We were lucky to catch up with Sarah Hamilton recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sarah, appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
I am incredibly proud and grateful to say that I have been making a living from my creative work!
After graduating from college in 2019 at Loyola Marymount University as a film and television production major, I had no idea how to stay creative and keep afloat while living in LA. I had seen many people fall into jobs that kept them from being flexible enough for auditioning and creating art and knew I needed a different path. I knew I needed a job that let me stay creative and audition but also still make enough money.
I created a list of things I liked to do, life focuses, and how much money I needed to make each week to cover everything and still have some extra. Especially at first, I tried my best to not be too hard on myself, and really just focus on navigating life post-college and have fun in the process! Right before I had graduated, one of the acting auditions I got was for a party princess and character performer company. It was an in-person audition back then, and I didn’t get accepted for the part – but it did spark an idea and a dream! Immediately, I reached out to a bunch of local party princess companies and was incredibly excited to hear back from Pure Imagination, who’ve I’ve been working with ever since!
Alongside weekend princess, mermaid, and fairy parties where I get to live a fairytale, act, sing, perform, and run games and entertainment, I additionally had been auditioning and filming as much as I could during the week days. For all of 2019, I also got the experience in a variety of weekly filming opportunities from music videos to reality shows, commercials…even a court show! It was such a wild experience and I had a blast! Once the pandemic happened, everything slowed down to a stop, so I used that time to grow, spend time in my hometown with my family, and create original music (debut music in the works!). Once projects started filming again, I got the incredible opportunity to get my first role on Colin In Black and White on Netflix – which also led to a ton of background work in many major TV shows and movies including The Fabelmans, Nope, Winning Time, The Dropout, Disney’s Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, The Clauses, and more! After a year of background work, I knew I needed to slow down on the long days and try something a little different, which led to another dream job of mine…being a tour guide at Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood!
Currently, I act, write, run an original web series called, LA Mermaids, am in the process of promoting my books more (The Lies We Tell and The Enchantress), have some major personal projects in the works, create original music, and perform as a party princess and mermaid on the weekends while being a tour guide during the weekdays. I love my life and enjoy the process! I have an incredible supportive team of people surrounding me and I’m all about making dreams come true and inspiring others to follow their dreams along the way!
That all being said, it’s not always easy. I burn out…a lot. I get overwhelmed and question if I’m good enough. It took a really long time just to feel comfortable as an artist. I question if I do too much or not enough. When there’s too much going on or I find myself unhappy in a situation, I try to dig deep and figure out how to make it better. Sometimes there’s too much going on and it’s overwhelming. Sometimes, it’s incredibly slow and I question everything. That’s life. I have learned to go with the waves of life, enjoy the process, and trust that everything happens the way it’s meant to be!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I have always been incredibly creative! Growing up with my family in Rochester, New York, was such a wonderful experience. I felt as if life was “normal” back then. I wrote stories in a ton of notebooks, created a lot of art in the form of drawings, paintings, music, and eventually, photography and videos. I had no clue what I wanted my future to look like and didn’t think about it very much. I just enjoyed creating and spending time with my family! During high school, we took a family trip to California and I immediately felt at home there too. We took the tour of Warner Bros. and I knew I wanted to eventually be there. When applying to colleges, I was making a lot of short films with my friends and loved video production, so decided to look into film schools around both New York and California. The big decision came down to one in each, but I knew I eventually wanted to be in LA and chose Loyola Marymount University. To this day, that was the most difficult and emotional decision I think I have made, (my family and I are super close so the idea of moving to the other side of the country was terrifying) but it was so worth it! My life hasn’t felt “normal” since then, but I love the dream life I get to live now!
That being said – I am all about creating art and inspiring others to follow their dreams. We ALL have dreams but sometimes it can be terrifying to make them come true. My best advice always is to do what makes you happy and enjoy the process! Stay positive and know that anything and everything really is possible.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding part of being a creative is being able to see the impact the art makes with other people. Being able to create something that speaks to someone else on a greater level is such a gift. I have always seen creativity as something that is channelled to artists – which could be anybody, really – and those who create something with it are creating for a purpose, and using that channelled energy to put something back out into the world for others to grow, feel, and enjoy. It’s truly magical!
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
My goal as a creative is to learn and try a little bit of every art form and find ways to combine them to create something new that can inspire others to also follow their dreams and live their best dream lives as well. I want my art to create happiness and magic.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sarahfhamilton.wixsite.com/sarahhamilton
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahfhamilton/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/syrenaproductions
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahfhamilton/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/sarahfhamilton
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/sarahfhamilton
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@sarahfhamilton?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
Image Credits
You can find more photos here: https://sarahfhamilton.wixsite.com/sarahhamilton/model https://www.instagram.com/sarahfhamilton/