Rising Star Joe Camareno On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Entertainment Industry

An Interview With Elana Cohen

I have so many stories of how I was able to achieve things at an early age. I guess I am industrious. I don’t see working at a bank or an office as an option for me personally, and not that there is anything wrong with that type of work, it just isn’t for me. I have worked those jobs over the years, but it has been mostly out of dire need, survival, as it were, and it was personally soul crushing. I’ve thankfully been in a place where I’m able to continue working based on my experience and know-how and I’m so grateful.

As a part of our series about pop culture’s rising stars, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Joe Camareno.

Joe Camareno is best known as a multi-award-winning producer, writer, director, and producing partner/co-owner of Celtino Entertainment Group (CEG). As an actor his role in the film Tin Holiday garnered him an Imagen Award nomination as Best Actor alongside Antonio Banderas, Andy Garcia, and Anthony Ramos. Most recently, he was the series director for the web series Sister President, as well as the educational web series Fixing Paco, starring Paul Rodriguez which lead to Best Director honors at the 2012 Reel Rasquache Film and Art Festival, and the series went on to receive a 2013 People’s Telly Silver Award for Best Program or Webisode, in addition to several 2013 and 2014 Imagen Award nominations. Joe was also the series director and producer for the 2010 Imagen Award-winning web series Ylse. With a career spanning over 25 years in front of the camera, Joe has been in more than 400 TV commercials and over 600 radio spots including campaigns for Farmers Insurance and AT&T, as well as the campaign voice for Homeland Security, White Castle, Burger King, Taco Bell, Citre Shine Shampoo, and NutriBullet Rx. He has also guest-starred on many hit television shows, including memorable recurring roles on The Shield and Unfabulous. His recent projects Linked by Love and the accompanying docuseries Linked by Love: All Kidneys Are Pink are both eligible for Emmy FYC. Never one to rest on his laurels, Joe has launched a new production company, Brodiaea Pictures, with producing partner and director Michael Bonomo and already has two films on its slate, Rewritten and Don’t Look.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

Life growing up in Los Angeles was pretty normal. I was born to very young parents. Native American (Tohono O’odham Nation) on my mother’s side and Mexican on my father’s side. It was a very strict upbringing and sometimes very Catholic, depending on who was in town. I ended up finding a school on the east coast after graduating from Hollywood High School (Go Sheiks!) to clean the slate as it were and start to find my center. Being in the City for the first time was definitely a culture shock, but I adapted quickly!

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

I’m a native of Los Angeles and was inspired to perform by a teacher, Ms. Stringos, who ran a musical theater after school type program at my elementary school. That’s pretty much where I got the acting bug. Being from LA really helped me as an artist because it was my base. Most actors and people in the industry are from other places and getting back home sometimes can be challenging when you’re just starting out. I’m grateful to Ms. Stringos and the other educators, like Mr. Melton at HHS, who were supportive of and encouraged us to pursue a career if it was something we really felt the pull towards.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

I think the most interesting thing that happened to me after starting my career was auditioning for a boy band produced by Michael McDonald. This was sometime around 1992 or so. I made the first few cuts, but choked in the studio, long story but it informed me about how I would need to figure things out on my own and find my own way. For the life of me, I can’t remember the band name. I don’t think anything came of it, at least I don’t remember seeing or hearing anything about that band at the time.

It has been said that mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Mistakes certainly can be our best teachers, but I’ve always taken this career path very seriously. If anything, the mistake would have been in not trying or taking advantage of an open door or opportunity. Early on, I realized that no one was going to give me anything without asking for it or showing up prepared. Being Latino in the early 1990’s as an actor in Hollywood? There weren’t that many opportunities. You were either the gangbanger, the gardener, or the Lothario on television and film. Commercials were even worse, rarely if ever did they cast any brown faces to peddle products nationally. There were Spanish versions of some of those ads, but generally they were non-union, so no residuals and very low pay for the same work. I know because I worked on a few of them before being able to join the actors’ union. It was infuriating but I really had no recourse if I wanted that on set experience to build that foundation and resume. So, I created my opportunities. I somehow found my people. I’m a firm believer in that things sometimes happen for a reason. I have many times met people that I’ve been able to get to the next level with on a project we both worked on. A prime example is a children’s show I co-wrote with a friend. I met her while being a server for about three weeks; I was terrible at it. I ended up leaving for a tour of The Wizard of Oz as the Tin Man. When I returned, my friend and I stayed in touch and then a couple of years later, opportunity knocked. She asked if I’d be interested in being an actor on this campaign for the county of LA and I said, “Yes.” We ended up writing a kids show that traveled to K-6 schools all over the county. The show went on to win several awards for the PR firm handling the contract as well as for the county. We ended up writing three shows for them. I was with the program for five years or so and still look back fondly at the work we did, and the joy brought to the faces of so many of those kids.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

I’m coming off a series I co-created with Nicole Mendez for the MNITF.org. It’s called Linked by Love and it follows a Black family dealing with a shocking medical diagnosis. It was created to highlight the need for self-advocacy and confidence when it comes to your medical health. Historically, Black Americans have had a tainted history with doctors in this country. If you study the history books, you can find those histories, namely Tuskegee and the father of gynecology, J. Marion Sims. Many Black Americans may or may not directly know this specific information, but because of the experience of their elders and the distrust that they developed, this distrust was passed down from generation to generation. This was at the core of the series, the fear that the older character in the story, Ernestine (Shirley Jordan), feels and later faces head on through her daughter, Beverly, played beautifully by Michelle N. Carter. Beverly ends up needing a kidney transplant which is the catalyst of all the hurts and fears that start to bubble up to the surface. We do explore these themes with great care. The scripts were tenderly written by Nicole J. Butler with a story and outline by me, Nicole Mendez, and Stephanie Wiand. We also got to produce a companion docuseries for the narrative called Linked by Love: All Kidneys Are Pink. This series really dives into the how and what and where of a kidney transplant. We were able to have surgeons, kidney doctors, patients (donors and recipients) as well as social workers. Some of the cast and crew from the narrative series also spoke on camera with regard to their own familial histories and their feelings about doctors and the medical establishment in the US. This was a real opportunity to get to the facts on what people can do with regard to their health in general but also specifically for those with kidney failure and in need of a kidney transplant. We cover different treatment options in the series like dialysis and also some of the various options out there like living donation when the need for a kidney arrives. While the lens is focused on Black Americans and their experience, it is a universal story in that anyone who watches either series can take something away and carve their own path to a healthier lifestyle.

I also just got attached to direct a horror feature called The Black. It’s about an eerie supernatural phenomenon that emerges every 30 years to wreak havoc on a small town by a lake. The script is solid, and the casting director and producers are working to attach a few names to the project. We have one so far, but I’m not allowed to share that info yet! I will when I am able.

You have been blessed with success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?

Try and try again! I’ve always been of the mind that a closed door means to try to figure out another way in. Meet people, get out there and meet people. I’m inherently shy by nature but when I’m the talent at an audition or a meeting, I am not afraid to don that hat and make a go of it. Ask for help. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. If there is an older entertainment industry professional whom you’ve met and they do what you are interested in doing, ask for help or to intern. People can be a mentor to you and many of us would love that. I found that early on. It’s interesting because I’ve offered to mentor some younger just starting out professionals and they don’t follow-up. Ask for help, show up, and be ready. It is indeed a hard life at the start, but who knows you might get lucky and be an overnight success after 10 years. ;)

I have so many stories of how I was able to achieve things at an early age. I guess I am industrious. I don’t see working at a bank or an office as an option for me personally, and not that there is anything wrong with that type of work, it just isn’t for me. I have worked those jobs over the years, but it has been mostly out of dire need, survival, as it were, and it was personally soul crushing. I’ve thankfully been in a place where I’m able to continue working based on my experience and know-how and I’m so grateful.

We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?

Diversity in film and television is absolutely important. When I started out the only people that looked like me on television were like the characters I described earlier, the gang member, the gardener, or the Lothario. I was too “pretty” and not mean looking to play the gang banger or the gardener. I wasn’t seedy enough or good looking enough to play the Latin Lover womanizer, whatever you want to call it. I didn’t want to play those roles anyway and commercially there wasn’t anything happening for me or my “look.” I was able to find work in corporate films, training videos and also commercial print. That was really all there was for me at the time and then writing happened. That is where the power is, in writing and later in producing. You have the power to create worlds and people to populate that world and those people can look like you and have traits that you have, maybe a young gay writer who happens to be Black or Latino or Asian writes the next Oscar winning film. It won’t happen if you don’t step up to the plate and claim your space. I didn’t see many people like me on television. I look at shows now and I see more diversity than before but there is still a huge need for it. The main reason being is that is affects our culture in many ways. Hollywood is the face of this country to the world and of course this country. If you only see a certain group of people presented in a certain way, many will view that as how it is. It’s hilarious because at the height of Baywatch, I met some Europeans and when they found out I was from California, and specifically LA, they were surprised. They thought everyone in LA was tan and buff and blond. It left me scratching my head. This was pre-YouTube and the internet so things were very different and accessibility to cultures were relegated to the local libraries or via travel. Different times, yes. That said, diversity is needed, and I shall continue to be an advocate for it in all of the work that I do. I grew up in a diverse city and my writing reflects that. My producing reflects that and as a director, I make it an imperative of casting to bring in any and all who could fit the roles called for in a script. Someone born in northern Maine may not have that experience and therefore will write about what they know. I’m not saying it’s wrong, but it’s maybe an opportunity to widen one’s horizons and scope of view.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.

1. I wish someone had told me I wouldn’t be getting all the leads in the real world despite me getting them while in school. This goes back to the diversity thing. The roles just weren’t there. I remember a time in school in NYC. I did well in class, and I think I was respected, but when it came to my final showcase, I was relegated to the one line neighbor roles and when I brought it up to the outside casting director about wanting to read something more substantial, he brought in a scene for me read for as a Jamaican man. A Black Jamaican man. I’m Latino. I look Latino. He asked why I wasn’t doing the accent and I told him I wasn’t comfortable doing that. Granted, this was 1991. Different times. They ended up giving me a horrible scene from a horrible play where I played a Cuban with a thick accent and clad in a banana yellow pimp suit. 1991 in NYC. That was the start of my career and what I had to contend with as an artist in musical theater. It’s funny now but wow, such a different time.
2. I wish someone had told me I needed to be fully bilingual in English and Spanish to be relevant as an actor or commodity. While I grew up speaking both, I was certainly not as proficient in Spanish as people thought I “should” be. It’s amazing how shocked people are when they find a Latino person who doesn’t speak Spanish. Thankfully, I had a decent grasp of it and would force myself to read the local Spanish language newspaper. I read as often as I could and got myself a place where it was decent enough to read commercial copy and voice over auditions in Spanish. I was able to get my first voice over agent at ICM (now DPN) back in 1998 or so. I made a demo at home with various clippings I pulled from magazines and sent it in after calling the agency directly. I don’t even know how I found the number, but I did and the woman who answered happened to be Latina, she brought me in for a meeting. I met with the agent, he “auditioned me, like me and sent me on two auditions. I booked them. It’s interesting because the agent at the time of my meeting with him and saying he was interested in repping me, wouldn’t do contracts. He said their clients are all on a handshake. Well, after getting those two booking calls back-to-back, he called and asked if I could come in to sign a contract. I told him he could Fed-Ex them to me, so he did.
3. I wish someone had told me actors don’t work for their agents, they work for the actor. This part of the industry isn’t really set up that way and yet, it’s how it is. Agents work for the talent. They make money when the talent makes money. Yes, there is a lot of free work they do in-between, but that is part of their gig. I learned this early on from my first agent. She was horrible. Great agency but not a nice lady. She told me she was taking me on because I was a “good-looking Latino,” and because she didn’t have any on her roster. She also told me I needed to lose ten pounds. I was 5’11” and 180, nicely built at the time, but yet, in her eyes I was fat. She kept threatening to “fire” me because there were a lot of auditions I would refuse, like the gangbanger, the gardener… I would go to some of these and show up and not look like anyone else in the room and not look like anything like what they were wanting to cast. Long story short, it was a real lesson is finding the right people to work for you and who will go to bat for you.
4. I wish someone had told me that entertainment was a business. We know that inherently because it’s called “show business,” but most actors don’t treat it as such. They don’t teach it in acting school, and no one really talks about it. It’s a business and we as artists should treat it as such. There are a lot of tax perks you can get if you’re incorporated, but that’s another conversation all together, however, it is important to be so when the time is right for you. That said, save your receipts, have certain articles of clothing for auditions only, have a suit, even one from a secondhand store, you’d be surprised what you can find these days. Have reliable transportation. Get your rest before an audition, if you can. Treat your auditions like the appointments they are, be prepared, show up on time and by on time, I mean, 15 minutes early. These appointments are your five minutes in the room. Use them wisely. Who knows, they could have changed the copy and now you’re late and not prepared. Auditions do not come easily, these days, with actors self-submitting, etc., there are upwards of 3000+ submissions for each and every role. I know this because as a producer, I’ve had these conversations with my casting director. I have cast actors from a self-tape, who may not have had the best sound or the best light, but they were prepared and knew the role inside out as best they could with the information they had. They made a choice and went with it.
5. I wish someone had told me that sometimes you need to trust your instincts despite fumbling over a word or two. I’m talking about commercials specifically. I had an audition once, in Spanish, with a very well-respected commercial casting director. The person running the session always had a chip on his shoulder with me, he was also Latino and was an actor. I happened to be in a year’s long streak of booking commercials in both markets, but mostly in English. I read the copy, which was very long and fast and handwritten in a small size. I stumbled over a word that was incorrectly written on the card but kept going. At the end of that take, I asked if I could do it again since I had stumbled on the word, not saying anything about it being incorrectly written on the card in the first place. He clapped back at me saying, “I’m not here to placate you, Joe. If they like you, they’ll bring you back.” And with that, I left. Needless to say, I got the call back and booked the campaign. The point of the story is, trust your instincts. Sometimes people aren’t going to go out of their way for you. By this point in my career, I was very good at taking the essence of the copy and physicalizing it in a way that was able to sell it in an appealing way.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

I would say to take breaks, book out and go somewhere if you can afford it, if not, take a weekend somewhere and power down the screens. This can help you find your center and refocus.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

If I could inspire a movement… I would say as cliche as it sounds, be yourself. There is only one you. Be you. I was often told I wasn’t Mexican enough or for that matter American enough. What does that even mean? I mean, at heart, I knew what they were saying, but still. Those words conjure up a whole host of demons and images in my head. I was able to find my voice and my way because I started to trust and value what I had in my bag of tricks that I was able to bring to the table. Is that enough of a movement? It isn’t sexy or provocative, but it’s organic and real and we need more of that. To that person who is 20 pounds overweight, you’re not going to lose that weight by 2:00 pm for your audition. Embrace what you have, what you have to offer. You’ be surprised at what can happen in that audition room. I have been fortunate enough to change the thinking of the people in the room with what I brought. I’m talking specifically about commercials here, but that has happened theatrically for me as well.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

When I moved to New York City, an old teacher of mine, Ms. Stringos, was on a sabbatical from teaching. She was living in NYC, and we were able to connect there. She helped me while we were both there and bought me dinner a few times and had me over for dinner. She was there for a year, but our time overlapped for about two months or so and when she moved back to Los Angeles, she gave me a few of the things in her apartment. Things like pots and pans and small furniture pieces. When I made the move back to LA, I ended up giving those items to others who were in need of them as I wasn’t able to bring them back to LA with me. Her help was immeasurable. I was pretty much alone in the City and having that little bit of support really made a difference.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My favorite life lesson is actually a lyric from Chicago the musical, “You can like the life you’re living; you can live the life you like.” I remember this from time to time and remind myself that I don’t have to be “stuck” in any given situation. There is always a way out. It doesn’t mean getting out will be easy, it’s just simply a reminder that we are capable of anything if we set our minds to it and focus on the goal.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

I would love to have a private breakfast with Steven Spielberg. Love him or hate him, I think he is the most prolific director in this industry. I am fascinated by the fact that he was so into wanting to do a remake of West Side Story which I thought was fantastic. I saw it twice. I’d like to pick his brain about the biz and while I have had some success, it isn’t the kind of success he has enjoyed. I have had a difficult time finding a representative for directing despite the accolades over the years, same for writing. I have created what I have with the help of others in a similar situation to myself. So, I wouldn’t necessarily say self-made, but self-made with the support of other likeminded individuals. It would be great to be able to have the ear and potentially support of someone like Steven Spielberg.

How can our readers follow you online?

Instagram: @JoeCamareno

Twitter: @JoeCamareno

BlueSky: @JoeCamareno.bsky.social

FB: @JoeCamarenoOfficial

JoeCamareno.com

This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!

Thank you for extending a hand in my direction and to have the opportunity to share part of my story.