We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nadia Borelli. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nadia below.

Nadia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

It is part of my life’s mission to spread this message: not only are you helping no one by living someone else’s dream, but as a parent, frankly, you are doing the greatest disservice possible to your child by discouraging creativity or forging a path less-travelled.

My dad listened to me when I was six years old, and said, “though I personally know nothing about the business, I know that there are people that do have knowledge, and I will help you find out good information.” I think it was when I started googling auditions that he really took the reins. He had one in Madison, Wisconsin, with an agent, and after confiding in her, that led to me signing with the only agency in Madison at that time at aged ten.

He was neither a “stage parent” nor an inner-artist squasher. It breaks my heart to now have some extremely gifted, talented friends who have so little confidence in their art because their parents discouraged it. This was the case with my mom and her parents. My mom only a few years ago quit her corporate job in communications to pursue a full time voiceover artist career. She now hosts a radio show called Ava’s classical jukebox and interviews many prestigious members of Madison Symphony Orchestra. I know how lucky I am to have had my inner-artist encouraged and to live in Los Angeles. It’s everything I ever wanted and I will pay it forward in every way that I can.

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?

I am an actress on stage and television, and a singer-songwriter performing around Hollywood. My influences growing up were Zooey Deschanel and Ana Kendrick. After graduating with a degree in musical theatre from Columbia College Chicago, I am now based out of Los Angeles, and most notably acted in All American on The CW, Lacy’s Christmas Do-over on Showtime, and in a national United Airlines spot with Oscar-winning director Asif Kapadia (AMY). Musically I would like to think I’m a hybrid of Nora Jones and Taylor Swift. I’m working on a full-length album called Water Sun Fire Moon, and am playing (or played) the Viper Room on November 12th of this year. I study with student of Stella Adler, Chris Fields, and student of Lee Strasburg, Shelley Mitchell. They’ve both changed my life as an artist and human. I would like to come home to classical live theatre, and am crossing my fingers about my recent submission to Utah Shakespeare Festival. I play the love interest, health guru, mysterious gypsy/witch, and am a Cancer sun, Sagittarius moon, and Virgo rising.

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

I have always known how I would spend my wealth, vote with my dollars, and how I would leverage my influence for the greater good, and to alleviate suffering. I read in Leslie Odom Jr.’s book, Failing Up, that the golden trifecta for any performing artist is working on a project that is culturally relevant, artistically fulfilling, and a commercial success. I also heard the idea in Eric William’s audiobook “TV’s New Golden Age,” that most often, stories have far more potential impact on the hearts and minds of civilians than any politician ever could.

I have a lot to say and it’s inseparable from my art. This includes listening to and amplifying suppressed voices. I would like to use my influence to end the institutionalized torture that is factory farming, and raise awareness about animal agriculture’s detrimental effect on the planet; educate and elevate women and girls around the world; end homelessness; and move towards an equitable society by practicing anti-racism.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

My world changed when I started studying under the afore mentioned student of Lee Strasburg, Shelley Mitchell. She had me watch a documentary called The Divided Brain (which I highly recommend.) It shows the ways in which Western Society has been literally colonized by the left hemisphere of the brain, which by its nature tends to use tools, manipulate, and deal with the known, seeable facts.

But the reason we love performers and actors- the reason we can’t take our eyes off of them- is because of exactly the opposite. It is because they have at minimum given a voice to their right-hemisphere, which deals with the broad, expansive, unknown, mystical, and very real magical aspects of life. True professional actors remove their social mask, in public, and lead with an unshakeable authenticity and seemingly unfiltered-ness, that with the absence of the pandemic that is people-pleasing, shines a light on our own soul.

I wish that non-creatives knew that every television show, movie, song, or book that they consume, while it seems fixed and obvious or maybe a product of some superhuman genius who had everything figured out, is actually a product of some gentle creative who persisted in the face of tragic set backs and a deeply uncertain future, even if they were very privileged. They continued making things despite the potential for criticism and literally poor reviews. There is no formula for art, and there cannot be by definition. There is a deep paradox of life that is chaos and order, magic and science. You can read all the self-help books in the world (I personally am a personal development junkie) but when you watch Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, or hear Enchanted, by Taylor Swift, you all of a sudden know the way that life should feel, and experience a sudden inspiration to move in that direction.

To answer your question, I wish that non-creatives knew the deep wisdom that lies in the unknown, that without it they would have nothing to consume, and that they themselves are almost certainly more creative than they think. We are the creations and the creators.

Contact Info:

• Website: nadiaborelli.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/thenadiaborelli
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@thenadiaborelli

Image Credits
Sweet Jon Productions Tony Alvarez The CW Showtime Arsenio J Alverez III