Earning that first dollar is incredibly special and a moment many never forget. We asked some very talented creatives from the community to tell us the story of the first dollar they earned from their creative works.

La diabla

I will never forget the first time I tattooed my first client. I was an apprentice and had been in the industry for about 2 1/2-3 years, it was Friday the 13th and my manager pulled me aside and had given me the opportunity to tattoo. Read more>>

Katie Stone

My very first paycheck from acting was a short student film called “Lothario” in 2013. It was shot in Dallas, Texas by students at the Art Institute and I think it might have been for $100. When I was handed that check with the name of the project and my character, I felt like I had arrived. Read more>>

Phill Celeste

It was 2013. I had dropped out of art school, quit my job and decided I wanted to start busking on the street in Baltimore. You see a handful of guitarists, bucket drummers and horn players around town if you pay attention. I told myself I was gonna make it like Tracy Chapman or Benjamin Clementine. Read more>>

Sam Brown

Although I began seriously pursuing music as a career since 2015, the first dollar I ever earned as a performer came years before… when I was just. two years old. My family likes to say I was practically born singing. I come from a family of actors and musicians so I spent a lot of time learning from them and imitating them, and, by the time I was 2, I could match pitch, sing in key, and employ full vibrato (truly a sight – and sound – to behold). Read more>>

Aimee Zetina

I had just started launching myself as a an artist on social media & performing. Then the pandemic hit & at the peak of it Spanish music was the “it” thing. I earned my first contract with live nation to do a livestream concert for about 20,000 people online. Read more>>

Arash Pur Mohseny

As an artist, the first dollar that you earn for your work, feels ….. unreal. You suddenly have this urge to quit your job but no! don’t do that. Earning income from your work in the first couple of years is simply just a motivation and a driving-factor. Read more>>

Vedanti Rathod

One of my instructors at my college had a project coming along the they were going to direct. I was very much wanting to learn more from them. They had told our class briefly that they need some assistance and if we are interested and free, we could come to help him but it was unpaid. Read more>>

Dana Lyn Baron

So, when I was 16, I snagged a part in my first professional musical, “42nd Street,” over at the San Diego Civic Light Opera. Got my first paycheck, and I was like, “Wait, seriously? I’m getting paid for doing this?” Money wasn’t the main thing – I was just doing what I loved. Read more>>

Luis G. Moreno

I earned my first dollar as an artist for my distinctive “cute style” through a commission for the Main Event Talk Podcast. David Flores, the podcast’s creator, tasked me with creating a series of illustrations featuring cartoon versions of popular professional wrestling superstars of that era. Read more>>

Carissa Garcia

The first time I did makeup was when I was 14 I started getting better at makeup and I did my sisters makeup for her first baby shower Read more>>

IDROWNEDZAY

The first time I earned money for my music was when my older brother was just starting up his company and he asked me to make an instrumental for an online advertisement that he was working on. He told me to just make something that’s “short and simple but catchy at the same time”, so i loaded up FL Studio the next day after school and tried to cook up something that fit his description to the best of my ability. Read more>>

Dave Barclay

I got an agent shortly after graduating from the Humber College Comedy Program, and immediately started going out on auditions. After a bunch of rejections, I had an audition for an industrial (an industrial is a short film, not intended for broadcast, that is commissioned by a company to show in-house). Read more>>

Patricia Dorian

This was many years ago, when I first came to Los Angeles. About six months after arriving in LA to pursue a career in acting I was able to sign with an agent. He in turn would send me to auditions and I got cast as a pregnant young mother. The PSA was about not drinking while pregnant. Read more>>

Samuel James Pygatt

This actually made me laugh because I remember vividly the first time I earned money as a creative, At the time, I was living in Harrisburg, Pa working for the Treasury Department and someone I did my first play with in Lebanon, Pa connected me with a local director who needed an extra cast member to do a staged reading at a elementary school nearby. Read more>>

Rex Mohammad

I turned my first dollar from creative tomfoolery in 7th grade. It was a fertile time and it was just about every gym class I made $5-$10 by drawing Chinese dragons, Mickey Mouse and Tweetie Bird on my friends with ballpoint pens and permanent markers. Read more>>

Lindsay Arends

My first job as a professional actress was when I worked as a background actor on the Nickelodeon series “Zoey 101.” I had recently moved to Los Angeles, and I was very excited to be on a set. It was a great show to work on, and I had fun Although I have moved on from background work and I only work as a principal actress now, I do feel that it is a good experience to be on a set, understand and apply film terminology. Read more>>

Courtney Segrest

I have always loved making in any form. Painting, crocheting, and ceramics when I finally started taking classes in my undergrad. The university I was at had a strong art community and often had opportunities to vend during art walks. The first time I put my application in I had a handful of ceramics, and crochet jellyfish that I was selling at my booth. Read more>>

Brick Briscoe

I was in film school at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. A grad student asked me if I’d score his thesis film. I was flabbergasted and excited. It turns out the film was about Bedouin tribes in Iraq. It was shot mostly without sound and was narrated. The filmmaker wanted me to also create some sound effects. Read more>>

Dean Skinner

Oh wow…I still remember it like it was yesterday. This beautiful couple saw my work hanging in a local coffee shop and commissioned me to paint their ADORABLE little girl who was around five or so and just a little “firecracker.” The entire time I painted her I kept thinking, “I can’t believe people are actually paying me to paint.” Read more>>

Jim Telli

My first Paid gig was me headlining a comedy night in Fort Lauderdale last year. I made exactly $280 that night and I felt incredible. Read more>>

Anatolii Panchenko

I was in LA, trying to land my first acting job. I called agents in town, asking if anyone needed an assistant. I offered to work for free, saying that I wanted to learn more about the business. One agency picked me up and allowed me to be in the room with them. Read more>>