The Journey
Hannah Ray comes from a small town in North West Florida and grew up with a father who had a driven passion for music. At a very young age, she found herself tagging along to her father’s band gigs in small bars and festivals where she could be seen dancing and singing to the music. For years, she watched as her father hustled to follow his passion for music while holding a full-time teacher/educator job just to support a wife and 5 children… What an inspiration. Little did she know how much witnessing his determination would impact her love for the arts later in life as she discovered who she was and what her own passions were. As Hannah got older she began showing an interest in dance and acting, so she expressed to her parents her desire to join classes and wanted to start learning. However, being the youngest in a large family, lessons were not a luxury her family could afford. And for that reason, Hannah had to get creative, the world became her stage. Her mother nicknamed her ”Ham” and always joked that she was always performing, dancing, and singing everywhere she went.
In her early teen years she was able to join her middle-school singing choir, but craved more. With full support and encouragement from her Mother, she braved auditioning for her High School Show Choir and Winterguard and made both the teams! But now, was faced with how they could afford them. She decided to get a job at 14 years old to help her parents in paying for the extra costs. Though it was tough to keep grades up while going to work and keeping such a busy schedule, without these experiences, she would have never realized the capacity of her love for the arts and how hard she would be willing to work to make it all happen.
Hannah’s dream is to have made a positive impact on someone’s life even if it’s just a handful of people. The biggest thing she hopes to share with people is to not let anything hold you back. Take those butterflies you feel in the pit of your tummy and learn to embrace them. Dive in headfirst, give 100 percent of what you can give at that moment, and be kind and gracious to those you work with. Because at the end of the day, you write your destiny. Just think back to the little child staring forward, wide-eyed at their dreams and future. Know that, though the road is tough to get there, it is possible to see your dreams evolve into a reality.
Flash forward a few years and she was in college singing and dancing on a full scholarship and even studied dance and music abroad over two summers in France and Italy. Her dreams were beginning to settle into a reality. In one of her live performances, a local Ballroom Dance Studio owner noticed her shine on stage and offered her a job as a competitive professional dancer and instructor, which she couldn’t refuse. She was able to travel the world again doing what she loved to do! She spent a total of 3 years teaching and competing before eventually becoming a part owner in her very own studio. Then 8 years later she decided it was time to go take her chances on something new. She wanted to experience living in a bigger place than that of the one-stop-light, dirt road town she was used to. So the search began.
She found herself auditioning at a Florida Theater Conference (that her voice teacher so eagerly talked her into doing) and received 7 callbacks and 3 of them from NYC. This conference was the first thing that set her brain into motion on planning her move away from Florida. She took the chance and booked a ticket to NYC and did some in-person callback auditions. A few months later, she received the phone call that would change her life completely. She was officially going to move to NYC and attend Atlantic Acting School on a partial scholarship.
Today, Hannah is a recent graduate of Atlantic Acting School’s Full-Time Conservatory. She lives In New York City and currently works as a film and theater actor, dances, and sings. She has recently taken to writing her own works and is looking forward to expanding her horizons in film and TV. Oh! She’s also a lead singer and guitarist in a band and plays music, just like she used to watch her father do when she was a little girl, and is now about to release her FIRST-EVER debut album in March of 2023!