Help me become the actor I want to be

Dear friends, family, coworkers and contributors,

After a few adventures in Dortmund, Germany and then in Paris, France, I moved back to Los Angeles in October 2021 to pursue a dream I have had started in 2014. After a long journey of applying and auditioning, I’m grateful and honored to have been accepted at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts (The Academy) for a two years Theater Conservatory Program.

Born and raised in Paris, my family hailed from Russia, immigrating to the United States and then France during the Bolshevik era. My family history is filled with dramatic stories about courage and sacrifice that partly shape my enthusiasm for acting and film. My passion for acting is rooted in those stories and all the stories of our human voyage that come to life on the screen and stage as in no other medium.

As a young student, film and acting fascinated me as a transformative art form that blended drama and romance with comedy and tragedy into something magical. I passionately consumed movies and theater but had no practical understanding of what it meant to be an actor or a film maker.

Fortunately, as a student I landed a job as post-production assistant on the TV show Dexter at Sunset Gower Studios in 2009. I instantly fell in love with the beauty and chaos of a set and the technical aspects of creating a show. At every opportunity I fastened myself to the Digital Imaging Technician or the Script Supervisor to learn about their jobs. I vividly remember coming to Technicolor, the laboratory that processed our dailies, to learn digitizing scene shots in film. But it is when I met a Casting Director, that my journey with acting really began. He taught me to view acting as an art and craft as well as a profession.

In the years since 2009, I’ve worked in and around the world of acting: driving for carpool companies, working as a background actor, learning technique in acting classes, taking every opportunity to learn and act in Europe and America, and welcoming guests, at The Foundation Louis Vuitton and then Musée Yves Saint Laurent in Paris.

In 2017, I moved to Dortmund, Germany, with my partner, an American ballet dancer, where I focused on dance as a form of acting, writing a short film (Their Path). After separating with my partner, I moved back to Paris, working with ballet dancers from the Opéra de Paris, a composer and a small production team. This endeavor resulted in my recording two tracks for the score.

Back in Paris, I became the Executive Assistant for Iris Bucher and her production company, Quad Drama. Iris’s work and my experience with Quad Drama inspired me to move back to Los Angeles to pursue my passion, to become an actor.

I wake up every day excited to be a French-American actor; I love riding the buses and trains around Los Angeles, dashing through the city streets with my skateboard or bike, taking in the stories of the city’s people. My work as a barista at Verve Coffee Mateo in the Art District and the Abbey Food and Bar, where I dance professionally on weekends, is like the constant changing set of a play or film. I see acting in everything that I do, all that I see.

To attend the Academy, I will gladly curtail my two jobs, but I will need some financial assistance. There is nothing that I can do alone, and it is part of the reason why I chose to be an actor. It is a collaborative industry where people, minds, and art come together to create and bring to this world important stories that must be told, must be seen.

As much as I strongly believe I will have a good career, I don’t want to leave the Conservatory with an unhealthy weight on my shoulder. The tuition is costly and living as a student in Los Angeles will not be easy. For this reason, I call all my friends, family, coworkers and anyone who could help in any way they could. Whatever you decide to help with, will be extremely appreciated.

HOW YOU COULD HELP:

Tuition is mostly covered by my scholarships and grants.

But you can help with:

1. Help me minimize my Federal Loans ($9,402)

2. Help me minimize the balance that I owe for the tuition ($6,956)

3. Help me with unexpected extra costs ($9,000)

The total of the GoFundMe Campaign is the total I owe for the tuition ($6,956) + 25% extra ($1,796)

If you’re curious to learn a little bit more about myself, you can visit my website www.igorcorbe.com

Thank you very much for taking the time to watch the video and read my story.

Igor Corbé

Credits for Video

Image and Light Shelton Johnson

Music composed by Sémø (“Chemtrails”)