We recently connected with Miki Yamashita and have shared our conversation below.

Miki, appreciate you joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I definitely feel that being an artist is a calling, and remaining steadfast in my pursuit of doing what I love to do makes me happy. There are huge sacrifices involved, and one of them is accepting the financial and emotional volatility of an artist’s life.

I’ve actually had many, many, “regular” jobs in order to support myself as I slowly built my performing résumé. You can put 10% of the effort you put in your artistic career in your day job, and everyone in the office thinks you’re incredible. I’ve had the privilege of working for many Fortune 100 companies like Pfizer, Diageo, and in corporate finance for firms like Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs. Performers need to be smart, adaptable, and have other marketable skills.

I remember dashing to auditions on my lunch break and having to change in the car from my work clothes into whatever the appropriate wardrobe was for the audition. My lunch hour always ran out quickly so one time, after the audition I raced back to the office still wearing booty shorts and a tube top. My co-workers thought I was mentally ill.

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

I am a multi-disciplined performing artist, and now an emerging digital creator. I was raised in western Massachusetts and trained as an operatic soprano at New England Conservatory of Music, but before completing my degree, I began working steadily in professional musical theater.

I was able to earn my first union card, Actors’ Equity, when I was cast as a sketch comedy performer at the Walt Disney World Resort. While living in Orlando and working at the famed theme park, I also gained on-camera experience performing in commercials, industrials, and hosting game shows for Nickelodeon. I also originated the role of the Young Indian Maiden in the Jungle Book live musical at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Upon finishing the National Tour of A Chorus Line in which I played the role of Connie Wong, I earned my Screen Actors’ Guild card working as a principal actor on shows like Law & Order, and my AFTRA card performing on daytime dramas like One Life To Live and As The World Turns.

When I made the move to Los Angeles, I had the opportunity to return to my classical singing roots when I began working for the Los Angeles Opera as a performer and teaching artist. I earned my next union card, the American Guild of Musical Artists.

Although I still practice singing every day, I now work primarily in film and television as an on-camera and voiceover actress. I have appeared on shows like Cobra Kai, iCarly, and Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. In 2023, when I, along with my fellow SAG-AFTRA members went on strike over our main theatrical contract, I was nominated to serve as a Strike Captain, which taught me the importance of union service, as well as the power of social media in generating support for the rank-and-file actors who pound the pavement every day.

Today I still try to balance my on-camera career and voiceover work with serving as an elected Delegate and on multiple committees at SAG-AFTRA, co-hosting a grassroots union education group for working actors called Solidarity, and most recently I have returned again to my passion for opera, serving as a social media strategist for prominent classical music figures who may be generationally disconnected from platforms like Instagram, but their presence in the digital space is critical to the survival of the art form. I am also a professional Christmas caroler, with The Music Companie, which is a very fun seasonal job where I’ve met some wonderful colleagues.

What I’m most proud of over my career so far is my ability to persist despite constant rejection or worse, being completely ignored a lot of the time, and my determination to study and maintain a high skill level in multiple performing disciplines. I’m also an expert in figuring out how to bypass the industry gatekeepers who are hostile, and various arts-adjacent bureaucrats who basically earn paychecks by saying NO and putting up roadblocks to prevent you from making your art. My advice is to NEVER let those people win!! The artist always finds a way.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

My dear father, who was a theology professor, died of cancer in 2017. But before he became ill, he asked me why I continued to pursue acting in Los Angeles when I could come home to Massachusetts and work at a law firm and do community theater on the weekends. It made me realize that he had no understanding about my true calling in life and what it feels like to be pulled so powerfully to the arts to the point where I would risk and sacrifice everything to continue my pursuit.

I had to carefully explain to my dad that if I were to stop pursuing the arts as a career, I would simply just be waiting to die. To this day I’m not entirely sure he understood me, but it’s something that stays with me and informs the way I communicate to people who are non-creatives.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

The best way society can support artists and establish a thriving creative ecosystem is protecting our freedom. Freedom to exercise our First Amendment right and freedom to express ourselves artistically. I’m sure a very popular answer to this question is more federal grants and government funding for arts organizations, but I myself am not too sure that funneling taxpayer dollars through a giant unaccountable bureaucracy is the most effective way to help artists.

I know that I personally direct my ticket-buying dollars and conscientiously attend shows of my colleagues who I want to support, because I know that when they see me show up it means so much to them personally, as much as it adds to their bottom line. “Society” is really just one person at a time doing the right thing. Each citizen taking small direct actions to connect with the artists in their community, and simply showing up and witnessing and appreciating their work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mikiyamashita.com
• Instagram: @miki410
• Facebook: facebook.com/miki410
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miki410/
• Twitter: @miki410
• Youtube: @miki410
• Other: imdb.me/miki