Today we’d like to introduce you to Bryan Lopez.
Hi Bryan, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Childhood and growing up in Puerto Rico and Orlando, Fl. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico until I was ten years old when I moved to Orlando, FL with my mother and younger brother. While In PR, our childhood was pretty great, filled with lots of good memories and family time.
Growing up in Orlando was specially tough due to the language barrier, change of country and economic hardships that my mother faced as single parent with two children. We faced many difficult situations like being evicted from multiple apartments due to my mom not being able to afford rent and expenses, spending the night in motels and staying with people who were not in a good path. This hit my school experience very tough because I had to change schools very often and it limited me to develop long-lasting friendships and overall just a good school experience. At one point, my mother was wrongfully arrested and left me and my brother almost parentless. My father and aunt came to pick us up and take us to Puerto Rico where me and my brother spent one year in school.
Dealing with racism and fighting for Afro-Latinos in the entertainment industry.
As a child growing up, I had many issues with racism and bullying in both Puerto Rico and Orlando, FL.
At one point, I even remembered asking my mom why I was born with my skin color because I have always been the darkest one in my family and in school. Unfortunately, that made me a target where I was called names, bullied and made feel different because of my skin color. Even as an adult, I have faced the same situations to a lesser extent and now I have made it a part of my mission as an artist to use my platform to give exposure to more Afro-Latinos in the Hispanic entertainment industry that is still very whitewashed. I want us to have more presence in tele-novelas, in the movies and in television so those growing up like me can feel represented,
Going back to Puerto Rico: 2010
At age 18, I went back to Puerto Rico to pursue my studies in communications in college. This is where mostly most of my artistic career and journey began, I started to sing in the church quire, auditioned for many singing talent shows including Idol Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican version of the hit tv show. Participated in a Christian singing competition where I won and had the opportunity to record a demo and get played on radio. I was starting to put myself out there as a singer wherever I could perform which led me to acting. I wanted to expand my artistic abilities and try out something new other than singing, I started taking acting classes which led me to many opportunities in Puerto Rico. I had the opportunity to act in theater plays, act in tv commercials, tv shows and feature films, I did an extensive amount of extra and stand in work in lots of movie sets specially ones from Hollywood who came to film on the island. All that experience on set gave me a better understanding how it was like to be on a movie/tv set and prepared me for where I am today.
Moving back to Orlando, FL and present. 2017
After seven years in Puerto Rico, I moved back to Orlando to keep pursuing my artistic career. I did not waste any time in the pursue of my dreams as soon as I settled in, I started submitting my acting resume to different talent agencies in Orlando. Only one replied back to me, 22Talent under Susan `Fronsoe. She took me in as a talent who had very few credits but she saw in my potential and decided to work with me. Under this agency, I have so achieved many great things, bookings for tv commercials for companies like Televisa, Universal, Disney, AdventHealth and many more. My most recent achievement was booking a co-star role in the second season of the hit tv show “David Makes Man” produced by Oprah and Michael B. Jordan currently airing on the OWN network. Most recently, I was booked as an actor on “Playfest” at Orlando Shakes on 2021.
Music:
At the same time, while pursuing my acting career in Orlando, I also felt the need to start recording my own music and take it to the next level. This led me to look for music producers in Orlando. I started working with local music producer Javi Dang who has produced most of my catalog. Since putting out my own music, I have been blessed to perform at many different events in Orlando and even Tampa. I have been covered my numerous music blogs, playlist placements on Spotify, Apple Music and more. Most recently, I have been preparing my music for placements on film and tv which led to four of my songs being placed on “MLB the Show” videogame for Xbox and PlayStation. My consistency of putting out music constantly and of quality has gained me the reputation of being one of the hardest working Latin local artists currently. I am looking forward to keep releasing more music in the coming years, tour and collaborate with others artists.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Definitely, the hardest thing all my life has been the economic aspect of it.
While pursuing my dreams in Puerto Rico, the financial situation was always tough due to a lack of a bad economy and a lack of good well-paying jobs. These were obstacles I had to overcome in order to afford the expenses in the career I was pursuing like acting classes, headshots, music video production and studio time to record my songs.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am most known in both the film/tv and music industry, I have over seven years acting in film/tv and theater, also extensive work behind the scenes productions for film and television. The genre of my music is Latin, specially Latin Urban, Reggaeton and Latin R&B, Latin Pop. What I am most proud is the result of my work ethic. To being able to be working full time as an actor booking constantly works in film and tv to producing my own music and music videos without a team like a manager or a publicist. The result of each of these projects brings great joy that I am being successful. What sets me apart from others is my persistence and tenacity. I have a natural-born drive that comes mostly from the times of hardships growing up.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Yes, I have advice for networking, networking is one of my specialties. What has worked well for me is to establish relationships before working with a lot of the professionals in the industry. I do not like to quickly pitch or talk about what I do but more of what we have in common and just building that relationship so it can lead to opportunities. Also, I use social media wisely to track and keep contact of these persons who I want to network with. Some of my key social media networks are Instagram, LinkedIn and Clubhouse,
Contact Info:
- Email: bryanlopezvz@gmail.com
- Website: bryanlopezofficial.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/bryanlopezvzmusic
- Facebook: facebook.com/bryanlopezofficial
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bryanLopezvz
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCG4fI-mDAi355munRSxIkA
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/bryanlopezmusicaoficial
- Other: https://linktr.ee/bryanlopezmusic
Image Credits
All photos were taken by @JaydenCollier instagram.com/famousjay.c
