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

Hi Jonathan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I believe the moment I knew I wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally was when I was younger and saw how much of a positive impact it made on me and how fun it was to enjoy watching movies and shows with friends and family. Growing up I loved shows like thats so raven, Martin, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, just to name a few and I loved how it made me feel and I knew I wanted to express myself in the same way the actors in the shows did and to be a positive impact to someones life. It wasn’t easy though because in that time of my life I was in the mindset of caring about what people thought of me so I’d make myself small and not really express myself fully. When I got to college and started to experience life, I really started to realize what people thought of me didn’t matter and live in the moment and push myself to be the best me I could be and that’s the journey I’m on right now.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Well, when I first got into this industry I was advised that the best thing to do is to take a class to learn what this industry actually entails, and I am so glad I did because it really laid the foundation for me to really understand that this career is something that needs to be nurtured and taken seriously so I since then have really tried my best to be consistent and work towards perfecting my craft. I am very proud of the fact that I have not and will not give up on myself or my dreams.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

That I can’t please everyone. Growing up as a pastor’s kid, you’re always looked at as having to be perfect, quiet, never really giving your opinion and just following what all the adults and/or people around you want to do or tell you to do and to always be the definition of a good child. That for me was very hard to unlearn because I had to deal with that until I was a teenager. I’m glad now I do not have that mindset anymore, I live for God, my family, and myself. It truly is great to now allow people to tell you what to do and how to act because at the end of the day it is my life, and I want to live for me, not for them.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

One of the many ways I have seen that I am resilient is the process of me getting a talent agent. I was on the search for an agent and/or manager in the beginning of 2022. In the years of 2022-2024 I was doing things such as showcases, auditions, emailing, calling, submitting, you name it I did it. It was hard because I started to question my talent and if I was enough. I had to remind myself that I am enough and the right agent will find me and we are going to work great together. Fast forward to 2024 and I was able to get 2 agents before the month of March ended and I couldn’t be happier that I did not give up on myself.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: J_balagizi
• Twitter: jbalagizi

Image Credits

@DJCoreyPhotography