Daily Inspiration: Meet Nia Chanel

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nia Chanel.

Hi Nia, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I’ve always been interested in making people I’m around laugh. As a toddler, I would take the karaoke microphone we had and just perform. I would dance in my room every day. At 3, I asked my mom to be in a magazine like the ones I would look through. I would tell my family “I’m going to be on the radio like Chris Brown”! So, my mom took a chance and found a local agency and we got signed. Years went by and we never really took the industry commitment seriously.

Then, when I was 9, my mom signed me up for a spring break theater camp at the Chandler Center for the Arts. That’s when my mom realized how deep my passion was for performing. I will always give the theater camps credit for helping me explore my love for singing, dancing, and acting. I did theater for a few camps and then my mom started to really look for opportunities for me. She submitted me to Good Faith Casting for a science film called Dream Big: Engineering Our World and that was my first booking. It really opened her eyes and motivated her to do more for me. She found LA Acting Academy through my Arizona agent when we went for an industry seminar and the school’s owner asked that I come back the next day for a trial class. My first day was actually my 10th birthday and I loved it! That first class was in January, and there was an L.A. manager visiting to meet the students. She really liked me and introduced me to my current L.A. agent who also came to visit the school that April. She signed me immediately. My manager at the time told me it was really important to build skills for my resume.

So, I joined my dance studio The Jukebox Grounds in addition to the acting classes. That summer was also the first summer I spent in L.A. taking classes at Actor’s Site and other acting schools around L.A. And also training at Millennium Dance Complex. That was an amazing summer! I was local in L.A. for the summer and available for auditions with Disney, Nickelodeon, and all of the major networks and really had a chance to become familiar with the casting directors and agencies. I’ve since been on HBO. FOX Sports, ABC. Hulu, Netflix, commercials, and short films. I’ve had the chance to be on every major production lot in CA and even filmed a deleted scene in Captain Marvel. My dance crew has since placed or won in dance competitions across AZ and CA.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I say it’s been a nice ride getting to where I am and growing. I have the best team for getting me so many opportunities and for always believing in me with these huge auditions. The main “challenge” with doing everything I do is my schedule is always very full.

Prepping for auditions, sometimes with very little notice. Traveling to the auditions or since Covid, most auditions have been self-tapes. Late nights to meet tight self-tape deadlines. I have to stay on top of my grades to stay eligible for my work permit, even when I miss days for shooting. Missing practices or competitions. Sometimes I have conflicting obligations and then sometimes I have to choose.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m mainly known for my acting and dancing. Little do people know that I also produce music on the software app LogicPro. I started in 2018 when my mom had a music studio school. I also took some singing lessons at the school. In a way, music speaks to me and I’m glad I found another outlet to find my own sound. Especially when I can write my own lyrics and choreography to a track.

Music speaks to me through my guitar, too. I am also a youth ambassador for a non-profit organization called Made in Her Image founded by Malakai, the same director, and writer of my first lead role in an award-winning short film called Souls. So, while managing my auditions, set work, competitions, and school I’m also on the varsity Pom team and company dance team at my high school. I do get super busy, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Go follow my Instagram and Tiktok at @Adynamitegal.

I love dogs and animals in general. I have a Jack Russell terrier mix named Reign. He’s spoiled. I am on the cover of Oct 2018 edition of Big City Kids Magainze. I do enjoy modeling and hope to do more of that in the future. Math is my best subject and I’m pretty good at sketch art. I was the muse for a painting done by Antionette Cauley posing as Travis Scott. I love to skate and can dance on my hoverboard. (I was just accepted into the Miss Juneteenth Pageant with VS Pageants and the City of Chandler this coming June.)

I have about 20 hours of dance practice week between Jukebox, Pom and Company Dance, not including. I’ve met multiple actors that have worked with Zendaya, so hopefully that’s a sign that I’ll meet her soon. Fan girl moment. I am an AZ native, born and raised.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm9388899/
• Instagram: @Adynamitegal
• Facebook: MissNiaChanel

Image Credits
West Eal