It’s more important to understand someone than to judge them. We think the first step to understanding someone is asking them the fundamental questions about who they are and how they became the person they are today. Understanding and empathy are essential building blocks for a better, more compassionate world. We’re incredibly fortunate to be able to ask these questions each week through our interview series. Below you’ll find inspiring interviews from in and around Miami.
Ebaniez 
I’ve always had music around me. I started playing violin when I was six, and growing up my dad was constantly playing disco and trance, while I was drawn to pop. That mix of melody, energy, and emotion definitely shaped the way I hear music now. The real turning point came when I went to Ultra Music Festival for the first time in 2017. Read more>>
Alan Hughes 
I’m a Gemini with exponential dualities, by profession I am a chef but I’ve always played rock n roll and I’ve kept those two things as my main lifestyle.; together but separate. I do not mix one with the other. Read more>>
Drew Thompson 
O wow, where do I begin? The quick version is, I feel fortunate to have lived several lives in this lifetime, if that makes sense. Professionally, my first career was baseball. I signed with the Minnesota Twins in 2005 after being drafted in the 2nd round out of Jupiter High School. Growing up around the game, it’s all I really knew and/or wanted for myself. Read more>>
Nicole Knight 
My path has been a little unconventional. I worked in sales and account management for years, and during that time, I was also exploring sugar dating. In 2020, I left my job and began pursuing companionship full time. That was the point when I really started treating it as a business and thinking about what I wanted to build. Read more>>
George Bolanos 
My story really started after I graduated high school in 2015. At the time, I honestly didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do with my life or what my career was going to look like. For graduation, my parents gave me a GoPro for a family trip to Hawaii. I started filming everything with it, and when we got home, that didn’t stop. Read more>>
Cathia Eugene 
My journey as a content creator actually started over 15 years ago, long before being a “content creator” was considered a career. I started simply by sharing myself, my style, and my experiences as a plus size woman. Read more>>
Ari “DJ Affect” Kalimi 
I got my start in Miami as a teenager, teaching myself how to DJ and produce music from my bedroom. What started as something I did purely for the love of music quickly turned into a career, eventually leading to a long-standing residency at Club 11 and opportunities to work alongside some of the biggest names in music and nightlife. Read more>>
Gressy Liza 
My love for DJing started when I was just 10 years old, around 1996, at my family’s bars Wahios Bar in Peru. I started playing music with cassette tapes, CDs, a little radio, and a single speaker. I was just a kid, but I was already making people of all ages dance! My musical world was a little different. Read more>>
Elton Baptiste 
My journey started with music. I’ve always been drawn to creating, experimenting with sounds, and finding ways to turn ideas in my head into something people can actually hear and feel. Over time, that passion grew into producing and mixing my own music, particularly in the lo-fi and cinematic/ambient space. Read more>>
Hanna Baranovska 
I moved to the U.S. from Ukraine after the war began, and for a while, I was trying to figure out what I truly wanted to do and where I saw myself. I had always loved visuals and filming, and my husband encouraged me to try creating content after I had helped him with content for his own work. Read more>>
Andrea Henriquez
My story began with a passion for pastry, but it grew through experience, perseverance, and a desire to create something of my own. Before building Nuvola, I had the opportunity to work in high-end and fine-dining restaurants, including Hell’s Kitchen, where I gained valuable experience in professional kitchens and learned the importance of quality, consistency, technique, and attention to detail. Read more>>
Samantha Balanovich
My story goes likes this…..I received a letter from Florida State University the summer of 1999. They said I had too many credits and needed to graduate, but….I was missing one credit : Fine Arts. So I took Photography as my final class at FSU….and the rest is history. I started taking photos of my friends right after college. Read more>>
Devon Ledbetter
When I was 14, I decided I wanted to be a scuba diver. My dad was a diver, my grandma was a diver, my grandpa was a diver and a sense of adventure really ran in the family. After getting certified. I did my first open water dives on the shorelines of Grand Cayman. Read more>>
Paul Morris 
My journey has always been rooted in creativity, but it has taken many different forms over the years. I grew up in Jamaica, where music was a major part of my life, and eventually moved to South Florida, where I continued developing myself as an artist, singer, and songwriter. Music was my first love. Read more>>
TéQuan Johnson 
Step aerobics is something I grew up doing with my mother. As a kid, I loved it—there was joy in it, there was fun, and there was this beautiful connection between us. I’m a dancer at heart, so choreography and movement have always come naturally to me. But I noticed something: there were run clubs everywhere, Pilates was having its moment, yoga had its time. Read more>>
Jayson & Michelle Yunis 
Our story in real estate really started at a time when neither of us knew exactly what was next. Jayson was the first to be let go from his corporate job, and that unexpected moment became the beginning of his real estate career. Read more>>
Jackie A. Southern 
Today, I am a coach and entrepreneur. My business focusses on building health, resilience and a strong mindset through a coaching framework, with lifestyle guidance and understanding how you can eat to support your body. Before coaching, I spent over fifteen years inside high-pressure professional environments. Read more>>
Stephanie Anderson, MSM 
Stephanie Anderson understands that brain injury never affects only the player. As an NFL wife and partner, she has witnessed how the consequences of football-related head trauma move through an entire family. Her advocacy is deeply connected to the experience of her partner, retired NFL All-Pro linebacker Andre’ T. Read more>>
Celine Decatrel 
I’m Celine! I’ve always been passionate about fitness honestly, any type of movement. I’ve always loved trying different workouts and different classes. My Pilates journey actually started because of an injury. I hurt my lower back at the gym, and I kept hearing that Pilates could help with recovery and strengthening, so I decided to try it. Read more>>
Ashley Dorval 
My story is really a story about believing in myself, even during the seasons when I didn’t have all the answers. I’m Haitian, and I was raised with the understanding that you work hard, you take care of your people, and you never forget where you came from. That mindset has carried me throughout my entire journey. Read more>>
Mckenzy Valentin 
I’ve been creating for as long as I can remember. I started writing when I was seven, grew up singing in choir, and was raised in a Haitian household where music, culture, and storytelling were always around me. I initially gravitated toward rock and R&B, but as I got deeper into music, I began to understand hip-hop differently. Read more>>
Michael Randhawa 
I am an investor who invested in buying multiple condo units in a condo community. This would be a while back when I was enrolled in NSU working on receiving my MBA and M.D; I graduated with a G.P.A of 4.0 Summa Cum Laude. Read more>>
Lilith Rosenfeld 
I was born in Tampa, Florida by my mother and the city’s Chinese immigrant community. I grew up here, isolated but immersed in the culture, cuisine, and music of my people. My happiest memories are those where I am drawing, playing/listening to music, or reading books. I loved and still love reading about plants, animals, history, and stories. Read more>>
Marla Huehmer 
Think Ahead Kids grew from my love of children, education, creativity, and the belief that kids are capable of so much more when someone gives them the opportunity to see what they can do. Read more>>
Kathleen R. O’Neill Schuler 
I would have to say that my interest in image creation began at home as a child. With crayons in hand, I would color the decorative patterns embossed on paper napkins, and through a conscious choice of which aspect to concentrate on and color, I would rearrange the patterns to tell my own story. These paper napkins would then take on a future purpose. Read more>>
Nino Liguori 
I have always enjoyed telling stories through my paintings. My work is rooted in visual parables and allegories that explore art history, design, innovation, and humanity itself. I am drawn to the space where fable and fact intertwine, and where imagination and realism can coexist. Read more>>
CeCe Espeut 
I started as a photographer, behind the camera, telling other people’s stories before I ever told my own. That work is actually what led me into public speaking. Read more>>
Alvarox9 
My name is Alvaro Navarro, but most people know me online as Alvarox9. I’m a Peruvian content creator based in Miami, and I make street interviews, travel vlogs, and lifestyle content in English and Spanish. The name comes from Mega Man. The Mega Man X series went from X1 all the way to X8, and Mega Man X9 never came out. Read more>>
Shamelle Gonzalez 
Shamelle was born and raised in Miami, Florida, where she lived until she went to live in Arkansas in her 20’s. Since you may consider this to be quite a change in settings, you may wonder how this occurred. Around the time Shamelle graduated from high school, a growing interest in philosophy and spirituality began to emerge. Read more>>
Kareem ‘Reemo Meerak’ Tyson 
What it dew #MyCreatives and Voyage Miami readers. It has been some time since my last feature, and I am thrilled to share how the journey has evolved. Both The C.U.T.S. Podcast (Culture x Urban x Tech x Sports), and the Reemo Meerak Brand continue to thrive. Read more>>
Florencia Clement de Grandprey 
My journey to becoming a full‑time artist was anything but straightforward. I’ve always felt a pull toward creating, but for many years I followed a completely different path. I didn’t study art formally—my degree is in International Affairs and Foreign Languages, and aside from a couple of basic painting and drawing electives, art wasn’t part of my academic life. Read more>>
Myya Passmmore 
My career has always lived at the intersection of communications, community, and public impact. I started my career in marketing and communications, eventually founding my own firm, which grew into Culture 44, a strategic communications and public affairs company. Read more>>
Rodrigo Luporini 
My journey started in Brazil, where I developed my background in marketing, sales and business development. Over the years, I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of building relationships, developing new markets, and finding opportunities for products that offer something truly different. Today, I’m the Business Development & Sales Manager for SEABOB Americas, based in South Florida. Read more>>
Jessica Gonzalez
HI! My name is Jessica. I’m 37 years old, a mom to two beautiful girls, ages 7 and 9, and a proud wife to a South Florida firefighter. Since I was 16, hair and makeup have always been a passion of mine. Even while working a typical 9-to-5 job, I spent more than 15 years doing hair and makeup on nights and weekends. Read more>>
Alex Anthony
My name is Alex Anthony, and dance has pretty much been my life for as long as I can remember. I started teaching when I was around 15 years old. Read more>>
Guy Antoine 
Born in Haiti and raised in Lynn, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston, I grew up in a traditional Haitian household where education, hard work, and building a secure future were deeply ingrained values. In my family, the expected path was clear: go to school, earn a degree, and pursue a respected profession such as medicine, law, or engineering. Read more>>
Adri Camacho 
I am super honored to be part of this. My name is Adri Camacho. I am Colombian; I have been married for 29 years with a beautiful family. I am a Bilingual Officiant for more than 15 years, also a missionary since 2007, and an artist; my current obsession is ceramics. Read more>>
Jessica Marin 
My journey really started with my love for creating beautiful, feminine spaces and experiences. I’ve always been drawn to beauty, fashion, and entrepreneurship, and over time, that passion grew into wanting to create brands that felt like an extension of my personal style. Before Eternity Nails, I created Eternity Lingerie, which is now the sister brand to Eternity Nails. Read more>>
Chié Dambara 
I started Yōko Matcha for a very unglamorous reason: I needed a visa. After graduating in 2013, I was working for a fashion brand in New York and hoping to stay in the United States. Two unsuccessful work-visa lotteries left me looking for another way forward. Read more>>
Lisa Zaldivar 
In 2007 I was working as a sales consultant for a medspa and the company went out of business. My husband asked me what I was going to do next and told me that I should do something that I loved . Read more>>
Marcy Kravit 
I grew up in a tiny Pittsburgh suburb—the kind of place where the grocery clerk knew your birthday and neighbors always waved from their porches. Life was simple, predictable, and rooted in small-town values. But at fourteen, everything changed when my family packed up and moved to South Florida to join my grandparents who had retired there. Read more>>
Dina Yên 
As the daughter of South Vietnamese refugees, I grew up being reminded that opportunity comes with responsibility: when you are fortunate enough to rise, you reach back and lift others with you. Aside from a number of important people who helped shape my early life, books were among the unique list of things that lifted me. Read more>>
Lori Nozick 
As a child, I was busy with building and reframing simple materials and backyard spaces with ideas of newly created ‘homesites’, and spent time lying under trees looking up at the many layers of branches and leaves of various shades of light and shadow seeking the sky. Read more>>
Ariana Jones
I can remember exactly how old I was when I discovered KPOP and subsequently fell in love with KPOP dance. Ever since middle school, I’ve had the goal of joining a KPOP dance cover group. Like many others in my club, I discovered Next In Action through Florida Atlantic University’s involvement fair, and from then on I knew where I wanted to be. Read more>>
Erica Renee 
My connection to natural healing began with my great aunt, Ida Lee, who was known as the herbalist in our family. I watched her use herbs and natural remedies to care for others, and those experiences stayed with me. Toward the end of 2018, I felt drawn to return to school and deepen that knowledge, especially through herbs. Read more>>
PJ MILLS 
I grew up in Los Angeles yet went to art school in Western New York, Cornell University. Over the years I got tired of shoveling snow and moved to where I could shovel beach sand and still make paintings. I initially came down to write a coffee table book about South Florida in 2001. Read more>>
Danielle Engen 
Music and creative environments have always been a passion of mine. I grew up in a musical family and knew from a young age that I wanted to work in a creative field. I began my career in producer management, which gave me an early education in how artists, producers, engineers and studios come together to make records. Read more>>
Melinda Salcedo 
My Story I’m Melinda a mom, wife, entrepreneur, notary, wedding officiant, and most importantly, a woman of faith. My journey to becoming a mompreneur and starting FaithFueled LLC didn’t happen overnight. It came from years of experiences, challenges, growth, and trusting God even when I couldn’t see what was ahead. Read more>>
Stephanie Shimon
I’ve always known I wanted to work in fashion. I went to FIT and started my career in PR, but the experience that really shaped me was my time at SIMKHAI. I joined as an executive assistant to Jonathan and the President when the brand had recently moved from New York to LA. Read more>>
Camron O’neal 
My journey really started with me always wanting more for myself and never being afraid to try something new. I’ve never been the type of person who felt like I had to stay in one lane. If I see an opportunity and believe I can build something from it, I’m willing to take the chance. Read more>>
Sunny Komolvasri
I was born in Bangkok, Thailand, and immigrated to the United States in 2008. Growing up as an Asian immigrant in predominantly white communities, I gradually learned to diminish my own culture in order to fit in with my peers. My cultural foods, traditions, and, most importantly, my language were slowly replaced by everything I believed would make me feel more accepted. Read more>>
jennyffer Kurz
I started as a stay-at-home mom who didn’t accomplish becoming a doctor, and that had just finished her associates degree in business administration. I would watch HGTV all the time and was then inspired by the process of buying my own home. This opened the door to my interest in the real estate field. Read more>>
