Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Hannah Leigh. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hannah, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
The first time I walked into The Troubadour was years after I had already decided it was going to be a part of “Hannah’s Ultimate Music Success Road Map.” It was 2019, and I had just released my first EP. I was hungry for inspiration, and I showed up to every single show I was invited to. I was in complete awe to discover that a mutual friend was performing on one of the most influential stages in Los Angeles. I felt like a true groupie when we took a photo with him underneath the marquee. The Troubadour made me feel like I had entered a portal into the past. The room feels intimate yet mysterious. Like Joni Mitchell herself could walk onto stage and no one would bat an eye. If you had told me then that I would be taking a photo with my friends under that marquee, but with my name on it, I would have laughed at you and then promptly journaled about how my “insane manifestations are totally working.”
Fast forward four years and there we had it. July 18th, 2023 I performed alongside some of my closest friends at The DAMN Troubadour! This show came at a perfect time. My other job (acting) was forcibly put on pause due to a much-needed strike and so I made it my full time job to put on the best show of my life. The fact that I was presented with an opportunity to be in full control of one of my own biggest goals was something I was not going to take for granted.
I started documenting the process in a video series called “Road to The Troubadour.” I filmed every part of the process from band rehearsals to backdrop fails, to getting covid while trying to organize merchandise to putting up posters all around LA etc. I roped all my friends into the process and made this show my entire personality for almost six months. Yes, I was one of those.
When the eventual day came, the feelings inside my body were unexplainable. I couldn’t even begin to process the amount of support that had come out of my efforts. My band was dedicated, über talented, and so insanely supportive of our neurotic rehearsal schedule. The other bands on the bill that night were over the moon and grateful. The night was electric. I kept having to remind myself that it was happening to me and not someone else. And that it had happened because of me. I still haven’t wrapped my head around that one. I had on my thrifted pink mini dress and a pair of gold and white cowboy boots that my mom had gifted me. I was out of my mind nervous. What if this wasn’t as big of a deal as I’ve made it seem like to everyone? What if it was embarrassing, how much I cared? But what this night truly taught me is that something only carries the meaning you assign to it. If this night was going to be my Oscars for music (could’ve just said Grammys?), then so be it. I think I somehow convinced everyone of that too.
I stood on the side of the stage waiting to go on and heard the crowd start chanting “Hannah, Hannah, Hannah” (I have some really nice friends). My friend Kyle tried to squeeze past me before I took his hand and asked him to stay. He looked me dead in the eyes with a huge grin and said, “this is it.” and I almost threw up from how much It felt like I was about to go play the Super Bowl. All of this may sound silly to anyone else, but this was truly the most important moment in my music career. A moment that independently proved to me that the work that I had put in for years had a home. It belonged somewhere, not just in my head. It belonged to all my best friends, family members, neighbors, managers, gym friends, childhood friends, exes, crushes, and strangers that stood in that audience that night. I was not alone in this endeavor.
Being an artist is the best job I can think of, but it can also feel isolating at times. It’s like doing your favorite thing in the whole world and then begging other people to see how much you love it. It’s the purest form of expression within the most pressurized form of business. To be able to have a night like this at my favorite venue in my home town was something I’ll never forget and I am eternally grateful for it. If nothing tops this, I will die happy!
Hannah, 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?
I was four years old when I started acting and it was something that I continued to re-choose throughout my entire life and career. To some, that may sound like an unnerving child actor story, to others it sounds like luck. To me, it just sounds like my life. Now at 26, I am grateful to have the experiences of growing up in an industry that is forever changing and shifting.
I discovered my second love, songwriting, when I took a break from acting for college. I pulled inspiration from the sounds of my childhood: Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Sixpence None the Richer etc. After exploring my own voice, my music eventually landed into the indie-pop/rock sphere that it is today! Back then, it became clear to me that having complete control over songwriting was something I needed after years of relying on other creatives to gift me jobs. It was in me to be a people pleaser, but music was something I could do for me and only me. It helped me unlearn those habits in a way that felt safe and beautiful. It felt intimate, real and it was a way to express myself without becoming someone else to do so. After college, I re-entered acting with a new sense of identity and continued to explore music whilst touring with a two-person band I had created at the time. It’s been quite a journey navigating the “child to adult actor” pipeline and I’m so grateful that my music career came to me at that crucial transitionary time. Now, I enter acting projects as a way to collaborate, to explore new worlds both physical and emotional and to create discussion and energy around messages that crave to be heard. I think music was a big part of building the confidence I always needed to become the actor I always wanted to be.
During Covid-19, I was faced with the harsh reality of an industry that I had grown to depend on, shutting down. That’s when I began my mentoring business. I had the time to sit and reflect on the things I wished I had known as a young actress and decided to give that to those who are maybe just starting, or need a little push in their creative career. It has become one of the most fulfilling parts of my life. For the last three years, I have curated relationships with artists from their first auditions to their first TV spots etc. I host monthly group seminars, do virtual one on one sessions and in person tapings for actors, writers and creatives who want that extra support. Working with them pushes me to be better at my own craft every single day.
When I think of the things I’m proud of, I think about the people I love. I think about the friends and strangers who come to shows, the scripts I’ve written with co-writers that I adore, the directors I have dissected character choices with, the long sessions in the studio with musicians, directing friends in my music videos etc. I am proud to have made connections with other humans who love to curate art and expression in a way that feels authentic to them; In a way that feels joyful and child-like and In a way that feels connected to something bigger than just the industry it is placed in. I could list the venues I’ve played, or shows I’ve been in when I talk about pride, but what it boils down to for me, is who I am surrounded by and how I’m spending my time. The quality of the creative energy I am surrounded by, is something I am proud to love about my life.
My goal within my art, is to encourage and explore more authenticity of self for the benefit of the consumer. I find the best art, the art that reaches the deepest, just comes from a weathered understanding or yearning for understanding of what is true. It doesn’t have to be pretty, detailed or cosmic, but that’s what sincerity is, it’s messy yet prepossessing. I love what I do and I am enthused to see what is yet to come.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
I’m in a twin bed in Sequim, Washington. It’s 3:30am. My co-star Scott Takeda is reciting his lines for the next days shoot, in his adjacent twin bed. We have been traveling up the west coast for the last three and a half weeks filming a feature film called Evergreen. It has been the most unique filming experience of both of our professional lives and we are both exhausted and filled with euphoria from the experience. We are in a new city almost every day, we are shooting as we drive (mostly Scott), cooking meals with the crew at 4am, celebrating incredible sunsets we catch on camera, camping in the redwoods, getting ready in off-the-freeway bathrooms, swimming in rivers to pass time when there’s too much traffic etc.
This experience existed in a vacuum. The entire cast and crew felt like family in that non-toxic “Oh, our set is totally a family” type of way…I swear. There’s no way for us to have known this at the time, but the way this experience landed in all of ours lives would change us all, in different ways, forever.
This shoot was hands down the most rewarding and fun experience I’ve ever had as an actor. It taught me that I could hold my own, I could be a romantic lead (something no one had cast me as at this point), I could perform through sleep deprivation and discomfort, and more than anything, I experienced a set that felt like a full unit. When I learn these types of things about my craft, my operation and my deepest desires for creation, that is what is most rewarding to me as an artist. This movie taught me single handedly that I am meant to be doing what I am doing. I am meant for this type of expression, because it teaches me what it means to be human on a level that nothing else ever will.
Evergreen came to me at a transitionary point in my career. I was fresh out of college and trying to re-enter an industry I had grown up in, but as a young adult. When I met director, Paul Goodman, I knew I had found not only an incredible talent that felt genuine and inspiring, but also a life long friend. When he brought me on alongside Josh Reynolds for short, Six Windows, we immediately clicked and for the first time since college, I felt like I had found my place creatively again. For the first time, I felt like I was an actor with autonomy. I was considered in a way that child me wouldn’t have even known what to do with. I was determined to continue this professional relationship and I’m glad he was too. This team and I have now filmed two feature films and have travelled the country going to film festivals and premieres together. I wouldn’t be where I am without them!
So, this is the example I give when people ask me what the most rewarding part of being a creative is. For me, it’s about being curious alongside people who are open to the experience of the unknown. It’s being uninhibited alongside people you trust and admire. It is the collective experience of art that curates love and magic. It’s feeling safe enough to be vulnerable, safe enough to feel strong and safe enough to be wrong. The reward of art for me, is the process of art. The finished product is just evidence that the magic occurred. It’s a gift for others to interpret and to have if they want it. It’s the evolution and cycle of passion. It’s my favorite thing in the whole world!
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One of the biggest lessons that I’ve had to unlearn deals with the definition of success. The dictionary defines success as “the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors; the accomplishment of one’s goals.” The key words here for me are, “accomplishments of ones goals.” Not, “the accomplishments of goals other people think you should have.”
As an actress, especially one who has been working since childhood, the expectation of success was painted in a very specific way. It was the “Dakota Fanning success handbook” that I had been encouraged to adhere to. But it wasn’t until I reached adulthood that I then sat down with myself realistically and put work towards dismantling the idea of a success that had been drilled into me by the industry that raised me. What is success? Is it money? Influence? Knowability? Is it happiness? Friendship? Love? Fulfillment? What did it feel like to be fulfilled? I had been conditioned to always climb, always fight for the next job, always work to be better, get bigger roles etc. So what would finally satisfy the itch of success that I had always wanted? Or at least I was told I had always wanted?
Realizing as an adult that there was another way to look at success and worth was a shocking discovery. I can be successful without meeting these benchmarks? I can be successful without anyone else caring? That cant be. My worth is dependent on other peoples recognition of the art I create. My worth is the congratulations email, the amount of days I work or the most recent credit on my resume. After much time and work, I have come to the conclusion that success is exactly whatever you want it to be. It exists in the jobs that never get aired. It exists in the beautiful connections I make with other artists. It exists in the slow times between projects filled with friends and family. It exists in the small wins, the big wins, the wins no one sees and the ones that everyone attends.
Success is inherently yours because your worth is inherently yours and no one can take that away.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve had to unlearn is that worth and success are best friends. They are both working together endlessly to prove to you that they’ve always been there. They were there the day you were born. Your passion for your life and your energetic celebration of self, is where success thrives. To others, it may seem like a nice pacifier for the artist to think this way in a society that rewards the grind, the fame and the power. But that’s okay. It’s okay to feel fulfilled about a life well-lived. It’s only positive and productive to show up for yourself in a way that feels authentic and joyful. That’s when the best and biggest things happen for me, personally. They happen when I’m completely connected to the success I know is inside of me and when I pay less attention to what that looks like to the outsider. I can only hope that creativity is viewed as valuable to the world no matter how much money it’s bringing to the industries it is a part of.
It’s fun to be alive. That is success!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://msha.ke/hannahleigh
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahleighofficial/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@HannahLeighOfficial?si=qmkcyftwekcpV78e
Image Credits
Photos by: Kirsten Albert, Dana Patrick, Yising Kao and Dylan Snyder