We were lucky to catch up with Hilary Ijieh recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Hilary thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

One of my earlier memories from childhood is from a performance I did back in Kindergarten, where I played the old man from “Three Blind Mice”. I remember being all smiles during my performance, even though I was supposed to be a grumpy old man.

From the day I decided that I wanted to act, I began working on my craft. I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by numerous of opportunities as a kid that would ultimately lead me to Los Angeles. If I wasn’t rushing to the morning choir group, then I would be desperately air-drying a half-wet leotard for dance class, or I’d be trying to catch some extra sleep after a late night Netball game. I took Dramatic Arts as a subject in the 10th grade and studied under The Trinity College of London. From ballet to animation, I left high school with various certificates and medals from different creative endeavors.

Even though I had the full support from my parents to pursue whatever I wanted, I decided to study at the IIE Varsity College in Cape Town, where I got a Bachelors Degree in Marketing Management. Ultimately I knew that a marketing degree would be beneficial in helping me market myself in the future. Before graduation, I was awarded a partial scholarship to The New York Film Academy – fast forward 4 years, and I have since graduated summa cum laude from the Masters of Fine Arts in Acting For Film with a 4.0 GPA.

While getting my acting degree has been instrumental in allowing me to have the confidence and education to call myself an actor, it’s been the random life experiences that has helped refine my craft. The athleticism and social skills I gained from playing netball, the flexibility and rhythm I gained from dance, and of course, the practical skills I leaned from my Marketing degree has all helped support and reinforce everything I learned in acting school. I have learned that skills truly are transferable, and I am grateful for every extra curricular class I made my parents pay for in my youth.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

This industry kind of forces you to become a ‘multi-hyphenate’. Over the past three years, I’ve been a model, actor, writer, editor, producer, voice-over artist, make-up artist, set designer, UGC creator and a chef – BUT if I had to boil everything I do into one term, it would be ‘content creator’. Whether that entails starring in a pilot episode for a web series I wrote and produced, or reposting my Tiktoks on Instagram, I am creating and sharing my content. Artists usually refer to themselves as the ‘commodity’ they are trying to sell, because their likeness is usually attached to their art.

My love for creating content came from before I even moved to Los Angeles. I’ll skip over the few months where I tried to turn myself into a meme – I started a vlogging on Youtube late 2019/early 2020, where I shared my story of moving from Cape Town to Los Angeles to pursue getting my MFA in Acting. Over time, my channel grew and people from all over the word who wanted to move to Los Angeles, or who wanted to study at NYFA, started to reach out to me. I thought nothing of it, until I actually met one of the girls who DM’d me on instagram. I was leaving class one day, when a fan of mine approached me. She shared how grateful she was to me for actually responding to her, and how happy she was to finally make the move to Los Angeles post-pandemic. A few weeks ago, I had a photoshoot with another girl who DM’d me back in 2021, and made the move thanks to my advice. I never really expected to meet these individuals, but it’s been those encounters that have proved to me that the content I create and share with the world is valuable – even if it’s only to the few that slid into my DM’s. My videos encouraged others to chase their dreams, I will always feel good about that.

Writing, producing and starring in my thesis project, “Subtitles”, has also been an epic win of mine. My original thesis idea was this awfully sad story about a girl who was in a car crash after being roofied – with everything that was happening in the world around that time, I wanted to add some joy to the world. I threw away my already-approved idea and decided to write a comedy. It took some time, but I ultimately am so proud of the final draft of my script. Hearing my classmates release a chuckle after reading the same joke for the 5th time brought so much joy to my heart. This was also the first time I had to coordinate so many moving parts (aka other people). Shooting my thesis film was such a huge learning experience for me as it really put all of my social and interpersonal skills to the test. In the end, we shot a great film (and I got a good grade). “Subtitles” is currently in post-production, and will be entering the film festival run in due time. I’m actually so proud to share my short as the story sits near and dear to my heart.

Since entering the industry a few months back, I’ve had an unexpected amount of success in the commercial modeling world. I’ve worked with numerous beauty, clothing and tech brands. I have been complimented on my professionalism and positive attitude on set. I’ve literally had people reach back out to me to bring me onto another project because, “I was such a delight to work with” (her words, not mine). I recently shot a national commercial for a well-known tech company, where I played the lead (or the “hero”) of the commercial. It took a lot out of me, but I was able to self-regulate and stay calm during stressful times because at the end of the day, it’s just not that serious. I learned a long time ago not to take myself too seriously, as that just removes all of the joy from the experience.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

When the pandemic hit in 2020, literally 5 weeks after I moved to Los Angeles, there was nothing else to do in the creative world other than posting on social media – and so that’s what I did. I had a lot more free time to film shorts and post them on tiktok. I had time to edit some of the vlogs that I had been ignoring. I had time to create. One video of mine did particularly well on tiktok during that time. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in the headspace to take advantage those 5 seconds of fame. If I could offer some words of advice to my younger self, and to anyone else who’s reading – it would be this: JUST POST THE DARN VIDEO! Who cares if it’s not edited perfectly? Who cares if the video is a little blurry, or if you just posted yourself in a pink outfit and you don’t want your feed to clash? I wasted so much time trying to make everything perfect. When my video went viral, I mentally shut down. I wallowed for weeks because I felt like an imposter; like I didn’t deserve to have my video go viral. Which if you think about, doesn’t make sense? Why can’t I have a video go viral? Why can’t things go my way? The second I started asking ‘why not?’, that’s when things finally changed for me. To this day, I have yet to find a reason as to why things can’t go my way.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

A friend recommended that I read a book called “Eat That Frog!”, which is a book about conquering procrastination and getting more done. The term ‘eat that frog’ refers to doing the most difficult task of the day first before doing anything else. That way, you get the biggest/most important challenge out of the way. As someone who struggles with time management, this way of acting has helped me prioritize tasks in order of importance.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/hilaryijieh/
• Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/hilaryijieh
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/HilaryIjieh
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/HilaryIjieh
• Other: Acting Reel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So_boAs3KcE Fitness Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@funeralformyfat_ Rollerskating Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hilsonwheels