teacher held auditions, and I got the role. I knew I wanted to be in front of audiences from that moment on. The following year, I saw Jurassic Park in the theater. I knew right there that I wanted to be involved in Making Movies. The next year, I discovered professional wrestling. Read more>>

Metahuman Macaluco

As a young child growing up in the early 2000’s and late 90’s, I always had an eye and an interest in making videos and home movies. My friend Slasher Steve and I met up in middle school, and he became the spark that got into really making early Youtube content. We both made a series called Slasher Friends that was a huge parody of both the show Friends and the entire slasher movie genre. We were in middle school and high school during this time period so most of the humor is very crass humor that kids would find hilarious. Read more>>

Conxept

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally was in 2017, during a late night I spent messing around with beats and writing raps in my notebook. I remember being in my room, headphones on, zoning out from everything else. There was something about translating what I felt into sound that just clicked it felt like the only thing that made sense. That moment wasn’t just about music, it was about realizing I had a voice and something to say, and art was the way I could say it. From then on, I knew this wasn’t just a hobby it was purpose. Read more>>

Arian Shariat

I’ve always been energetic and a natural performer since childhood. While I was deeply interested in music, I was also good at math. In Iran, families generally don’t see art as a serious career path, so I studied computer engineering at the Iran University of Science and Technology. At the same time, I continued making music. The more I composed and performed, the more I realized that the real me was in music, not in engineering. Computer science never truly fulfilled me the way music did. Read more>>

Juliana Chen

The first time I truly knew I wanted to pursue a creative and artistic path professionally was back when I was about 16 years old, shortly after moving from Taiwan to Australia on my own. Ever since childhood, I’d always loved singing and performing on stage—it felt like second nature to me, an instinctive way to express myself and connect with others. As a child, I even attended casting auditions, eager for opportunities to perform and showcase my talents. Read more>>

Jonathan Cane

TV was my babysitter, so I’ve been getting lost in stories since birth. As soon as I could talk, I was making them up—telling them, acting them out, casting my older brother in the supporting roles whether he liked it or not.

Before we had devices in our pockets, I had a pen in my hand. I’d write scripts, stories, and comic books, usually some spin on a classic myth, but updated to modern day. But the real moment was in 1991. I was turning twelve, and all I wanted was a camcorder. Not a bike. Not a Super Nintendo. A camera. I wanted to see my stories. Hear them. Bring them to life. I got a Hitachi Hi-8 video camera. Read more>>

Joseph Drake

My first gig in film production was on the set of the indie horror film “The Lashman” directed by Cameron McCasland. My duties was being a grip/production assistant and I even got a small role as a police officer. From there I got the taste of movie making and was starving for more so I seeked out every film production that I could be a part of. I ended up working with John Gibson on an indie western zombie film titled “Revelation Trail” where I got to play the very cool role of an native indian named Chayton. Cameron and John both were very inspiring to me as indie film directors, so I decided to try and create my own film. Read more>>

Darren Sites

It had to have been at the age of 9. I had just seen the Dark Knight in the theater and Heath Ledger’s performance awakened me to the metamorphic possibilities of acting and how that can really affect people. I was in awe of the truth behind the character he created, and I immediately knew that that was what I wanted to pursue completely. Each character I create, that level of truth is what I strive toward. I don’t have to necessarily be “method” in my approach, but discipline and concentration are crucial. Read more>>