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

Danny, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I wouldn´t describe myself as a risk taker but I can say that when I´ve decided to take a risk, usually things work out; I remember seeing and hearing this quote several times “Life always begins outside of your comfort zone” in the moment it was kinda odd but then I realized that it´s true, how can you win if you don´t take the risk.

The biggest risk that I´ve taken has been deciding to become an actress and moving to LA, I´ve taken other risks, smaller ones, but this one made me get out of my comfort zone, to leave behind everything that I knew and start from zero.

I´m gonna talk about this later in the interview, but getting to this point, moving to LA, was a long journey, from fighting with my parents to fighting with myself, I don´t want to give the wrong impression about my parents, yes at the beginning they were against me being an actress, but when I was old enough and they saw me acting for the first time they were really supportive; I started my acting career in Mexico, two years later I moved to the US.

I have family and friends in other parts of the country but didn´t know anyone in the States, so I moved completely alone, and the welcome was pretty sour, I didn´t know about the number of scams you can be exposed to if you don´t know how things work, back in Mexico I found this beautiful apartment close to my school, in a really good area, furnished and with a very sweet roommate, I signed the lease, paid the deposit and did all the things they asked me to, my roommate was supposed to pick me up from the airport, as soon as I landed in LAX my “roommate” asked me to send her the rent of the month first and then she would pick me up, she wanted me to pay her in bitcoins so I asked the airport officer if she knew how to pay in bitcoins and so she explained me that I probably got scammed, so yeah, that’s how LA welcomed me, I spent 4 hours in the airport, debating if I should go back to mexico, if I should have a panic attack or what to do next, my mom told me to look for a hotel near my school, because it was summer time, most hotels were booked or crazy expensive, until I finally found one in Bevelry blvd. it was beautiful, really cozy, and next to the Grove, I was booking it every day because I didn´t want to book a whole week and then find an apartment, yada yada. so after two days when I was on my way to school, the hotel called me that I needed to take my things out because they were fully booked and I couldn´t stay another night, one of my best friends in Mexico gave me the number of one of his dad´s friends, so I texted him, he was super sweet and helpful, that day in the afternoon he picked me from school and took me to another apartment that I found, turns out it was another scam lol, so he took me to his home to meet his wife, and in the meantime, I was trying to find another hotel but everything was full, that’s when I completely freaked out and told my parents I wanted to go back home, but this couple offered me to create me a space in their living room while I could find an apartment, I can honestly say that they were angels that the universe sent to save me, they were super nice and helpful, and the fact that they welcomed a total stranger to their home was schooking, I spent a month there till I found my first apartment and I lived there with my first roomate, which is still one of my best friends here in LA.

And that´s how my story in LA started, I have way more stories because I can say that my life has been full of surprises, some good ones and others not that good. All these experiences have taught me that life is not linear, and what I choose as my career is even less linear, sometimes you have to say yes, to jump into the void even tho you don´t know what´s waiting for you on the other side, life is all about taking chances, taken risks whether they´re big or small.

What I wanted to do with my past story is that sometimes life gets hard, I know that moment was not a life/death situation, but I had two choices, both of them risky, 1- decide to go back home and maybe wonder “what if?” or ensure the idea that I wasn´t meant to get out of Mexico, or 2- stay in LA trusting that things would work out at the end.

I’ve lost so many people and opportunities because I have been afraid of taking risks and failing, today I know is better to fail than wonder what if.

I can´t say that I have things figured out, I guess we never will, but at this point in my life I´m deciding to take risks.

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´m a Mexican actress in LA, I started acting around 7 years ago, and believe it or not, I knew I wanted to be an actress since I was a little girl, I remember watching the movies or going to the theatre and getting this magical feeling, the one you get when you know you belong somewhere, but unfortunately my parents didn´t allow me to do it; why didn´t they let me do it? because when my mom was younger worked very close to the Mexican entertainment industry, and she realized it was such a toxic environment, so she wanted me to be as far as possible from all of that, and that´s how this journey began.

Being an actress was like this crazy impossible dream for me, a pipe dream, while growing up I thought actors were like Superman, unreal, so during my whole life I tried to find something to be passionate about, something to fall in love with, I did find some hobbies, and I also made a lot of discoveries about myself, but the whole time it felt like something was missing like the puzzle was incomplete.

Of course, while I was growing up I was part of all the school festivals plus my cousin and I used to make the annual talent show on Christmas, I remember being completely happy while doing it, but in my mind, it was just that, my opportunity to be on stage; when the time to choose a major came, my heart was telling me to apply to acting conservatories in New York or London, I told my dad my plan and he made fun off me, and that again, discouraged me, so I found a University in Mexico that had a program that I really liked, it didn´t a have to do anything with acting tho, besides artist management, and theatre production, those were the closest I could be to acting, I don´t know the literal translation but it´s about the entertainment business. I was really happy there, made a lot of amazing friends, and of course, learned a lot about how the industry moves, but as time passed and as I was getting older, I felt more and more empty, till one day a teacher came and he talked about how passionate and how in love he was with what he does, something in that speech resonated with me that in the next morning, I told my mom that I wanted to quit university and pursue my dreams.

Believe it or not, I thought I wanted to be a singer and I started studying music, but even then it wasn´t enough, one day in a sleepover one of my best friends started talking about this amazing acting workshop she was taking, in that moment I thought I was going to that workshop to improve my performance on stage while singing, but when I first acted, really acted, everything fell into place, it was like finding the missing puzzle piece that I was looking for, and that´s how my acting journey started.

I took several workshops back in Mexico, I starred in some short films, and plays, I even did musical theatre, my goal was still to come to the US or UK to study acting, but at that moment I was doing so many things in Mexico that I left that plan on the side until I saw an add saying that Stella Adler NYC, was going to Mexico to make some auditions, I have to be honest, I thought it was a scam, but anyways I registered and the next thing I know is that I was auditioning to come to one of the best schools in the US, two months after I heard back from them, I got the CONGRATULATIONS!! email, and three months later I was living one of my dreams.

One of the biggest lessons while being here was bumping into several celebrities and realizing they´re just another human being like me, that actually gave me hope, because if other humans can do it, why wouldn´t I be able to? We tend to fantasize and idolize this industry a lot, but when you see it from the perspective that, they’re just people like you and me doing what they love, changes the whole panorama and makes it more reachable.

For me, one of the most important things in life is to make everyone feel seen, to be nice, and never forget where you come from, what I love about acting is that you get to know other parts of yourself that maybe you didn´t even know existed, that you have to empathize with the characters, you have to learn not to judge and that you can do magic, and while doing this you get also to change someone’s life, I can´t even count the times a movie made me feel better, something that a character said or a situation that they were going through made me feel seen. I guess my mission is to open doors, heal, and make people smile through my art.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I would say that my biggest goal/mission is to do something that matters, to leave behind something with substance.

To enter people’s hearts and understand what´s going on inside, to find me and help others find themselves with my art, to remain a human in this artificial world, one of the things that made me fall in love with art, with acting, is that there´s always one quote, one character, one movie, that makes you feel seen, gives you that feeling that you´re not alone in this earth.

I strongly believe that if I can make it, anyone can make it, because everyone has the power to become whatever they want, the problem is that we live in a society that makes us believe we are not good enough, but the reality is that every single one of us is beautiful, we´re unique pieces in this creation, and I would love for everyone to feel special enough, to understand there’s no competition.

My goal is to make art, real art, nowadays everything is ridden by money, and power, they just want to create disposable things to entertain people for a few seconds without leaving something that matters, art is losing its beauty, art is now being used as something empty you do just to get a big check, so my dream is to go back to those times where art mattered, where the main purpose was to express yourself and with that make others feel too, without mattering how you look, where do you come from,
or what your background is.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I would say that the fact that you get to put your heart out there, that you get to explore every single one of your emotions, being an artist breaks you too, but it heals you again. They say art is subjective, so there´s no pressure to do it in a specific way, as long as you pour your heart into it, I believe the result is beautiful.

I know I´m gonna create a lot of controversy here, but for me, art is as important as medicine or other careers, think about how many times a song, a movie, a painting, or a dance, has made you feel better, have made you feel seen, part of something, like there´s someone out there that understands perfectly how you feel or what you´re going through.

For me, that´s the beauty of being an artist, that you get to connect with people’s souls, with your own soul; we, the artist get to portray whatever is going on in our minds, we get to experience our imagination, and share it with the rest of the world, I think we experience life differently, we see art everywhere, beauty or disaster.

Artists live in their own fairytale and with their art you make everyone else part of that beautiful story.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @dannysainz