🎤 CuratedLA interviews Yelena Friedman

YELENA FRIEDMAN

👋 YELENA FRIEDMAN is an actress, singer, songwriter, and comedic content creator based in Los Angeles. She has a TikTok following of 1.3m and is known for her humorous ‘What to do when…’ skits and various characters like, ‘Note Girl,’ and ‘Overly Dramatic Girlfriend.’

Yelena is represented by Gersh / CESD Talent / Mattie Management

📸 IG: @yelena_friedman
💥 TIKTOK: @yelenafreidman
📺️ YOUTUBE: @yelenafriedman
🎞️ IMDB: Yelena Friedman

MEET YELENA

WHAT IS THE MOST INTERESTING FACT ABOUT YOURSELF? 🤙 

I am a pretty self-driven person. I don’t necessarily know if that’s a fact, but it is true. I taught myself how to swim and ride a bike and how to play guitar. I like a challenge.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN LOS ANGELES? 🏄️ 

I have been in Los Angeles for four years now, after moving back here in 2021. But I was born in Studio City and I lived in Studio City for a couple of years when I was younger. 

WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND? 🎤 

I come from a family that is very musically and theatrically charged. 

My mom is an actor, and she writes, and my dad was a lyricist for a while, and he also writes, and my brother is an actor. My whole family loves theater, and we love to perform. 

There’s that joke of parents being like, ‘I want my kid to be a doctor, I want my kid to be a lawyer,’ but my family was like, ‘You’re going to be an actor. You’re going to perform.’

My parents understand how hard our industry is, and from the beginning they knew that I would have to have thick skin, that I would have to be able to stand up for myself and continue to grind and work because there is a lot of rejection. But ya gotta do what you love! 

But for the majority of my childhood, I lived in Portland, Oregon. And I knew from about third grade onward that I wanted to be an actor, starting with the first school play that I was ever in where I was a leprechaun. 

I remember that school play and just the feelings that I had, I knew that I had to pursue acting for the rest of my life. I was such a nerdy little gal about it. 

I went to a couple of different acting conservatories like Neighborhood Playhouse and AMAW, and started doing both comedy and improv when I was really, really young. 

Academics have never been my thing, I really, really struggled with just passing math. Really the only thing that kinda kept me afloat in high school was doing theater, choir, and acting because those were the things that I loved the most. 

My mindset in high school was to just get through these next four years, and after I graduate, I am going to have the opportunity to do what I love every single day. And I will never have to do math again. 

After I graduated from high school, I moved to New York to pursue acting. And in New York, I ended up uploading videos to TikTok during quarantine and this is when things started to happen for me.

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GOING VIRAL X ANXIETY

VIRAL ON TIKTOK 💥 

My first videos on TikTok during quarantine were me just simply parodying stuff, but I created a character that really set everything off named, ‘Gazelle.’ 

Gazelle was this popular girl, but also mean girl,  and has a really distinct weird voice. And those videos of Gazelle just really blew up. 

I was stoked making those Gazelle TikTok videos during quarantine. It was my fresh breath of air because I like to act, I like to be funny, and quarantine was so devastating for us all, so.. making those videos was the light of my day at the time. 

My family got involved in the TikTok videos, and I was able to make a YouTube series off of these characters that I had created during quarantine. And it was crazy to me that  all of the sudden, people wanted to see these videos which were usually just me being silly with my family. 

I knew that these videos simply made me laugh, which is why I originally started to upload them. I didn’t necessarily know if these TikToks were going to make anyone else laugh, but I thought, ‘why not just put it online?’

And that was a cool feeling to see the engagement, and if anything, made me feel like I was able to be myself, I was able to have more confidence because I always felt like a very, very weird, very outgoing kinda goofy kid. But creating and uploading these videos has shown me confidence that I might not have found elsewhere and a community of people who have the same sense of humor as me which is truly such a gift. 

But I stopped doing TikTok for two years because I have severe anxiety. 

All of the likes and everything really got to my head and it was really hard for me to find the enjoyment in making funny videos. 

I was so worried about how I look to other people, or this or that, so I stopped doing it. 

But then my dad gave me some words of wisdom, ‘Yelena, you know lightning doesn’t strike twice. Try to fight this.’ And so I did, I got back on TikTok with a new account and uploaded more character videos and then I started posting, ‘What Girl,’ videos, which again, went viral and started to change everything. 

But taking a long break from social media allowed me to come back with more confidence. The only thing that I can put out into this world is stuff that I think is funny and the stuff that I like. 

I now have an online community, not followers, of people that have the same sense of humor that I do. And this is exciting and just feels very awesome.

ON ANXIETY 💜 

Creating these characters have also helped ease my anxiety. There is a freedom within these characters and videos that I create. 

But also having my own personal life offline, that not everybody gets to see, also helps a lot with my anxiety. 

I do not think I have ever shared this in an interview, but I recently started taking medication for anxiety and it has been a game changer. It has truly helped. 

Anxiety is very debilitating, and really scary at times. I think being able to take my anxiety, and turn it into something funny, has always helped me. I always wonder, ‘How can I make the best of this really weird situation?’ And that’s where I am able to take these weird anxious thoughts and turn them into characters.

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AUDITIONS, COMEDY

ON MEETING WITH FIRST ACTING AGENCY 🤝 

While I was living in New York, I had the opportunity to meet with this one agency that I wanted to have signed me. And I remember I wanted them to sign me, so bad, like the entire time that I was meeting with them I was shaking. 

And the agency just said straight to my face, ‘no, we’re not interested.’ Cut two: I ended up signing with another agency because they saw the reach that I was having on TikTok, and soon enough, I found myself relocating from New York to Los Angeles. It has been very rewarding, such a really awesome feeling.

ON FIRST AUDITION  🚀 

My first audition ever when I was like.. 15, was for Walmart,  and they were looking for a mother-daughter duo. They were casting for a Valentine’s Day or Easter campaign if I can remember correctly. 

I remember getting paired with my ‘mom’ and I was given a little script. 

‘Hey Mom, isn’t this fun?’ where my pairing partner would respond with, ‘It’s more fun with you, kiddo.’ 

I memorized my lines as hard as I could, I was so excited, and I was so nervous and shaking, all at the same time. 

But then the casting director asked me to improvise a scene, and I love improv. My pairing partner, my ‘mom,’ asked, ‘So what do you want to do on Easter Sunday?’ 

And I couldn’t think of anything, I think I was just like, ‘eat,’ and my ‘mom’ then asked, ‘Well, what do you want to eat?’ And I said, ‘eggs.’ 

The casting director stopped me in the middle of the casting appointment and simply said, ‘thanks so much!,’ and the audition was over. 

Then the woman who played my mom literally yelled to everybody in the hallway, ‘This is her first audition!’ Everyone in the hallway and nearby offices applauded, so it was a cute memory from my first audition.

ON COMEDIC INSPIRATIONS 🎤  

The first person that I really ever looked up to was Tina Fey. 

I remember seeing 30 Rock and just being like, ‘holy shit!’ It was so cool, at such a young age to see a female character who didn’t really have it all together but was such a boss. Tina’s character was hot, she was smart, and she was the leader. Her character was this kind of goofy gal, just relatable, and so gorgeous.

I also love Amy Poheler, Kristin Wiig, Vannesa Bayer, and Cecilie Strong. But 30 Rock was a game changer, it was life changing for me. 

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YELENA X LA

WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES? 🐶 

I have a dog, so I like to take her on hikes around the city. I also play guitar, sing and play piano. So I try to practice and all of that good stuff. 

But most of the time, I am with my friends being silly, goofy, making videos and just goofing around the town. 

WHAT ARE YOU READING/WATCHING? 📺️ 

I have been watching Severance. I’m just obsessed. It’s so good, and the acting is insane. I just have so many questions. 

I just finished a rewatch of Russian Doll on Netflix and I am now rewatching Dexter all the way thorough. 

PHRASE/MENTALITY THAT YOU TRY TO LIVE BY? 🧠 

Why not try? 

I think that a lot of my personal success has come from not being afraid to fail or look stupid. I know that I am not going to book everything, every audition, or every project.

FAVORITE MORNING HANGOUT SPOT IN LA? ☕️ 

Easy: a coffee shop called Tortoni Caffé (Sherman Oaks).

Everyone who works at Tortoni is insanely kind, and so sweet. The coffee and food are so good.

FAVORITE EVENING HANGOUT SPOT IN LA? 🍷 

For food, there’s a place called Homestate that I really like. 

And then if I’m going to get drinks with a friend, then probably Mr. Furley’s. And then there’s a really cute little winery called Vintage Wine (Studio City) that me and my gal pals go to for girls night. 

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE LOS ANGELES? 🤙 

I would say that Los Angeles is a wild, little crazy town that I love.

HOW WOULD LOS ANGELES DESCRIBE YELENA FRIEDMAN? 🤷‍♀️ 

Probably a wild, little crazy girl. 

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