We recently connected with Candice Joy Scales and have shared our conversation below.

Candice Joy, 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 got some words of wisdom from a stranger once while I was bartending and still deciding if I should move to LA. He told me that I’m the kind of person that will get to skip from A-Z. That my destiny is already written and I basically need to stop being afraid and having imposter syndrome. That my light is way too bright to go unnoticed, and bunch of other affirmations. Now, to hear that from your mother is one thing but to hear it from a complete stranger is another. At the time my confidence wasn’t great and I was feeling everything from freedom to shame/guilt for possibly making a decision my parents won’t agree with but also possibly not following my own gut/heart. After that night I officially started saving money to move to LA.

Candice Joy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My creative background is cheer and dance. I grew up doing both and all through college. I began acting and taking music seriously when I moved to Los Angeles. Out of thousands of people on social media my best friend and I won a contest to work on Insecure Season 2 as PA’s. Although I didn’t even really know what a PA was I knew it couldn’t be too hard and it would be my first experience around professional acting. This job was my first official industry job in LA, and is actually what got me there and my foot in the industry door. My name is Candice Joy and I’m a multi hyphenated creative. One thing I told myself when I moved to LA was that I was not going to let anyone tell me what I CAN’T do, which you get a lot of when you tell people that you are an actor, choreographer, dancer, singer, lyricist, song writer, producer blah blah blah. (These conversations happen a lot). I grew up thinking I was only allowed to have one passion. And I slowly began to realize that that’s just not true. If I told my 8 year old self I’d be in Los Angeles working on tv and movie sets as an actor/on the production team, writing music for tv shows and movies, choreographing for tvs shows and videos, and singing my own music she probably wouldn’t believe me. And this is really only the beginning. I’ve learned so much about acting while working in production, and I’ve learned so much about myself studying/working as an actor. In the future I see myself using one set of passions(arts/entertainment) to help cultivate another set of passions (authorship, philanthropy/social activism). Representation in the industry, and by extension, the community is an important part of why I do what I do. In the media growing up, I didn’t see a lot of action heroes that looked like me, or scientists, explorers, fairies, astronauts etc… and I knew I wanted to be a part of the generation where that changed. Where it wasn’t every once in a blue moon. And although we are all in the midst of a strike, because everyone should get paid what they deserve, I’m grateful to be here in the middle of a possibly huge change in industry standards. I’ve arrived in the right moment, I’d say. Realizing what you truly want to do in life and actually doing it (especially if it’s really scary), is not that easy. I will always be proud of myself for having the courage to move across the country, very broke, to pursue a career I didn’t go to college for. And even with all the downfalls which are inevitable, pursue it successfully. I’m grateful.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

There are sooo many lessons I’ve been unlearning but one that sticks out all the time for me because it’s something I still struggle with is being TOO humble. I had to realize that in this industry you MUST know AND show what you have to offer without any remorse or concessions. Not only that but believe it with so much vigor it boarders on delusion. I’ve always been confident, but I also tend to heed to others and have a fear of coming off obnoxious. I had to get rid of that and “walk in my light” as my mother would say. Adding a little imposter syndrome to the mix didn’t help, but I’ve come a long way from FORCING myself to believe I belonged in a space to walking in a space standing solid in my reserve knowing that not only do I belong there but I deserve to be there.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

After being a staffed PA for 3 years on various shows, I had to make a decision to keep PA’ing full time, or go back to bartending and coaching so I can have more time to go on/submit auditions and submit to schools for actor training. I realized I couldn’t PA full time and fully pursue acting so I started bartending/cheer coaching again. Eventually I started PA’ing again as a day player only, (I missed being on set in a production capacity) and now my schedule is perfect for auditioning, booking, and training.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @candidjoy
• Youtube: Candice Joy (@candidjoy)
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/track/34KZ5QjtCRMWld21mzPEzN?si=q_hVX8KITjCqjq6A0b95hg