Nearly one hundred talented Latino actors and actresses armed with headshots, demo reels and business cards brought their friendly faces and interesting personalities to the Actor Summit on Thursday, April 12, 2012.  The National Association of Latino Independent Producers(NALIP) hosted the summit to kick off their annual conference-NALIP: Diverse Voices, Universal Content.  It was an opportunity for performers to meet and network with professional filmmakers, producers and casting directors. The Actor Summit took place at the Wizards Theatre on CityWalk at Universal City.

One of the popular panels was on how to use New media to keep careers from stalling. “I suggested to NALIP that we bring in actors who have successfully used the new media to get seen by Directors, Entertainment Executives, and Producers,” he said.  The workshop entitled ‘How to create, produce and star in your own webisodes!’ featured Ruth Livier, Mark Gantt and Julia Ahumada Grob.  All started as actors but took their careers to new levels by creating their own content to showcase their talents.  “These actors grew beyond the “normal” actor roles and became producers, writers, and even executive producers of their product.  Hollywood is beating down the doors to get to these resourceful actors,” Fairbanks added.

Gantt co-created the award-winning The Bannen Way, an American crime drama.  Gantt, who stars as Neal Bannen, the main character, stated, “I couldn’t even get co-star roles. I had an acting teacher who said create your own stuff, build your own door and walk through it.” Gantt followed that advice and has not looked back since. He shared, “I wrote something that was me. After 19 days of shooting, I have confidence that I’m an actor and I’m a filmmaker.”