UP&COMING
G eorgia Hollywood Review shines the spotlight on Angie Castillo, an Emmy-nominated documentary producer, journalist, and aspir- ing actress. Castillo was born in Colombia and moved to Miami, FL with her parents at the age of 12. Her participation and love for dance, school plays, and community theatre shaped her childhood and ignited the spark for her love of acting. Castillo received her bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from Florida International University. Fol- lowing graduation, she worked for the Miami Heat in the Media Production Department where her team was nominated for an Emmy for their work on The Crown . The Crown is a full-length documentary about the Heat’s 2011-2012 championship season with narration by Heat legend and champion Alonzo Mourning and spotlight- ing Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and all of the team’s key players. Castillo moved from Miami to Atlanta in 2012 to work for CNN as a freelancer. In 2017, she started missing her creative outlet of dance and theatre. As she watched the film and TV industries boom in Georgia, she saw endless opportunities for her to be able to get back to focusing on her love of acting. After researching and watching YouTube videos on what it takes to be a professional actress, she enrolled in The Company Acting Studio in Atlanta to fine tune her acting skills. “I love journalism and working for CNN, but I don’t want to do news all of my life. The hours are long and the work is hectic. I love it, but I want to be able to be more creative and have more freedom with the things that I do and how I use my skills. Film producing is what I see myself doing in the near future,” Castillo says. In 2019, Angie saw an Instagram post on the Latino Filmmakers Network’s page where they were cast- ing for the first New Normal Reading Series in Atlanta. The New Normal Reading Series is an event started in 2018 by Broken Barriers Productions and Latino Film- makers Network in Los Angeles. The event highlights and gives opportunities to writers of color and unrepresented voices in the TV and film industry. The series highlights 10 pages of script from the selected writers, which are read by actors at the event, giving both the writers and the actors an opportunity to display their artistic talents.
I don’t want to do news all of my life. […] I love it, but I want to be able to be more creative and have more freedom with the things that I do and how I use my skills.”
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Castillo is in discussions with the Georgia Latino Film Festival on collaboration opportunities to coincide with their festival in October. The Georgia Latino Film Festival is one of the most diverse film festivals in the country, welcoming an audience of nearly 1,500 independent actors, producers, and directors and holding more than 30 screenings of various types of film. Castillo has two projects she is working on at the moment and is looking for funding for completion. She is co-producing a short film called Abuelita about a Puerto Rican woman who is facing her darkest fears in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. The other short film is called The Box , about a personal experience she had when applying for US citizenship and having to check a box for her race only to find her race wasn’t one of the options. “It is important to me that my voice, along with other Latino voices, are represented and we are telling our own stories. Stories that have not been filtered by someone who didn’t experience them firsthand,” Castillo states. Be sure to check out Castiollo’s feature film In the Moment , which is available on Amazon Prime.
Castillo submitted an entry and was selected to be one of the actors for the Atlanta event. The Atlanta event was a huge success and maxed out the capacity for the event space. At the time, Maylen Calienes (founder of the Latino Filmmakers Network) was looking for someone to take on the responsibility of casting the actors and choosing the scripts for the Latino team for the reading series in Atlanta. Castillo volunteered to take on the role, and joined actor and writer Ja Shamsi, event producer and responsible for getting all the teams together. The teams send out promotions on social media seeking film and TV scripts from writers of color for the reading series and have had two successful events this year. They look forward to obtaining sponsors to be able to hold monthly meetings and getting film executives and television networks in attendance to give the writers and actors maximum exposure to potential job opportunities.
@angiecastilloxo
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