We were lucky to catch up with Lorrisa Julianus recently and have shared our conversation below.
Lorrisa, appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
When I studied both Filmmaking and Theatre Arts in college, I was told I had too many irons in the fire and should specialize instead. I’m grateful I didn’t listen. The entertainment world has evolved since then, and a performer who can write, produce, and edit their own work is more empowered than one who cannot. Diversifying my skills has been key to surviving financially and thriving creatively in the arts.
The biggest mistake I’ve seen young artists make is saying “no” early in their career and saying “yes” too much once they’re established. Early on, I said “yes” to every art and entertainment related gig I could find. Thanks to many people in numerous corners of the industry giving me a chance, I was fortunate enough to pay my bills by such diverse means as being a motion capture actor and stunt person for Mortal Kombat and Harry Potter games, painting commissioned artwork, performing as a torch singer, being a studio makeup artist, handmodeling, directing musical theatre, performing improv murder mysteries overseas, speaking at libraries, editing corporate sales videos, guest starring on network TV, performing as a living statue, and more. When a door wouldn’t open, I’d pivot to the one beside it.
In 2003, when I signed my first tv/film agent, I learned that modeling auditions, while overcrowded, were more plentiful than acting auditions in Chicago, so actors had to do both. In 2007, I modeled for a photographer who only booked each model once, but who needed an ongoing makeup artist. Then I met his photographer colleagues who also needed a reliable makeup artist. Most of them hired me as on-camera talent after meeting me as a makeup artist. Working on both sides of the camera helped me survive the Great Recession.
At first, saying ‘yes’ to everything was daunting. Nothing humbles you like being a beginner over and over again, but no adjacent skills you master will ever go to waste. The more I learned, the more I understood that my experiences in performing, writing, filmmaking, and even painting gave me a unique skillset that my buyers value just as much as specialization. And with more skills to offer, I found more buyers.
Looking in from the outside, what makes you different? What makes your combo of skills and experience most valuable to buyers? And if you can’t identify that right now, it’s okay. Explore a new skill that interests you. Keep learning! Say yes!
Even though I’ll always be the outlier, never relating fully to those who devote their entire careers to one discipline, I can connect the worlds creatively, thereby carving my own niche. People want conformity from their entry-level peons, which we all are to start. But they don’t want conformity from their main acts. They want innovation.
All of my professional experience came together in creating my award-winning romantic comedy feature film, “The Misadventures of Mistress Maneater,” streaming free on Prime (go to bit.ly/mistressmaneater), Tubi, and YouTube, and named one of the best indies of the year. First off, it wouldn’t have happened without my brilliant partner C.J. who directed and co-produced, and our committed cast and crew who are masters of their crafts. For my part, my experience as a published and internationally produced playwright contributed to the script. My experience as a SAG-AFTRA film, video game, and television actor helped me craft my performance as the lead character. My education and decades of experience as a video editor helped me edit it, my collegiate opera training helped me perform the song I wrote the lyrics to, my years of working with Photoshop to promote my plays helped me redesign the cover art, and my decade as a gallery artist meant we saved thousands when I painted the Baroque-inspired centerpiece painting prop instead of having to commission it. I’d trained in Shotokan Karate to give me additional value as a motion capture actor for the Mortal Kombat and Injustice video game franchises, and that experience not only inspired the original script I wrote, but made the fight choreography easier to perform. All the disparate skills I’d learned finally paid off and came together. If I had stuck to the traditional path of actor or writer, not only would I have felt powerless and hamstrung in my professional life, stuck in a crowded pool of folks with identical skills, I would have missed out on incredible experiences that inspired my creations.
We all see the “glamorous” careers—acting on Broadway, having a million followers, getting a publishing deal or landing a New York art gallery—and think that’s the dream. Those may be the crowded, iconic routes that our egos prefer, but for most of us mere mortals, they are financially frustrating and lack sustainability. I’ve found success in less glamorous, more consistent gigs that creatively fulfill me while paying me a living wage. When being able to afford new tires or open an IRA account becomes your metric of success rather than your number of likes and congrats emojis, you come to view social media flexes and impressive bios with a grain of salt. Even your own!
Also, you could have the talent of Michelangelo or Glenn Close but if you are submission #3,196, you are just a number, and likely one that will never be seen. Playing that lottery for peanuts along with everyone else I knew was enough for me for a time. Until it wasn’t anymore. I now focus my energy on the doors that aren’t as shiny and impressive to the layperson, but where I know I’ll find appreciation, a livable wage, personal enjoyment, artistic growth, and ultimately, peace. Check out my recommended reading list and do the inner work to determine your personal metric for success. For some performers I know, success is the length of their imdb.com resume. For others, it’s how many gigs they can book in a day or their number of followers or how many auditions they submitted or pages they wrote or art shows they entered. None of those currently resonate with me, but you’ll find “authorities” in your industry who earnestly dictate what your metric “should” be. Closely examine if your definition of success is simply social conditioning you’ve accepted so others will label you “successful.” That’s ego rather than reality. What actually aligns with your values and current goals? Allow the answer to evolve as you evolve.
Most importantly, I wouldn’t be here without countless pros helping, supporting, challenging, and recommending me. This interview request came from a dear colleague’s recommendation! Reality isn’t like the movies, wherein a clueless newbie’s talent is glimpsed by one person who then enthusiastically leads them by the hand to fame and fortune. We’ve all heard the expression “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” particularly in regards to the arts, but that aphorism misses the truth. It’s not who you know, it’s who’ve you built agenda-free relationship with and who has learned they can trust your skills, professionalism, and integrity to reflect well on them. This takes years, if not decades. I make more money as a model now than I ever did as a 22-year-old, and that’s why. Years ago, I was a random, meaningless pretty face along hundreds of photos for prospective clients to peruse. Over the years, I’ve built strong relationships with clients who value me beyond surface appearance. I’m not just their vendor anymore, I’m a friend and respected colleague they can trust to enhance and complete their vision, make them look amazing, and have their back.
Hofstadter’s Law says everything takes longer than you think it should. If you want to make a living in the arts, be prepared for a long, winding road and be willing to take detours. Get excited about them! If you don’t let fear and ego reject opportunities that appear outside a preconceived, conditioned image of success, you’re bound to find a wild adventure, meet wonderful people, share magic, and make some money along the way.
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?
Lorrisa Julianus is a performer, writer, speaker, internationally displayed gallery artist, and SAG-AFTRA actor. She has guest starred on Chicago PD, The Bold & the Beautiful, starred in Lifetime and independent feature films, and been a videogame motion capture actor for Mortal Kombat, DC Comics, Harry Potter, and more since 2008. She graduated as Columbia College Chicago’s youngest graduate of record, and since 2002 her scripts for stage and screen have been published and produced around the world. She wrote and starred in the award-winning romantic comedy “The Misadventure of Mistress Maneater,” streaming free on Prime, Tubi, and YouTube. Marie Asner of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle called it one of the best independent films of the year.
As Binary Star Arts & Entertainment, Lorrisa and her partner C.J. provide high-end artistic and theatrical entertainment for live events, from public speaking “edutainment” to musical and dramatic performance, special effects makeup to fine art and more. Their past clients include sports franchises, law firms, Fortune 500 companies, universities, and museums.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Out of the many skills I’ve cultivated, pivoting is what I do best!
In 2015, I was at a crossroads. I’d hit the glass ceiling of what I could do in theatre and didn’t see a way forward auditioning for the few film and TV projects that came around. Martha Beck’s book “Finding Your Own North Star” helped me envision what I wanted to create—a comedic travel docu-series called “Morbid History,” combining all the things I loved. I spent thousands of hours and dollars on this for the next few years, researching history and locations, writing, traveling nationally and internationally, filming endlessly during “vacations,” researching how to produce for television, meeting producers, re-editing sizzle reel after sizzle reel, pitch deck after pitch deck. I’d get so far with a producer or production company only to be told no, time after time. Five years in, I partnered with an experienced producer in LA and Hearst Entertainment, who took our magnificent sizzle reel to market. They believed in me and together we made something fun and truly impressive.
That was spring 2020. Turns out, in the middle of the COVID pandemic, no network wanted to buy a show about death that required international travel. And once a network passes on a project, you can’t bring it back to them.
So after five years of toil, it seemed well and truly dead.
In spring 2024, I got a call from a live event colleague. He had an inquiry from a library wanting adult and senior programming. I realized that the stories I’d spent years researching and writing were easily adapted to a library presentation, and I’d already spent years on camera practicing how to tell them in the most engaging way possible. That sizzle reel didn’t sell a tv show, but it sure sold a library presentation. Ironically, while I never set out to add “public speaker” to my professional repertoire, my lifelong goal of performing my own scripts, which I’d already done with plays, a musical, and a movie, came true again in a whole new way.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
Your greatest triumphs as a human, a professional, and an artist will come from your personal growth journey. Your inner reality creates your external reality. I’ve witnessed my peers rise and fall, and the greatest trip hazard I see to lasting success, happiness, relationships, and peace, is ego. And not just the narcissism we’re all familiar with in the entertainment industry and enjoy calling out in others. Ego also tells us “I have to prove to the world that I’m _______ in order to be happy, at peace, etc.” Ego tells us that if we don’t succeed at _______ exactly the way we envisioned, we’re a failure. Thus, we end up beating on the same locked door for years, until our fists are bloody and our hearts broken. And if by chance we do finally get what we want behind that door, we discover that the promises we’ve been chasing all our lives are no longer fulfilled. The industry you fell in love with in the ’90s has completely changed and isn’t sustainable anymore. Or you fell in love with an illusion. Or you realize that the brass ring you sacrificed to clutch didn’t make you as happy as you thought it would, but you’re in too deep now.
Meanwhile, the real treasures we seek—happiness, artistic fulfillment, independence, freedom, respect, connection—might be waiting for us behind a humble door already propped open and waiting. But we’ll only find it if we go within.
The TED talk “My Stroke of Insight” by Jill Bolte Taylor set me on my inner journey back in 2012 and should be viewed by everyone. It’s a brilliant physiological perspective on inner peace.
“A New Earth” by Eckhart Tolle changed my life. It helps you understand the human ego from an eastern philosophical angle.
“Ego is the Enemy” and “Stillness is the Key” by Ryan Holiday look through the facet of western philosophy, using compelling counterintuitive examples from the greats of history.
“How to Calm Your Mind” by Chris Bailey helps us understand the conditioning and manipulative societal influences that keep us in low grade chronic stress.
“Deep Work” by Cal Newport is a manual on cutting through the time-wasting, conditioned crap that distracts us and gets us nowhere.
“The Code of the Extraordinary Mind” by Vishen Lakhiani is great for outliers. It addresses the many overlooked areas of life where we also seek success, and the unexpected ways to find personal and professional breakthroughs—like the path of forgiveness.
“Essentialism” by Greg McKeown is a must-read for those at the point in their career when they feel pulled in too many directions. You sowed the seeds, you tended them, now you’re overwhelmed with opportunity and have to cull a few sprouts for maximum harvest.
Never stop reading and growing and learning. Your inner journey will feed your art and your career, in addition to your heart, soul, and relationships.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.binarystararts.com
- Instagram: @lorrisajulianus
- Facebook: https://fb.com/binarystararts
Image Credits
JR Owen & Co. (for the fifth photo with her logo in the bottom right corner)