We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brian Torres a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brian, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I’ve always loved story telling whether it’s being in front or behind the camera. Growing up, Acting & Film/TV was always a hobby of mine. I’ve done Theater one year in Middle School & High School, was in short films, & made silly YouTube videos along the way which I still do. During that time my parents always pushed me academically because I had great grades in school, majority As and would never get below a 3.5 GPA. Then came senior year of high school and that’s the time where every teen needed to decide what career they wanted to pursue after school. Even though I was good at school, in my heart I really wanted to give acting & film a try. Almost all of my friends wanted to pursue engineering, nursing, be a lawyer, or business and I felt like I was the black sheep & was the only one who wanted to go ALL IN pursuing Acting & Film. I knew the risks that were involved and knew that for some people it wasn’t a “stable job” but I strongly believe with God on my side that I can do anything. It was tricky for me because I knew a lot of the people closest to me didn’t believe in me, I didn’t have a strong enough support system, no strategy at the time & it felt like I was starting from scratch. I was simply a kid with big dreams.

After high school, I didn’t apply to any Universities or Cal States which worried my parents. So a week before Fall Semester started for most, I enrolled at my local community college. It definitely wasn’t my plan because I wanted to at least take a gap year or find ways to pursue Acting & Film. When I enrolled I was waitlisted in ALL my classes and didn’t know if I was going to get in or not. But then the craziest thing happened. I somehow got lucky and got into EVERY single class I was waitlisted for but want to know how? By my name being raffled out of a hat. I was blown away because there were so many other students on the waitlist and only a few got in and I was one of them. Then I thought to myself, maybe I am supposed to be here. As I went on with my college career I started to submit myself to auditions, help work on set, create my own short films, and build up my resume from there. I’m proud enough to say that I was able to do both college & pursue my passion at the same time. It was definitely challenging and I knew in me that I eventually wanted to pursue my passion full time or at least try to because that’s the career I want to pursue. As time went on, I finished junior college with a 4.0 GPA and an associates in arts with an intended major in Film & TV then began full force in Film & Acting and took any opportunity there was to be on set.

Now, I wouldn’t say I’m a big actor, creator, or director, not yet at least, but to this day I’m still working my way in the industry and am proud that I’ve got to work on some pretty cool films, shows, music videos, etc. & worked with a lot of amazing people along the way. I am also able to somewhat financially support myself and even help my parents pay bills while I am still pursuing my passion. I can say that I’ve proved a lot of doubters wrong and turned most of them into supporters. I still know a lot of nay-sayers but now that I think about it, love or hate you they’re still supporting you at the end of the day.

To this day, I’m still putting in the work, grinding as much as I can to reach my goals & dreams.

To whoever is reading this I want you to know that you can LITERALLY do anything in life, still be that kid with big dreams & imagination, continue to be a student in the game, love is a powerful force and it’s important to love what you do, it’s YOU vs YOU, you never know when the next miracle will be, & lastly you only have one life to live how do you want to live it?

Brian, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an Actor, Content Creator & Director. I’ve directed & acted in my own short films. Have had small roles in feature films and tv shows. I create content on social media (such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok) & have worked with a lot of cool people. I’ve also dabbled in all of the different departments when it comes to film production.

Outside of film/tv & acting, I lift weights, play basketball, box/kickbox, play guitar and a little piano, I love going outdoors & spontaneous adventures, I love taking photos on my film camera and most importantly I love going to church with my friends & family.

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

I wouldn’t say that I have a large audience on social media but my best advice is to CONSISTENTLY create something that YOU love making, that’s what I did and still am doing. And to also keep leveling up as you go. You may not get the attraction you desire right away but it’s when you least expect it, you could get thousands or a million views. I’ve had a viral TikTok that almost hit 24 Million views, another hit 3.1 Million Views, and an Instagram Reel that is at 5.2 Million Views.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

To best support artists & creatives, society should definitely share and check out each other’s work, hit the LIKE & FOLLOW button, post a comment, collaborate, buy their merch, donate to their passion projects, have a meet up, literally anything!

One click, One Dollar, One Person at a time can make a BIG difference!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/brianmtorres
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/torresbrian1
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/torresbrian1
• Youtube: www.YouTube.com/TorresBrian1
• Other: TIKTOK https://www.tiktok.com/@brianmtorres?_t=8ZHbPRvA3AJ&_r=1