unspecified-8Mitch Westphal, 28, is an actor who moved to Los Angeles in 2010 from his hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He starred as the male lead in 2014’s My Name Is Vivienne, winner of Best Debut Feature at Canada’s Female Film Festival.

Mitch recently wrapped up work on Writer’s Block, a horror film that is expected to hit festivals later this year, and begins work on another feature in June; details are under wraps. His most recent release, Her Ring (2015), saw Mitch in his first leading role: an illustrator tortured by hallucinations after his pregnant wife is found in a coma.

Before moving to LA, Mitch attended a small college in Illinois where he played basketball and studied marketing. About a week after his last game, he felt inspired to pursue his dreams and decided he would make it in Hollywood.

For his continuous success, Mitch thanks his family back home. “I came out here with no money and nowhere to live,” he told us after our shoot. “I knew nothing about the city or the industry. I literally had to figure everything out as I was doing it.” When he told his family that he wanted to move on such short notice, they were nothing but supportive. Even though they had never seen him act, they trusted his decision and did everything they could to make it an easy one. Four years later, Mitch invited them to a screening of My Name Is Vivienne.

“They never saw me act before,” Mitch tells us. “I thought, ‘if this sucks and I suck, this is going to go south.’ We showed the movie, and the audience clapped, they laughed, and they stood at the end. Seeing that and having my family there… That was probably the most inspiring moment of my life so far.”

My Name is Vivienne was picked up by IndieFlix, a streaming service for independent films. Watch the trailer below.

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