My journey to audiobooks has been filled with the unexpected, but that's what makes for a great story. It begins in Salvador, Brazil where I was born, then works its way up to Seattle where I lived for thirteen years. Between high school in the Pacific Northwest, and dropping out after tenth grade to start college in the Berkshires, I became so many of the things I'm known for: a fountain of summer camp counselor energy, a prolific Google Maps reviewer, and an admirer of media from Moonlight to Fortnite, One Piece to Children of Blood and Bone.

Along the way, I learned to knit, had an eleven-year stint as a vegetarian, and even discovered that there are waterbeds custom-made for cows. After jumping through majors like architecture and ceramics, I finally focused on psychology and biosocial studies (biology + sociology) and went on to write my thesis on queer identity development.

Even after I graduated and accepted that being an academic wasn't for me, I stayed in higher education working in diversity and equity before becoming a recruiter. I found even more loves in those six years, like building complicated spreadsheets, running workshops, and perhaps my favorite: mentoring.

It was in the quiet and contemplative evenings of the early pandemic that I found audiobook narration, and I've been performing ever since. Across dozens of titles, I've found my footings in genres as disparate as space opera and contemporary young adult romance. I've hurt and grown and loved alongside my characters in delectably written literary fiction and epic fantasy alike. Even when the story is different, the journey is always the same: I'm on a mission to fall in love with my books.

Beyond the road I took, being Black, non-binary, an immigrant, and a Gen Z elder has profoundly shaped how I've interacted with the world. Seeing the intricacies in my own stories has left me attuned to how I tell the stories of others. Even when I don't look or sound like my characters or writers, I'm telling stories with love and empowering other actors to do the same. I've done this by serving as a mentor in the Audio Publishers Association, by serving on the Recognitions and DEI teams in the Professional Audiobook Narrators Association, and I'm forging a path to do this as an audiobook director. I found a love for stories in audiobooks, and I found a beautiful community among audiobook narrators.

So, maybe the next time you've got an intricate protagonist, tricky prose, a grand conspiracy across the universe, or just a teenager falling in love... maybe I can help tell your story.