We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lu Louis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Lu thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I was very much a class clown all throughout elementary, middle, and high school. I always saw my creative outbursts as just a way to entertain my friends while we were in class. But one day, our principal asked me to help her with a skit in chapel. She handed me a script and I remember thinking, “This isn’t that funny.” So I made a few rewrites, and after I performed the updated skit in front of my entire school, so many people complimented me on how funny it was. I always knew I was funny to my friends, but after that day, I realized that I could make a lot of people outside of my classroom laugh as well!
But it wasn’t until I took Improv in high school did I understand that performing could be a professional pursuit. So I went on to study Theatre in college and as soon as I graduated, I moved to LA and have been in the Entertainment Industry ever since.
Lu , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Like most people who move to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career in Hollywood, I quickly realized that the level of competition in the Entertainment Industry is overwhelming. If you are “just an actor”, then the barrier of entry is even higher. Not to mention you’ll have to wait a very long time and have to be incredibly lucky. So, while I waited for my “big break”, I decided to use those same skills that served me when I was back in school and started to create my own opportunities. I wrote, produced, and starred in many sketches and shows of my own creation. And fortunately, I was also able to book mainstream work in the Industry due to talent, hard work and opportunity.
And that’s been my M.O. my entire career. I never just waited for someone to give me the right opportunity. I chose to tell the stories I wanted to tell and kept myself open to all possibilities. And that is something I always encourage those interested in pursuing a career in entertainment to do.
But it’s also important to give back. And that is why I started a non profit back in 2015 with some LA friends called, Project Elev8 where we raise funds to help award academic scholarships and financial aids to school students in Haiti. That school where I got my comedic start, was in Haiti. I spent the first 18 years of my life on that island and it helped set the foundation for the man that I am today. So to be able to help give opportunities to other students out there is very much a blessing.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Being able to express my ideas, feeling, opinions, etc. through art is so cathartic! Not to mention, having so many creative outlets whether it be acting, writing, stand up comedy, etc. is such a blessing. I am able to experience life and then share my experiences with others in a way that allows for conversation and camaraderie or disagreements and debate. And I find all those unique forms of interaction with life to be very rewarding.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I hope to one day have my own profitable production company so that I can make the movies and TV shows that I want to make with complete creative control. To be able to tell a story from start to finish without having to be beholden to any meddling influences would be the pinnacle of artistic freedom, in my opinion.
Contact Info:
- Website: projectelev8.com
- Instagram: @Luonthemic
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/lutopiansociety