Laval Alsbrooks Jr.

I was born and raised in New York. Growing up in Queens I often found myself always wanting to try new things. Throughout my young adulthood my interests included playing sports, taking piano lessons, and I always enjoyed watching movies. My aunt had an extensive movie collection and I enjoyed watching movies with her. At that time I never thought it was possible to be part of the movie making process. It seemed as foreign as traveling to another planet. I just enjoyed being a fan and audience member.

 

Sophomore year in college a friend of mine offered me a chance to be a background extra in the film Spiderman 3. That was my first time ever on set and it was nostalgic even as an extra. I saw the director, camera crew, and I was 20 feet away from James Franco and Kristen Dunst as they did their scene in the park. It was magical.

 

That summer I decided that I wanted to pursue being a background actor and seeing how deep the rabbit hole really went, but it was short lived. Fear stepped in and told me a couple things that made me put an end to that pursuit which was to resume 10 years later.

 

Some of those things included:

* I needed to get a real job and follow the status quo that society had already built for me. Play things safe and do something stable and practical.

 

* Acting is not meant for those who start late and it's only meant for those who pursued the arts and trained for it since they were children.

 

* I would need to be the child of a celebrity to have a shot.

and the list went on.

 

For the next 10 years I worked in the financial industry. In the beginning it was interesting but as time went on I felt myself caught in a hamster wheel of repetitive daily action. Sleep, work, sleep, work, and so forth just looking forward to the weekends. Through a series of events and encounters with different people in my life I realized that the universe was trying to speak to me. I began reading different books and resources which led me to a state of enlightenment or awakening. I then understood that the universe was always speaking to me since I was born but now I was open to listening.

 

Coming out of my slumber like Neo did waking up from the Matrix, I decided that I needed to take a chance and really pursue becoming an actor. I was still working at my current job and I had no intentions on quitting. All I knew was that I was going to start taking acting classes, read books, and when the opportunity came that I felt confident enough to start submitting for auditions I planned to call out sick or something. One thing that I learned was that I couldn’t think about the future, I just had to be in the present and the road will be formed on its own as I walked by faith.

 

Two months later my entire department got notified that we were all being laid off in the next 7- 8 months due to budget cut backs, etc. Talk about speaking of divine intervention. While everyone else was in a panic I had an eerie calmness and was more in a state of amazement as I knew the universe was molding things for me. Believe me I was definitely afraid as the unknown can always be scary, but I knew that I had to be brave and know that everything happens for a reason.

 

And so the journey begins. It’s been a little over a year since my internal revelation and I am really proud of how far I have come. Through great teachers, and reading books and studying on my own I was able to book roles in a number of short student films, commercial promo work with companies like Fresco News App, Marriott Hotels and Budweiser. I even landed a day player role for an Indonesian feature film based on the book called “Bulan Terbelah Di Langit Amerika” and a costar role on an episode of Investigation Discovery’s “A Crime to Remember”. I am truly blessed and grateful for everything that has happened to me from my childhood to now good and bad because they made me the person I am today. I hope that my story will inspire others to follow their dreams and know that it’s never too late and that everything happens at the right time for the right reasons.

 

I guess you can say that this is my origin story…