We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alexis C Austriaco a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Alexis C thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.
A huge risk I have taken is stepping out of my comfort zone and leaving my 9-5 job and going all in for my businesses. The henna business, Love is Mehndi henna design, started off as a hobby in 2007, doing free henna for friends and family members or anyone willing to be my canvas. In 2021 I got tired of doing jobs I dont love (like my 9-5) and signed up the business for an LLC with the state. I took the henna business seriously and made it an official business. After making Love is Mehndi henna design an official business I have kept my focus air tight, carving out how I want this business built. What risks the company can take, like advertisements or taking a client on. Since then I have done many weddings, birthday parties, brides, individuals, corporate events, and much more.
Another business I am in that I have rolled the dice on is the entertainment business, acting, producing, writing, etc. I have been acting for 4 years and absolutely love it. I fell into acting due to initially going to school for animation. One of the suggested courses to take for animation is acting. I went to St.Louis Community College Meramec and took my first acting class. There I realized I was home. I started falling in love with the works of Daniel Day Lewis and Viola Davis. They have inspired me to work my way to become a great actress. This line of business takes a lot of patience, risk, chance, and perseverance to keep building and shaping my acting career to its ever growing capacity. Many people do not realize the financial, emotional, and mental risks that come with pursuing the entertainment industry, but I feel this is a risk (investment) I am willing to take. Since I have started my acting career I have been in a couple plays at STLCC Meramec, been in a tubi movie called “Fountain and the Vengeful Nun who wouldn’t Die”, and to release on lifetime July 20th “Abduction at an HBCU” directed by Delmar Washington, executive producer Garcelle Beauvais, and Cast by Leslie M Greene. I have auditioned over 100 times before landing this role in “Abduction at an HBCU”. If I didn’t keep taking the risks of auditioning not know I would book or not I would have never booked this amazing movie. I plan to continue taking these risks of becoming a great well known actress and touching the hearts of millions with my performance and work in acting, writing, and producing.
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.
As for Love is Mehndi henna design company, I got into henna because one of my best friends in my 20s, Kimi Singh, introduced me to henna. I have never known of the art form before her, but since I have always love art since I was a child due to my father, Alexander Austriaco, being an amazing painter and muralist, I could not put the henna cone down once I experienced the joy it brings my heart making these beautiful temporary body art designs. I have learned many styles of henna from Arabic to Indian style. As a Filipina I am also learning Kalinga style designs for henna to give clients something new to experience when getting henna. I would say the most proud I am is that my work is getting neater and better every time I do a henna design.
I have been a student of life ever since I can remember. Paying attention to how I feel after having a yelling match with someone you care about or finding out a loved one is sick. These are feelings that are within you that are great teachers into what is known in the movies and television as acting. And as I have chosen to pursue the entertainment industry I have studied and hyper focused on my emotions and how I feel when a situation has occurred, so when the time comes to add it to the movie or TV series I can knock it out of the park. But acting is a never ending craft that can always be shaped to become better and better! I love comedy but realized that drama and action are my strong suit as it completes me as a person to take on roles like these and the discipline, like shaping the character, making sure to immerse myself in the role/ moment as it occurs, and what it takes to put on a stellar performance.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
What helped build my reputation in the markets (henna and entertainment business) is that when I decided to take these careers seriously people could tell that I would put my all into everything I do. Henna and acting. I also understood what patience means and that at times you fall and pick yourself right back up and go back and do it again, but maybe next time a little differently to get the outcome you were looking for, or better yet beyond what you were looking for. The beautiful thing is that the genuine love, care, excitement, and fullness I have with my careers shows while doing my henna art or acting, this encourages people to trust me more and that I will do everything to make a great experience for whoever I am working with, acting or henna.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
My partner in film, Rodney and I are currently working on a TV series called, “City Lights”, that we have been working on together for 3 years ( Rodney, who created the TV series “ City Lights” has been working on it for 5) have been declined a lot by people who we thought could help each other into making this TV series a reality on a major streaming platform. Like Netflix! But the beauty of us getting denied over and over again is teaching us to become like iron and more resilient to keep pushing and ignoring all the extra noise to make this TV series number 1 on a major streaming platform. Netflix 😊
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.loveismehndi.com
- Instagram: acting: alexiscaustriaco, henna: loveismehndi
- Facebook: henna: loveismehndistl
- Linkedin: Alexis C. Austriaco
Image Credits
Primary image is my actors headshot by photographer Jeannie Liautaud Maul and the rest by
Alexis C Austriaco