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

Ming , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I”m primarily self-taught. I took numerous classes for acting, on almost every topic imaginable. I studied classical acting, went t London School of Dramatic Arts for a summer to study the British approach, as well as improv in Los Angeles. But in the end, you really have to learn by experience, by doing. It can be very hard in acting, because someone has to hire you, but you can also practice a lot by auditioning a lot, and really putting a lot of effort into audiences. In the end, I had to develop my own process for learning, and each time I ran into something I didn’t know, I went and researched it, asking others, or watching and reading a great deal of material that might be relevant.

The same was true for filmmaking and photography. I’ve spend endless hours reading manuals, watching youtube videos, asking other artists how they do their work, and then testing to see if i can duplicate the result or achieve the result I wanted. In short, I really tried to put in the hours needed.

Ming , 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?

If you knew me in high school, you’d be very surprised by where I am today. I was, in no uncertain terms, a geek. I was quiet, studious, and definitely “out” socially. To be fair, I was an immigrant, English was technically my secondly language, and I worked at my family’ Chinese restaurant everyday after school, so I was rarely out socially. My parents strongly believed in education, and I followed that belief willingly. Books and studies expanded my mind and my imagination.

Somewhere toward the end of high school, things began to change. My interest in the more theoretical – science, math, etc. faded, and I became more curious about the world around us – people, how societies work, how to get things done. I became a government at Harvard College, and in the years after college, I dived into business. I worked for Goldman Sachs and McKinsey & Co., two of the most well respected firms in America, and I got my MBA from Stanford.

After about a decade, my interests started to shift again. In my late 20s, I realized that there were many things I still wanted to do, and if I continued in business, I might never get to explore those other things. After my mini-corporate career, I went into acting, and many, many years later, I am still here in the entertainment industry.

Today, I’m a self-proclaimed jack-of-too-many things. For many of us on the creative side, that’s the way of the world, we have many interests, and doing many things is the nature of a creative life. Acting is my main thing, but I’m also a film maker and a photographer. At least, I have many things to keep me busy.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Many often ask, why acting? Especially because it’s such a departure from my past and from my business background.

I think the human experience is infinitely interesting and infinitely intriguing. We are on a constant journey to understand ourselves, to explore our abilities, to connect with others, and to create in meaningful ways. For me, acting is a way to live many lives, to explore the full range of human experience. I also think many of us share a desire to explore ourselves and the world around us.

I do wish to say one thing about my background. Many assume I hated the business world or the other avenues in my life. Nothing can be further of from the truth. I believe science, math and business have great value in our society, and I enjoyed all of it. And in fact, I believe we should all have an understanding of these things. what drove me to acting perhaps, was that these were not the only things I wanted to experience in life, even though I enjoyed them and learned greatly from them.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The change from business to creative was by no means easy. Unfortunately, the creative life is one that is better begun young, and I came to it very late. Moreover, it meant learning all these things that were previously foreign to me. It as literally switching sides of the brain, and it was also interacting with the world in a completely different way. As I went into acting, I took classes in everything – scene study, commercials, improv, shakespeare, movement, speech, and so many more things that had never occurred to me before.

In my opinion, two other factors made the transition harder. First, I believe the arts are generally not well taught. And second, much of the arts are learned through experience, and it can be very hard to gain experience in acting. If you study business or medicine, there is a system for learning, one that continues after school. Corporations hire you, train you, and there are people to guide you. In the arts, no such system exists, and there is no clear path. You have to make your own way, if you will.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.minglo.com
• Instagram: @mingtelo.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mingtelo
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mingtelo
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ming-lo-photography-west-los-angeles

Image Credits
Chris Wu, Danielle Prou