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

Shana, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I feel like I have always known my life wouldn’t follow the ordinary path that has been laid out by society. It is only after the 2020 pandemic though that I realised that if I want to live a certain type of lifestyle, I could not just wait for it to magically happen to me. I would have to put in the work and dedication and intentionally pray about my future. Additionally, I also found life to lack excitement if I followed the regular path of going to university, getting a job, having a family and retiring. I needed. bit of mystery as well as control of how my life would pan out. I thus fell in love with acting and the film industry as here is where I found my purpose, and later on in 2023 with entrepreneurship.

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 started out acting when I was 12 years old in school. We had theatre classes once a week that I absolutely adored. I always saw it as a space to fully express myself and play whatever personality types I always found interesting. The fact that I continuously got As in this class helped, as it motivated me to continue giving my best. I remember the feeling of my first ever theatre play in school in front of all the parents, teachers and students; I was so happy when my lines came up and fully embodied the characters that I was playing. I never thought of it as performance or “acting,” but rather, living out a person’s reality truthfully. Whenever I acted, the character and I were one and I understood them perfectly.

After the one year of acting, I stopped for a few months as I changed to a school that did not have theatre classes. This did not bother me as I had never even thought of acting as a career, just something fun. All this changed when my mother signed me up to audition for Adrian R’Manté’s The Celebrity Experience. Him and other American actors had flown to Geneva and other European Cities to audition actors or those interested in the craft to be a part of his summer acting course that would give us an opportunity to audition in front of international agents with an opportunity to be signed by them. I was over the moon when my mum sent me this and immediately got to work. A week later I auditioned, and a few days later, I got a callback that I was accepted ! The next few months waiting for the summer program were filled with so many hopes and imaginations. For the first time, I saw acting as a career ! The very thought of doing something that I enjoyed as a job blew my mind !

Summer came, I prepared all my material that I had to work on before the camp and finally went to the course. That whole week was nothing short of magical ! I WAS HAVING BREAKFAST ACROSS ACTORS I SAW ON NICKELODEON ! I got my first ever professional headshots and showreel, acting training from celebrity actors and preparation for the showcase at the end of the week to perform for agents. I was full of so much confidence and excitement performing for the agents and a few weeks later, I got callbacks from THREE different agents ! After discussion with them, I ended up signing with my current agent, Art T Management. It is through them that I got my first ever auditions for big budget commercials and movies.

Nevertheless, a long time went by without me booking anything with my agents, and that is when I realised that an agent only gets paid 10-15% of your salary, because they are only doing 10-15%, the other percentage should come from me. In 2022 is where I had the immense privilege of attending casting director Luci Lenox’s international actors summer camp that changed everything. Being around such experienced actors and learning from so many professionals lit up a flame in me. That is how I began looking for and creating my own work as of 2022. I worked on a number of commercials here in Switzerland, met other creatives like myself and wrote and filmed two scenes in 2023. I started reading acting books and binge watching actor YouTubers. I have now come to learn that like everything in life, to succeed as an actor, I should not just wait for the phone to ring with auditions from my agent, but take the initiative and improve myself as an actor

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Many will say the process, but I would say the final product is the most rewarding part as that is what will continue with us all in the long run.

Funnily enough, I love knowing the back story of what it took to create a project but only letting the audience see the final piece. It feels like my little secret haha. An example is my first ever project when I was 13, which was an informational for The World Trade Organization. People will see this video on their YouTube channel and think of how impressive it is to have that as your first ever credit. I, however, remember freezing on that mountain whilst filming and having to speak for 10 seconds then stop and either say it again at a different angle or quickly move on to the next scene. People will see me being confident and articulating well in that informational, but I remember my teenage self worrying about the zit on my forehead haha. People will see my face on a YouTube channel with thousands of followers, but I remember that project giving me my first ever pay check, that I immediately spent on a new phone (cut me some slack, I was only thirteen with little financial knowledge).

It is a bit odd but this is rewarding for me, as I get a satisfied audience who loves the final piece, and I am happy knowing all the hard work that it took to make the vision come to life

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I recently finished reading Audition by Michael Shurtleff, a required reading from my acting coach Tom Todoroff. I have loved it as it has given me a new approach to acting that I feel suits me perfectly.

You see, each time I got an audition, I analysed the script with a different method. One time with a technique I had seen an acting coach on Instagram give, another time with a procedure I had seen an actor do on YouTube and other times my own method, which I did not feel too confident about. However, this book, to me, was a step to step guide on how to do an in depth text and character analysis. It also gave me useful, relatable and applicable tips for actors. Thanks to this book, I finally feel like I can have an acting technique that can give me predictable and desirable results. In a sense, my life has actually been made easier as each time I have to work on a scene, I can go through what we call the “fifteen guide posts” which will help me to perfectly understand a scene.

I have loved this book as it has gotten me out of the mindset that auditions are a hit or miss thing, and you have to be lucky to book a role. In a time when my confidence in my skill was slightly lowering, Tom Todoroff and this book made me realise that I can properly plan to and actually nail auditions and give killer performances, as long as the right method is applied

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.e-talenta.eu/members/profile/shana-macheso
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shanamacheso/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzUJJXaomne3-EujJjKygtw

Image Credits
James Graf – Zurich Film Festival green carpet pictures