Meet Lara Shah

We were lucky to catch up with Lara Shah recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lara, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

At the risk of sounding cliché, it was love at first sight as I locked eyes with my purpose from across a dimly-lit bar.. it felt like we knew each other from different lifetimes.. like my purpose and I were old soulmates. The year was 1988, I was four, the setting was a pre-school in Jupiter, Florida. There was a stage in the cafeteria turned all-purpose room, and I was in its very center. Cut to: my (very cute) outfit of cat ears and whiskers in my role as “Mother Cat” in “The Three Little Kittens” and, as the words “You naughty kittens, you’ve lost your mittens!” poured from my mouth, I was absolutely and irrevocably hooked. Storytelling as an actor became the vehicle through which I felt most alive. For years, I fought it and tried everything else – radio hosting, journalism, news anchor, domestic sales and publicity at Warner Bros. and MTV, etc. – but nothing felt as right as being in the driver seat of a story and playing in my imagination. When a series of life choices led me to play a background detective on One Tree Hill in Wilmington, NC, there was nothing else I could dream of as a better fit for me than to be an actor for the rest of my life. Twenty-three years after the bug first bit, it was love at re-sight and I didn’t look back as I fell hard – again. By the time I “restarted,” I also realized that using my voice and my platform as an artist could also lend to my other passions – being a voice for endangered elephants, being an activist, and emulating my incredible parents and ancestors in making the world a slightly better place.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Let’s say my acting career is my spine – the very backbone of my being – then all my other ventures (and adventures) spring from that artistic foundation. Besides acting, I work for my fiancé’s home services company with editing and publishing blogs as my main day job. Aside from that, I have had experience as a/an: waitress, hostess, caterer, publicist, editor, executive assistant, creative director, movie producer, interior designer, and am now looking into nursing school as a career shift in all of my mid-life madness. Just like the roles I’ve played as an actor, I’m beyond thrilled that we get to live so many lives in just our one (as far as we know) life on this planet. I want to make my life count to the fullest, reach and help as many people as possible, and leave the world safer and better for future generations. As the industry rests in its post-pandemic, post-strike lull, I’m working on writing (another cap!) a feature film as a love-letter to my future daughter about the strength and resilience of women. Inspired by Barbie and this upcoming election, I’m all aboard the train of “women can do and be anything” and that goes triply for our future generations!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Three impactful qualities/skills that helped me on my journey were: curiosity, optimism, and creating healthy boundaries. When I decided to really focus on my acting career, I was in my late 20s. As we often hear, if you’re not in your late teens or early twenties as an actress in Hollywood, you’re late/old/finished. While that scared me for a while, I decided to f* it and follow my own path, wherever that may lead. People of all ages, stages, and colors are now (finally) represented on the big and small screens and so that led me to: curiosity. What do I need to learn or do to be a effective actor? How do I develop the skills to convey a story? What is it to embody another character and walk a mile in her shoes? Just being curious, observing people, understanding behaviors, and being a student of humanity helped a lot in my earlier years. I signed up for any and every thing I could afford – and definitely all the free things – and walked around with a notebook like Harriett the Spy. That led me to optimism. “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” (Henry Ford). Despite ALL of the naysayers, the fear of aging out of Hollywood, and coming to terms with what roles I could/would play, I believe a healthy dose of optimism is necessary to push through. Many people I have learned from have said, “If you want to or can do anything else, go do that.” Acting has always been my #1, and will continue to be until my last breath. That said, creating healthy boundaries and knowing what you will and won’t stand for is probably the most important aspect of all. Where do your ethics, values, or morals get pushed up against? How will you allow people to treat you? Where is your hard line and definite “NO”? That kind of soul-searching and boundary-setting is invaluable, in my opinion, in being successful as an actor and as a human being. I’ve had a relatively safe experience in Hollywood so far but, at the end of the day I am a woman, and thus, have had to hear some pretty awful stuff about myself or other women. “Not my circus, not my monkeys” is my personal mantra when it comes to establishing boundaries. I just want to do the hard work, tell life-changing stories, and go home to have dinner with my family.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I’m working on a feature script at the moment – just at the beginning stages – about a woman experiencing a mid-life crisis and finding her passion through her artistic medium and the stories of other women. Sorry for the vague log-line but anyone who is reading this with a background in fashion and design, women’s health, survivors of rape and domestic abuse, or anyone who is interested in working on creating this story with me (directors, producers, crew, etc.), please feel free to reach out to me at lara@larashah.com. I’d love to work with women, female-identifying peoples, LGBTQIA+, and BIPOC creators. If anyone has any connections to the fashion industry, I’d love to chat. Let’s make some movie magic together! =)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.larashah.com
• Instagram: @larashah_
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/larashah17/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larashah/
• Twitter: @larashah17