Freshman Sophia Pimentel has been on the big stage many times in her life. However, there was something different about being accepted into an acting program and having the ability to learn from talent consultants and actors. It was a crazy experience, according to Pimentel.

Originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil, Pimentel has been working on building her confidence over quarantine.

“Quarantine has] given me time to do a lot of self-reflecting, looking on myself and how I can be better as a person. [My] self confidence is something over quarantine [that] has grown,” Pimentel said.

According to Pimentel, acting requires a lot of self confidence.

“[Acting is] a lot of self-reflection because only you know what you’re capable of,” Pimentel said. 

Pimentel’s main passion lies in the arts. She is a part of the theatre and dance strands in the Fine Arts Academy. Her love for the arts was first discovered when she decided to participate in her middle school’s production of “Shrek Jr.”

“As a child, I always loved singing and dancing around. In sixth grade I auditioned for the Thomas Harrison musical. It was very interesting to try something new as a sixth grader who had just moved from the county to the city,” Pimentel said.

This summer, Pimentel auditioned for an acting program.

“The funny thing is, throughout the whole experience, I really didn’t know what I was auditioning for if I’m being honest. It started as an Instagram ad in my friend’s feed. She shared it with me and we were like, ‘why not try out.’ I ended up trying out, and I got to audition in front of professional talent consultants from [Los Angeles], Chicago and New York,” Pimentel said. 

After her first audition, Pimentel received a callback, and was then accepted into the program.

“From there, me and my family started to do these classes every other Thursday from June to August,” Pimentel said.

Pimentel began workshops with different professionals in the field.

“We would work with professionals that had worked with people before or had worked on the big screen. A few names would be Ryan Pinkston, Steve Robert and Jay Ward. All of these people have either worked directly with actors and actresses or have been on the big screen themselves,” Pimentel said.

The Thursday workshops would allow time for constructive criticism on monologues. In August, there would be a showcase of the monologues as auditions to be accepted into another acting program.

“I was counting down the days till August 2 because it was a make or break moment,” Pimentel said.

Around 150 students, including Pimentel, from across the country were at the showcase auditioning.

“If I was being honest I really did not feel strongly about my audition,” Pimentel said.

After anxiously waiting for a few days Pimentel received an email.

“About three days after the audition, we got a message from the director and he said I had been one out of 19 kids to be accepted into the [other] program,” Pimentel said.

From there, Pimentel was invited to a four day summer program in Los Angeles in 2021 and received three months of marketing.

“You have three months of marketing where people can hire you. They can give you a call and say, ‘I want you on this commercial’ or ‘would you be interested in doing this voice over?’ Right now, I am being represented by TC Auditions,” Pimentel said.

Reflecting on her experience, Pimentel was surprised to have an opportunity like this as a freshman in high school.

“I never thought I would ever do anything with this this early. I thought maybe after college I would start auditioning [but] the fact is if you don’t start now, at least in the movie and dancing and modeling industry, you won’t be able to start. You [have] got to start somewhere and you have to take your opportunities and use them because if you don’t you could lose them,” Pimentel said.

According to Pimentel, during the whole experience her family was there to ground her. While the experience is coming to a close for now, Pimentel shares a takeaway from her dad.

“There was one thing that my dad said to me a lot over the course of these few months. ‘The only person, stopping you from being your best self is you.’ Once you can beat your own self, there is no stopping you. No one knows what you can accomplish, only you do.’” Pimentel said.