personal facts

Personal statements and bios really throw me for a loop, but a timeline is easier since it’s facts rather than a puffed up paragraph. This isn’t the whole picture of my life, and it mainly serves as a place to write keep my accomplishments when self-doubt rears its ugly head.

Beyond the timeline I’ll just add little bits and bobs of (useless) information. If you do read all of it, thank you. I know time is precious.

If you’re looking for a more “professional” bio - you’ll find that bio here.

Timeline

• 1989: got adopted and immigrated to Ottawa, Canada from the Philippines.

• 1998: “left” home and got my first job working at Wendy’s.

• 2001: got a job working at Penguin’s Palace party store and became a balloon decorator.

• 2004: earned a college diploma for Bar Management and learned how to flair bartend.

• 2005: moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia (for a boy) and started painting.

• 2006: moved back to Ottawa, earned a diploma in Small and Medium Enterprise Management (2yr)

• 2007:
  - became an apprenticeship at a hair salon called T.A.G.
  - went back to college earning my diploma as a Hairstylist and graduating with honors.
  - started modeling, and also did hair & make-up for others,
  - had my first group art show at the Mercury Lounge and people bought my paintings!

• 2008: became a Certified Red Seal Trade Hairstylist and began working on set as a hair & make-up artist.

• 2010: spontaneously moved to Cebu, Philippines to work at a film studio known as Bigfoot Studios, learned everything to do with filmmaking, made features, docs, commercials, pilots, music videos. This move changed my life and career trajectory forever.

• 2011: moved back to Ottawa and then to Montreal, Canada with someone I thought I loved: got pregnant and got married.

• 2012: became a mom, moved back to Ottawa.

• 2013: became a single mom, and founded an arts-based social enterprise called Dream Love Grow (D.L.G).

• 2014:
  - opened a tiny arts & photography studio in the basement of a clothing store in Westboro with one of my besties.
  - co-founded a 12 week art program called A Real Thought (A.R.T.) In Action with an artist friend.
  - incorporated it into a non-profit with two directors, and we achieved incredible things in seven years.

• 2015:
  - went zero waste, making one jar of garbage with my kid in one year. Blogged about it on A Dream Lived Greener.
  - was part of a TedX talk themed ‘Tiny Ripples’, but instead of a talk, I premiered a short film titled: On Self-Love & Forgiveness.

• 2016: turned A Dream Lived Greener into an e-store with a friend, selling zero waste products locally. We closed it a year later when one of our suppliers passed away and zero waste became more popular.

• 2017: started a petition to ban single-use disposable plastics in Canada, collecting over 12,000 signatures. In 2020 I spoke at city council, sharing the petition and my one jar of garbage, and collectively made change.

• 2019:
  - re-married, this time to my best friend.
  - reclaimed my name and started introducing myself/correcting people with the correct pronunciation.
  - co-founded In Our Tongues Reading & Arts Series, a non-profit dedicated to BIPoC artists.

• 2020: sold our things and packed our home to move to California, but then the Panda locked us down and we couldn’t move anymore.

• 2021:
  - co-founded Ottawa’s first woman-of-color owned production company, Firegrove Studio.
  - co-produced and was the Cinematographer for I Am: Limitless, a feature doc released on CBC about WoC skaters in Ottawa.
  - dissolved A.R.T. In Action, stepped away from the studio partnership, and stepped down as a Board member of In Our Tongues.

• 2022:
  - drove from the east coast (ish) of Canada with my family and our cat and moved to Los Angeles.
  - co-founded Film Girlz Brunch, a community dedicated to supporting femmes in LA’s film industry.

• 2023:
  - completed the first draft of my first feature length film about my childhood best friend
  - became a CEO of my company, Kilam Media Inc.
  - became a published children’s book author & illustrator: Chicken/Manok

• 2024: Stay up to date via my Now page.

On Creativity:

I’ve been an artist since childhood. As an artist my interests and mediums change as I grow, but my commitment to a life of creativity remains the same. Without a doubt picking up that paintbrush in 2005 saved my life and I wouldn’t be here today if I didn’t. Since then I have tried to be creative every single day, even if only for ten minutes.

To pay the bills, I produce media and content, design campaigns and write copy to help everyone from artists, nonprofits, small businesses and independent production companies achieve their visions and their goals. I founded my own company Kilam Media Inc. (previously Dream Love Grow) and have been paying my bills this way for over a decade. I’m so lucky that my work allows me to be creative and that I have somehow found a way to pursue a career in the arts.

On Motherhood:

It is the best and most difficult job I’ve ever had. As a mom to a ‘tween, the work isn’t easier, it’s just a different phase. I have more time to do me because my child is in school, but I have the same amount of responsibilities and require the same amount of flexibility for the sick days, the stress days and the needy days. He is my priority over anyone else and over anything else, until he’s old enough to take care of himself. But as an independent, free-bird person that LOVES solitude, I do struggle with balancing both my own life interests and his.

I also believe he doesn’t owe me anything. He didn’t ask to be born so as he gets on with his own life I don’t want him to feel like he’s obligated to me or that I have expectations of him outside of being a good human. I just want him to be his own person, knowing I’ll love him forever.