Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Catherine French. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Catherine , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

For me learning the craft is a full time journey, the work we do as artists is a never-ending story, that’s probably why I’m always excited about my profession, discovering new things, embracing the changes, in my mind, in my body, in the way I relate to the stories… being able to see my younger self as my best friend and to think about my present moment as the only thing I have.

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.

I fell in love of acting when I was 5 years old, I saw the play “Peter Pan” in Bogotá (Colombia) my country, and I knew what I wanted to do with my life. Later on I started studying theater, I was 17 years old. Pursuing an acting career in any country is not an easy task, there is a lot of effort and a lot of rejections, so you have to develop a strong sense of your porpose in order to keep going and not lose yourself in the path, which is good because is the point when you discover what makes you do what you do. At 22 I directed my first Shortfilm named “Red & Black” and then I kept creating independent projects. I moved to New York in 2019, and pandemic happened in 2020 so in the middle of chaos my salvation was ART, I produced several projects in-house and some of them went to festivals and gave me the possibility to expand my knowledge in other fields of my craft. I’m proud of my resilience and the way I re-invented myself. Right now I’m working with my wife Yolanda Báez in the development of BAYOLA HOUSE PRODUCTION, a production company focus on photography and film, she is an amazing DP and creative director and we offer a diverse range of services: Headshots, photography for newborns, pre, post and production of films… We are incredibly excited for this and we would like to invite people to follow us in our social media @bayolaproduction and to contact us for any upcoming project you may have in mind.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

After pandemic I didn’t have a job, I had to look for a place to live and I was far away from my family. My refuge was my craft. I remember when I got into my first room in Bushwick, I said to myself: I need to write a shortfilm now, I did it and then I called some friends and we started shooting in the building, everyone was friendly and the most important thing, instead of being pitiful about my situation I WAS CREATING.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is that you’re never bored, there is always an excitement about the unknown. All the possibilities are open and your job is to keep going. I think that’s beautiful… something you can do forever, because you’re surprising yourself every single time, besides the fact you cannot not do it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6963198/
• Instagram: @cat.french