Our Instructors

Lorena Mena • Olivia Allen • Irma Villalvazo

Vicky Villalvazo • Lucy Griffin • Iris Hampton • Matt Biedel

Lorena Mena has an extensive background in the entertainment industry. She has worked for a talent agency representing actors of all ages, has taught children for 10 years and has been acting professionally for over a decade. Lorena and her partner, Olivia, opened Little Red Door, Young Actors Studio in 2004. Her training comes from well known Los Angeles acting schools including Aaron Speiser Acting, The Groundlings, ACME, Richard Kline, and Stephanie Feury. Some of her television and film credits include Notes from the Underbelly, Day Break, Invasion, Strong Medicine, LAX, General Hospital, Yes, Dear, American Family and many more. She has appeared in many commercials including Lowe’s, Honda, Mazda, Allstate, Sears, Milk, Big Lots, AT&T, Bell South, 24 Hour Fitness and Sonic Burger, to name a few.

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Olivia Allen, a native of Los Angeles, has been acting since the age of five. Her career began in modeling and commercials. She has trained with renowned teachers, Cameron Thor, Aaron Speiser, Stephanie Feury and ACME Comedy. Olivia continues to work in both Television and Film. Some of her most recent credits include Seventh Heaven, Reba, Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion, the TV movie and has a recurring role on American Dreams. Olivia taught kids commercial acting at Beverly Hills Studios. Once learning how much she enjoyed it, she dreamed of starting her own acting class for kids. That dream finally came true in 2004 when her and her partner Lorena opened up Little Red Door.

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Irma Villalvazo brings us a slew of knowledge of the entertainment industry. She began her career working as a writer and photographer for a major local magazine. She then moved on to casting, working with various Los Angeles casting directors. She has contributed in casting dozens of commercials including McDonald's, Best Buy, Toyota, Johnson & Johnson, Coca Cola, Dove and Target to name a few. With this experience, she transitioned into the talent agency business. Today, Irma heads the commercial department at a well known boutique talent agency. In her spare time Irma teaches kids commercial acting. She believes that all gifts that come our way are only deserved if we can pass them on to others.

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Vicky Villalvazo knew at a very young age that her calling was acting. She entertained her family by performing skits and dancing at gatherings. But her training began at Upland High School, where she participated in various productions including; West Side Story, Hair, Little Shop of Horrors and Much Ado About Nothing. With this on her resume, she soon became a proud thespian and graduated with theater honors. Once mastering performing on stage she moved on to commercials. To learn about the business she assisted in casting at a Los Angeles commercial casting office. It wasn’t long before the advertisers took notice of Vicky and started offering her on camera commercial spots. Vicky strongly feels that being bilingual in and Spanish and English really contributed to her success in this field. Look out for her at film festivals across the country in the short “A Better Life”. On her off time Vicky enjoys Dancing and painting.

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Lucy Griffin is a proud L.A native. She has been acting as long as she can remember and is a recent graduate of California Institute of the Arts with a BFA in Acting. She has been in hundreds of plays over the last 24 years including Shakespeare's Alls Well that Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer’s Night Dream and most recently Neil Labute's, The Distance from Here. Last year she was proud to be a part of The Evidence Room's critically acclaimed and award winning, Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard playing Anya. Another proud moment was a small part alongside Ryan Gosling in the major motion picture, Fracture. At the moment she is training with Cameron Thor at Carter Thor Studio. Lucy has taught acting at Oakwood School and other programs through Cal Arts. She is passionate about acting and knows that to succeed one must never ever give up.

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Iris Hampton. We are so fortunate to have this knowledgeable entertainment industry vet. She has a wealth of experience in casting, teaching, working on film sets in various capacities as well as the talent agency business. Iris began her casting career as a talent scout for the series “Magnum P.I.” in Hawaii. Upon her return to California, she became the corporate casting director for Tanglewood Entertainment where she cast several films for Chuck Norris and his family. Since then she has worked in casting tons of films, televisions shows, commercials and industrials. She is best known for casting the number one live action children’s show “The Power Rangers”. Most recently Iris completed casting on Barona Casino, Help-U-Sell-real estate, Re/Max and Commercial Federal Bank, to name a few. On her off time, Iris enjoys sharing her knowledge with children. She has taught kids of all ages commercial, t.v. and film acting. Iris has earned a great reputation throughout this industry with her honesty, good spirit, hard work and integrity.

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Matt Biedel received recently received his MFA in Acting from the Old Globe/University of San Diego. Matt and his wife Amy have taught a theatre workshop at Horace Mann Middle School here in San Diego for the last two years. He has performed in and understudied countless plays at the Old Globe Theatre and has worked at numerous theatres throughout the country. He has also been a Guest Star on CSI:Miami and Dirt(F/X) and was featured in a National McDonalds Commercial. He is a proud member of both AEA and SAG.

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