The many faces, voices and facets of Ana…
She was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and immigrated to the United States as a wee babe. Portuguese was her first language, though thanks to her Czech father, her ear was tuned to a variety of European languages as well. Ana actually grew up on a chicken farm in central Florida in a Czechoslovakian community, and did not speak English until she went to first grade. Perhaps due to the trauma of being a stranger in a strange land, she speaks with no discernible accent, not even a southern accent – for which she is grateful! Ana escaped from the farm and enrolled at the University of South Florida (USF) as a Psychology major and within her first year, she realized that the Theatre and Music departments had much more to offer her. Already a trained singer, she flourished as a director and acting coach, as well as an actress. After receiving her BA in Theatre, she proceeded to drive hundreds of miles a week for a few years teaching and performing at various schools in Florida.
Finally, there was a chance to move to New York City, and Ana took it. No matter that two weeks before she was due to move to NYC, the job she was hired for got caught in a city hiring freeze! Ana came to NYC anyway, found a different job in the medical field, and didn’t look back. Ana has worked for hospitals and physicians for over 30 years. Another huge learning opportunity for another “language” – medicine. In addition to learning about surgical oncology and orthopedics, her positions as a practice manager and surgical coordinator often called on her training in psychology and theatre to help patients find their way past their fears.
For the last 25 years, Ana has also been singing with The West Village Chorale (WVC), both as a choir member and occasional soloist. Her first rehearsal resulted in a paying solo church gig in New Jersey that lasted for four years. Singing with WVC has been a tremendous opportunity to explore not only the traditional western canon, but a lot of new music, and the occasional Broadway tune – not to mention Cold Play and Freddie Mercury.
In the last year, Ana has come back to following her heart, starting to work again as an actress and getting into the world of voice over. Having found wonderful mentors and coaches at Edge Studios in NYC, she has developed new skills and ways of acting through her voice. Carol Monda and Johnny Heller have been wonderful coaches and role models and have helped her produce a commercial demo and soon to be released narration and audiobook demos.
You can view my full resume here
