Reel Works Alumni Spotlight: Kelly Alfonso
Reel Works is proud to feature and spotlight powerhouse Hair and Makeup Artist, Podcaster, and Reel Works Alumni Kelly Alfonso! Kelly Alfonso was born on the island of Trinidad & Tobago in the West Indies. From a young age, Kelly has had her hands in pageantry and visual arts. Kelly studied Visual Arts at Cambridge University. With a B.A. from the University of West Indies, Cosmetology License from Empire Beauty School, and a career working in corporate America for a beauty brand, Kelly had a fine-tuned understanding of how the beauty industry runs and how to be a highly functioning successful woman. However, with all this, she still felt something was missing and that she wanted to find a way to share her accomplishments and express herself artistically.
During the Fall of 2022, her administrator from Empire Beauty School reached out to her about a Reel Works job training program called the IATSE Entertainment Industry Hair Stylist Program with Local 798. Immediately, Kelly felt that this was the artistic opportunity that she had been waiting for. She jumped at the opportunity and was accepted into the program, which ran from January 11th to April 23rd, 2022. The highly intensive and hands-on training exposed licensed hairstylists to opportunities available in the film, television and theatre industries and covered a variety of topics including period hairstyling, braiding, understanding lengths and textures, wig preparation, and much more. Every week, students were introduced to individuals in the hair and make-up field who provided career advice on working in the Entertainment Industry. This program also connected Kelly with her awesome mentor David Brian Brown, who has elevated her styling techniques and taught her how to navigate the industry successfully. Kelly graduated from the program successfully and trained under David tenaciously. She is currently the Hair/Make Up Artist for Disney's Aladdin on Broadway, Equity/Diversity/Inclusivity Ambassador for Disney, and a proud IATSE 798 union member.
In addition to all of this, Kelly launched the Center Stage Beauty Podcast in the Summer of 2022. The podcast is about shifting paradigms and breaking down barriers in beauty within the Entertainment Industry. Cultivating information for their viewers and listeners, the Center Stage Beauty Podcast is for any listener who wants to take control of their beauty and health regimen, learn from creative voices in the industry, and get motivation and advice on how they too can skyrocket their career in the hair and makeup fields within the entertainment industry. At the core of it, Center Stage Beauty Podcast hopes to bring light to underrepresented voices and stands by inclusion in the forms of gender, race, ethnicity, LGBTQIA+, age, disability, and more.
We’re so proud of our Alumni Kelly Alfonso! You can tune in to the Center Stage Beauty Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Play, iHeart Radio, and ACast.