Christian Pereira, a junior at Franklin, spent most of his life living in Northern California with periodic residencies in Western Europe. Pereira moved to Portland in August 2017 and has since been an active participant in Franklin’s theater program. Pereira describes himself as stubborn, saying, “It could also be called dedicated, meaning if I set my mind to something, and I really want to accomplish it, I’ll do it no matter what.” Pereira demonstrates this mindset in everything he does, including one of his passions: acting.
Pereira has wanted to be an actor since taking an acting class his freshman year. Inspired by those around him, Pereira dedicated himself to developing skills in order to become as experienced as his new role models. He spent the beginning of his acting career memorizing monologues and watching his new peers perform. Eventually, being good-natured, and easy to get along with, Pereira made many new friends in the theater community. On a recent trip down to see his former peers’ showing of The Music Man, he shares, “They inspire me to become a better actor, they inspire me every day, and just being around them I learn so much about acting and myself and I can’t thank them enough.” Pereira has many aspirations for his life such as traveling the world, getting married, and becoming an advocate for environmental progress. But in the terms of acting, Pereira says, “I have one goal that I feel will measure my success, and that is that one day I am going to take my grandmother to the Oscars.”
Now Pereira finds himself in Portland, as a beloved participant of the Franklin theater department, after coming so far in the past year. He is proud of earning a lead role as Evelyn Oakleigh in Franklin’s spring musical Anything Goes—not to mention finding an agent and a paying acting job—during his past several months in Portland. Pereira has made a place for himself in the Franklin theater community and is taking promising steps towards his greatest aspirations. In his wise words, “You should do what you want to do with your life. Do you want to act? Do it! Do you want to study marine biology? Do it! Do you want to do backflips in space while listening to 80s funk? Do it! You should be taking the steps you need to accomplish the best life for you as a person.”
