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

Kelmi, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Retrospectively, my adult life up to this date has been a series of life-changing choices that most could consider a risk.

With time, I’ve learn to take the negative connotation out of the word. Taking a risk is a gamble of trust in the person you should love and protect the most: yourself.

Right when I got accepted in college, back in paradisiacal Puerto Rico, I switched majors the day before classes began. The day before! I had no confrontation from my parents. They trusted my judgement.

I knew deep inside that I wasn’t destined to be a medical doctor or a lawyer. I needed a creative field. I was craving for it. Film production and advertising were right up my alley. I got my degrees in those,

In the midst of my college years, I was already dancing for a folkloric ballet company, studying full time, and working at a bank part time. I got offered the opportunity to travel and represent my Island in Europe.. Unable to negotiate that the bank would save my job until my return, I decided to type my very first resignation letter. What a thrill!

I had no idea what would my income be when I got back. But after spending that whole summer dancing, I most definitely fell in love with performing on stage and it was worth the anxiety of not knowing what was to come.

I started believing in “next-step-ness”; understanding that new beginnings were just as beautiful as endings. Nothing is forever. I started looking out for what was my next big step.

By my very last semester at college I was already working full time for a local advertising agency, I was a paid theatre performer, I continued dancing, and I worked part time in a restaurant. Keeping it busy because the next step was already percolating in my mind: New York City.

When the right time came, I had saved $1,900 from all my jobs and booked my one way ticket. No job. N0 apartment. Just a welcoming mother figure in The Bronx, a very thick accent, and a head that only looked forward. Of course, it was terrifying.

NYC made me a grown up. It was a collection of “first times”. First time living out of my parents, first time paying rent, groceries by myself, subway train, everything is in English now, first time that it all depended uniquely on me.

After the first year working and managing the digital strategy for national brands, I felt stuck in a cubicle. This was a very familiar feeling I had solved before with a template on “how to write a professional resignation letter” and my copywriting skills. So I did that.

Again, I moved on to the unknown just striving to be as happy and accomplished as I could. ‘’I didn’t move to this metropolis to savor the American 9 to 5’’, I said to myself. Here I could finish my theatre training. That opportunity to grow was funded by the very flexible service industry, which has given me SO MUCH.

Seven years later, a couple of off broadway credits, and a very special chosen family, the pandemic forced me out of my beloved concrete jungle.

So much has been accomplished, so much have been learned. A year ago, I took my latest risk and decided to continue my journey to Los Angeles.

The current chapter is being written as we speak. And a career rebranding it’s in the oven. I’m exploring all my creative sides and skills. Now I’ve got a team. I’m represented and constantly submitting to the biggest projects and auditions I’ve experienced. All this keeps me in constant growth.

However, I’m also building my portfolio as a Creative Director. And this particular part of my life, just like the movie said, is called being happy.

I’m sure more risks and sacrifices will be made along the way. That’s ok. I’ll keep rooting for myself and will turn every outcome into something unique and beautiful.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m an actor in all its complexities. I got trained and performed on stage in New York City and Los Angeles , I’ve gotten the opportunity to do voice over work, TV commercial work, and the big chance of being on set for feature films. Ideally, I would be back and forth between all formats. Acting is playing and I very much enjoy it.

Often, I get the question of what kind of actor I am, an it’s both hilarious and confusing. It’s hard to explain what I’ve done and what I dream about doing in just one sentence. I’m the kind of actor who wants to do more, explore more, work more, grow more. I’m fluent in Spanish and English and would love to continue working in both. I’ve been working on my Italian, so when confidence and fluency comes, I’d love to also explore work in a new language, why not?

When I’m wearing the Creative Director hat, which I recently starting exploring, I got into it purely by passion. All my design, aesthetic, marketing, and production knowledge are being combined with a variety of courses, conferences, videos, museums visits. There’s unlimited education available if you’re passionate enough and keep looking.

I think of myself as an idea generator. I’m always full of them! It helps that when I’m watching any kind of content, I’m subconsciously breaking it all down to style choices, acting choices, camera angle choice, transitions, color palettes, historic references, time periods, etc. I can have endless conversations about what I’m currently watching. And most importantly, I take notes ALL THE TIME.

My work philosophy is called the “Three Big C’s” and it goes as follows: create your own work, collaborate with others , and community building.

The people I’ve gotten the opportunity to collaborate with are attracted to, in my opinion, that passion and friendliness with which I take new work. I love painting somebody else’s dream into a reality that works for them. I’ve done production design for short films, set and lighting design for plays, and style direction for photoshoots.

The most important project that I’m working at every single moment off is the official launch of my label. I think the hardest projects are the passion projects in which there are no deadlines and no one is pushing you. It’s is completely up to you for your personal work to be completed.

So, having said that, my label “House Icarian” will soon be public and it will be one of my proudest achievements. I’m cooking a beautiful introductory project as my business card and can’t wait to tell all of you, “ hey, wanna collab”?

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

Yes. My creative journey, in many ways, is driven by my self love and acceptance. The more free I feel, the more freely I can create.

I want to portray my unique queer Caribbean experience and share it with whoever is willing to appreciate it. Accepting myself as I am includes creating work where audio diversity can reign. My accents are one of my most precious characteristics. They add that unique factor. An accent is a symbol of resilience, bravery, and intellect. If you’re reading this, best believe you’ve got an accent and guess what, it is beautiful!

So, by incorporating where I come from and who I am into my work, I open a door for myself, and all those behind me. Sharing culture is a form of self love. It is sharing the human experience from another perspective. It is a form of translation.

I grew up with equal access to the beach, the mountains, the rivers, the city, the rainforest. Being so far away from my Caribbean home, I am an ambassador. For the first time, I’ve been working into the direction of representing instead of blending in. Including instead of excluding.

As an artist , my identity is one of the most powerful tools I carry.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Art makes us humans; its appreciation, its manifestation. If you stop and embrace everything around you, there’s art involved in it. Even the font used to type these words are someone’s creation. It’s fascinating!

Definitely, I think the most rewarding aspect of the creative life is having a say into molding the human experience. That access to understand emotions and invoking the ethereal in undeniably a super power.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @thekelmi

Image Credits
Adrinson Yanes Hernández