Articles, blogs and what’s happening now at Halp
Jonathon, a Los Angeles native, was raised by two Korean parents who never saw acting in his future. As a shy, awkward kid with glasses, he spent his days playing video games and watching cartoons. Though stage fright kept him out of theater, he fell in love with performance through music, playing clarinet, saxophone, guitar, and piano in various bands. After studying film and working as a video editor in the Kpop industry, he decided to dive into acting and voiceover.
Now, he’s grateful to be part of a fun, supportive community of fellow nerds and geeks. His goal? To keep collaborating with amazing people, growing as an actor, and sharing the stage with his heroes.
The people! This crazy adventure wouldn’t mean anything if it wasn’t for the community of friends, mentors, and peers we have all around us. Our little corner of the industry is something I believe is a gift, and I’d be lying if I said that my success wasn’t in many ways a direct result of my friends and I reciprocating a genuine desire to see each other succeed. It really is all about ✨the friends we made along the way✨, huh?
This year was actually my first year as a professional actor, and I came into 2024 with the goal of going into ANY studio for ANY kind of voiceover session 10 times. Yet as of writing this, I’ve been in over 40 sessions. It’s something I could have never imagined would happen especially in my first year, and it feels incredible to know that the multiple years I spent training, grinding, and meeting the right people are starting to pay off. And through the work I’ve done so far, I’m MOST proud to say that I’m almost done paying off my car! Woohoo!
I’ve taken lots of classes with Halp, and I think my biggest takeaway is that every one of these people who teach and help run these classes is… human! Everyone’s just doing their best and hoping to have a good time with their peers, which alleviates a lot of the pressure that we can sometimes feel to “be perfect”—whatever that means. I also feel incredibly fortunate to even call some of these people my dear friends. 🙂
My answer is something I’ve actually been thinking about a lot lately; it’s that this journey is in many ways like a good retirement fund (I promise I’m not a finance snob, just please stick with me on this). Starting out is INCREDIBLY hard—you have no idea where to go, you don’t know who to talk to, you feel like you’re not doing anything right, and lots of other sentences with “no” and “not” in them. But if you simply trust the process, consistently do great work that you believe in, and feel deep in your bones that you love this and that it’s going to pay off, then—much like how the money in a retirement fund will eventually grow exponentially thanks to a little principle called ✨cOmPoUnD iNtErEsT✨—you’ll see things pay enormous dividends in the long run. Time and the compounding of your momentum from the effort you continue to invest is such a huge part of this career, and thinking long-term (I’m talking 1, 5, even 10+ years ahead) will serve you in more ways than you can imagine. Chances are, this little adventure you’re embarking on is going to last literal DECADES. So enjoy the process and learn to ride the wave. There’s no rush!
13 08 26Rest is hard to come by as a creative person. Experts will often tell you to embrace “just being,” but personally, when I try that, a little voice tends to pipe in my head and let me know that I’m falling behind, not doing enough, and then I end up retroactively putting together an in-depth game plan to tackle for when I’m done pretending to “just be.”
09 07 26...networking isn't just about meeting people. It’s about building genuine professional relationships. The challenge is that authenticity has its own etiquette. Industry professionals can usually tell the difference between curiosity and strategy, and the strongest networking happens when the two naturally overlap.
11 04 26I’m curious, if you’re an actor, singer, engineer, composer, dancer, animator — or like, pursue anything in the arts, can you recall a note you’ve received in the past, or a special nugget of wisdom from a mentor that you can say has genuinely helped shape your craft for the better? A note that’s inspired you to strive to be the best artist you can be? On the flip side…have you received a note that felt like a personal attack or perhaps has made you question your worth as an artist?