Today we’d like to introduce you to Armando Ortuno.
Hi Armando, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
It is an honor and pleasure to be speaking with you to share my story.
My Name is Armando Ortuño, I am Mexican / Nicaraguan American living in Los Angeles. I was born in San Pedro, CA, and raised in Wilmington, CA, all my life. Therefore, you can just say I’m a “Wilmero,” as they say here.
You see, growing up here in the Harbor Area there was no public figure that anyone in our town can really look up to. There wasn’t someone that looked like me anywhere I looked, such as books, TV, Businesses, and even in the medical field outside our community at the time and more, someone that comes from the same roots as me in my area as I dealt with racism, bullying, and even gun violence in the city I grew up in.
The time I attended my High school, Phineas Banning High, there was gang violence and territorial boundaries every student had to respect; obviously, seeing this discouraged me as there was no sense of unity and family even in a school. Now, even though the teachers were very supportive, sometimes the violence in school would overrule the staff.
As I grew older and grew up in a messy neighborhood, broken family, separated parents, and the loss of my grandmother my dreams of becoming a firefighter were being made as I grew more ambitious to fight. I attended fire academies, went to EMT school, and also was a Cadet for the Los Angeles Fire Department. It really hurt me knowing when my mom had a panic attack, we needed a Spanish-speaking medical staff that can try to communicate with her, but no medical responder knew Spanish in a community where is filled with minorities and Spanish speakers. From then on, I knew I had to make a difference and push the image of Latinos in the Fire Department. I had the honor to do emergencies and help Los Angeles communities that were filled with Spanish speakers, people that share the same culture as me.
Unfortunately, when covid happened things really slowed down, and I found myself enjoying an acting class I was attending too during my long breaks of the Fire Department. I remember being astonished and found amazed of the craft. I found myself second-guessing everything about my passion because this is what I’ve been searching for in my life. Acting. As I got mentored through my first acting studio, Actors Giving Back, to My second school, Howard Fine Acting Studio, I’ve been able to perform well and obtain my agent and manager in my first year. As months went by and stood committed, I found myself booking leads in 2-3 feature films and in total 8 projects films for this year 2023.
From growing up poor, facing bullying, and gang violence, I knew facing rejection in this entertainment industry wasn’t going to stop me as I knew deep in my heart all I ever wanted was to put us Latinos in front of the camera, having more screen time. From my list of films I have been in this year, supporting role as Jordan in The Little White Lie (2023) to my second film as supporting role as Javier in Yahritzi (2023) alongside a famous Argentinian actor, Melodie Baigun, to my Feature Film Catrina (2023) playing Eduardo as lead working alongside a well-known Social Justice Advocate, Lorena Gonzalez and an upcoming film Midnight Hunter late (2023), which touches base on a kid who suffers from autism and has disabilities.
I knew that there in these moments that I was living, I was born to become an image and voice for our people. To hope that one day a kid like me, who grew up in Wilmington, CA, can turn on the TV in the future and say, “Mom, he looks like me”. The work that I am doing is for my people, and I will never take it for granted.
I will keep fighting and going for us Chicano’s in the industry as we have our rise and as our momentum continues to shine. As we pave ways for others, and as others paved a way for us.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As I continue to elaborate on my story along the way, It was not all fun and easy. I love what I do, although it was not simple. I’ll start with how I grew up. Which was very enclosed, and there was never privacy in the household due to having other family sleeping over because of family issues that we had at the time. This meant me going to school, sleeping, doing homework, eating food, and resting were always a struggle to keep up with or to maintain. Allowing my dream and vision to fuel more as I wanted it right away. It was difficult to explain to my parents, who were both Spanish speakers coming from third-world countries that did not see the bigger picture of my dream. It sucks to say in the beginning, they weren’t so supportive as they didn’t believe in achieving in the entertainment industry but rather get a regular everyday job. There isn’t anything wrong with that, although I did not want to do that since it wasn’t the career I wanted.
My accomplishments, my acting school recognitions, my film bookings, agent representation, my films, and how far I have got to since I started in my acting career didn’t really mean anything to my family until the films I were in started going around film festivals, mentioning “La Otra Mujer” which won best screenplay and another film “Fight For Love” ended up screening in a Cinemark movie theater.
As I continued my journey in acting, eventually, my parents became supportive and have been the best parents I can possibly ask for. Now, even though I do not live with both parents together, which was another obstacle, growing up having my parents split was really rough. Sometimes I would want to hang out with my father and sometimes I just wasn’t able to. Although, I still had something to keep me busy, which was my acting career, not seeing my father a lot discouraged me at times since I have always been really close to him. Since my parents were split I had friends who knew, who at the time I thought were going to be there for me but they all kind of just made fun of my family and I for just having issues. I felt betrayed, and I didn’t really feel comfortable going to school since the kids in my neighborhood went to my school.
Growing up, some of my birthdays were missed and Christmas’s were missed. In general, holidays were missed by either my Mom or my Dad. So, having that structured family, white picket fence, and happy life was just something I wasn’t privileged to have, although I am eternally grateful for the hard work my parents placed into my life. They are the reason why I am living, the reason I have my ambition, motivation, and also my diligence to provide good work.
I also would like to say that many of my acting teachers and coaches in my schools that I attended were like a family towards me. When I had trouble in my house, they were there for me. My mentors guided me and helped me understand how a lot of what happens in my life is for a reason and how I can apply that to my life to be better and stay positive. It gave me a gateway to distract myself and fall in love more for my craft, implementing my emotions towards it.
Being in the industry will always have its ups and downs, especially for those who just started, those who are still seeking, those who are in the middle of it, and even for those who are at the top. Sometimes we may work with those who we don’t get along with, and then you might have a crew that’s just not well prepared. All an actor can do is prepare, always under any circumstance.
I’ve come to realize acting is more of a mental game than people think it is, and for that, I keep my bible close to me.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I would love to introduce what I do to you, which is I work in front of a camera and display emotions based on the situation I am given and what type of character I should be portraying. In short words, I do acting ! Being an Actor has its perks let me tell you, but it also comes with a lot of accountabilities, studying, and being responsible. Let me explain to you what I mean. As an actor, it is my duty or the actor’s duty to set aside time to research the character they are playing, to find out the characters past life, and see what is the intention of the character and what they are trying to make the other characters feel.
Depending on what acting techniques work for yourself, I always try to emerge myself with the character and abide by it while engaged in the script and sometimes off script as well. This will allow me to have a better understanding of the character’s fundamentals. Usually, I will spend hours just going over a script dissecting it, and just playing with it since there are many possibilities that are available to work with.
When it comes down to the day of shooting even though I consider myself an actor since that is what I do, I usually remind myself that it is a privilege what I am doing and an opportunity for myself. I tend to lean towards having college or young teen roles when I get casted for films. Now, even though the market is huge for playing different characters, I would love to play into an action thriller/horror movie that will conduct across the board of emotions. I love it when a script challenges me because I can really identify the skills I have and obtain boundaries for myself or if I don’t have a boundary at all and how far am I willing to go with the character.
Going through my experiences as an actor, I’ve been able to work on a feature film that has been in the talks for a while by director, John Gondos, and his team, Los Angeles Filmmakers Collaboration. It is called “Catrina,” which is a folklore tale that resides in Mexico about a dead woman who falls in love with a labor working-class man. They end up falling in love although the man doesn’t know this lady named Catrina has a secret she’s been keeping for a very … long time. Now, even though they are in love, obstacles and difficulty arise, and tests each other’s love to see how much they really do care about each other. In this film, I was able to play as “Eduardo” as the lead character in it. This was one of the films I will never forget doing as I was tied up by a rig that would drag me across the floor as the gaffer Lucas Dudley was being my spotter.
I’m proud of every opportunity I am able to obtain because it comes from the ambition of just wanting to excel in what I do since I never really had an opportunity as a kid. I would like to say one thing that does allow me to stand out is that I can be able to give back to my community with recognition and donations to the low-income families, schools, and programs for kids that are still here in Wilmington, CA. I would also like to believe that I can be able to relate to most of my friends and people I can see since everyone grew up with similar background as mine.
Standing here today, being able to represent my community with pride and eagerness has allowed to create a foundation that stands strong for myself and for those that can relate to me with my background and life experiences, making my journey more purposeful as I continue to prep myself for an upcoming film, Midnight Hunter.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
So, growing up, I had a very musical family that loved singing and playing instruments and as time flew, I just sort of got into it and started singing at the age of 9. When I did have the chances to see my dad, He would coach me in a way that I would understand by ear, meaning knowing what sounds right and what doesn’t. I would start with Michael Jackson and would end up somewhere around Robert Johnsons’ blues era, and also would listen to Spanish rock. This gave me the chance to understand many types of music and genres, but one that really stuck with me was Rockabilly music which consists of 1950’s Rock N’ Roll.
As I got older, I took it more serious and although I wouldn’t tell anyone or sing in front of anyone, I would eventually sing at local church, Victory Outreach Long Beach, led by Pastor Rob Chavez and Pastor Rene Bojorquez. Leading me to get more spiritually connected with my savior and get into the worship team which is ran by Music Director Angel Luna. All in all, the team sings every Wednesday and Sunday throughout the week introducing me to Gospel and Contemporary Christian Music. This would eventually take me and the team singing with Jonathan Traylor, Dove award Nominee Gospel Artist, at our church.
Being involved in this worship team allowed me to lead occasionally on stage and get comfortable out of my shell to sing in front of hundreds of people. Now, even though I spent countless hours singing as a kid, I can tell you it is not the same when you have sweaty hands holding a microphone and are singing in front of many people on stage. This allowed me to learn more and explore instruments as I know how to play Guitar, Trumpet, and also Drums since I played in the Mighty Marching Pilots in High school.
Contact Info:
- Website: imdb.me/Armandoortuno
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/armandoortuno/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-vt5PJ73TEuM2Op_r_Kj9A
- Other: https://catrinamovie.com/portfolio/armandoortuno/
Image Credits
JGV Photo
Bryan Torres Photography
Christa Joy
Halle Mae Lee Photography
Mixtly Galarza
Isabella Sanchez Photography
Ed Martinez
