Today we’d like to introduce you to Aislinn Evans.
Hi Aislinn, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My love of performing started all the way back when I was 6 years old. It started with one ballet class and my love of dancing grew every year after that, begging my mom each year to let me take more and more classes. Soon I expanded into training in multiple different styles such as jazz, contemporary, modern, and pointe.
I trained at various renowned summer intensives such as Boston Ballet, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and Joffrey West Ballet. I then went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine arts from the Dominican University of California with Alonzo King LINES Ballet. While in college I began modeling for dancer photographers which naturally lead into more fashion and commercial modeling. After graduation, I decided to move to New York City to more seriously pursue a modeling career. As soon as I moved, I fell deeply in love with the city and started working various modeling jobs with different designers, photographers, and brands, even walking in fashion week. In 2019, I began live streaming on a platform called “LIVIT.” It started as a side gig to help support my modeling but I quickly built up a lot of success on the platform, becoming the top streamer on their US Platform. The app has a HUGE following in Taiwan, Japan, and Hong Kong (called 17Live over there), and it’s so big they host a yearly award show and red carpet called The Golden Feather Awards (though they haven’t hosted one since Covid began). In 2019, I was chosen as the top streamer in the US and was sent to Taiwan to represent the entire US at the red carpet and award show. This rocketed me into social media success and began my journey as an influencer. I have since stopped streaming on the platform and it seems to have decreased in popularity in the US, however, I will forever be grateful for the push it gave me in really starting my career. After a brief pause in 2020 (for obvious reasons) I dove headlong back into my career, focusing more on my modeling career. This naturally lead me into more commercial work that then lead to acting.
I am now starring in a big-budget web series beginning filming this summer. I am a live gameshow host for Live Play Bingo, as well as a host for a large project still in development to be launched in April of this year. I also perform with Total Entertainment (the largest entertainment company on the east coast) as a dancer. I am constantly modeling or filming on set with various brands, and when I’m not on set I’m working on my own personal content or brand deals for social media. I am focussing more on my acting and have many potential projects in the pipeline. I have reached a point in my career where I have built enough momentum that each next job is bigger than the last, and I’m confident that 2023 is about to be a BIG year for me!
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?
No, it has certainly not been smooth but I love it! Growing up in classical ballet is a tough tough world. You have to have incredibly thick skin. It’s commonly understood in the dance world that the “meaner” a teacher is to you, the more they like you and the more they will push you to be better. That means you can’t take anything personally. It’s also a tough world to navigate the ruthless body standards. I have watched many of the girls around me growing up struggle with eating disorders in an effort to fit the incredibly thin body standards of ballet. I luckily grew up with enough positive influences in my life to have avoided ever reaching the point of fighting an eating disorder, but it has definitely been a long road to reaching a point of peace with my body.
I’ve also definitely had to fight constant self-doubt. As with any creative or performance-based career, you’re pretty much guaranteed to constantly fight imposter syndrome. This usually results in me pouring more and more of myself into my work in an effort to work harder and harder. This caught up to me a little over a year ago. After an intense year, I found myself struggling to keep up with all opportunities I was trying to take advantage of and that lead me to sacrificing sleep and taking care of myself and my body. On Halloween night of 2021, it all caught up to me and I fainted from exhaustion. Unfortunately, my chin broke my fall, and I ended up with six stitches and a serious concussion. This forced me to take a serious step back from all my work and reevaluate my lifestyle. I HAD to find a more sustainable way to work without pushing myself past my limit. Ultimately I completely revamped my daily routine, making sure to prioritize taking care of myself first, and to my surprise, I found I was able to get better work done faster! It seems like a no-brainer that you work better when you take care of yourself, but when you’re in the thick of it, trying to do everything you can to work towards your goals, you can be blind to how you’re holding yourself back.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am an actor, model, and dancer. I am known for being a charismatic and gregarious person, constantly with a smile on my face (my social media everywhere is Smilin Aislinn after all)! Everyone knows me as the most positive and optimistic person they’ve met with constant high energy! I believe that maintaining that positive mindset opens you up to seeing all the opportunities around you and focusing on your wins can help keep that imposter syndrome at bay.
I come alive on camera or in front of an audience. Whatever the performance requires of me, I deliver. My biggest talents are a capacity for hard work, empathy, and constant curiosity.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I am generally a pretty open book! I guess a lesser-known fact is I’m a total plant mom! I love my plants and it brings me so much peace and joy to care for them. I have far too many for my current studio apartment yet still want more!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.aislinnevans.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smilin_aislinn/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SmilinAislinn
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@smilin_aislinn?lang=en
Image Credits
1) Werkhauss Photography 2) Werkhauss Photography 3) Rob Kunkle 4) Rob Klein 5) Michaus Photography 6) Ammar Photography 7) Ammar Photography 8) Jarekey Studios
