I keep a mental checklist of celebrities who make the time to pursue a secondary dream. I find it inspiring; the more passion you can bring out into the world, the better.
For example, actress Lucy Liu is an accomplished visual artist; the lead singer of The Offspring has a doctorate in molecular biology and is currently doing AIDS research; James Franco is always out there in the world doing a bunch of crazy Franco stuff.
But recently I added a very cool and badass entry to the list.
Actress Jessica Pimentel is probably best known for playing Maria Ruiz on the hit Netflix original series Orange is the New Black, but she has a few interesting side passions you might not expect. Notably, she is the lead singer for the Brooklyn-based heavy metal outfit (emphasis on the heavy), Alekhein's Gun. Seriously, check them out. She's very intimidating! But Jessica also swears that it's about energy, rather than destruction, and says that screaming growling lyrics are overtly Buddhist in nature (but good luck deciphering them.)
However, I was particularly tickled to discover that Jessica also has a prominent geek streak going back to her roots in Brooklyn. "I always had an interest in technology. I actually took my TV apart when I was four or five—and I put it back together and got it working—except Inspector Gadget's head was a little too big and didn't fit on the screen," Pimentel explained when she stopped by PCMag's offices to shoot an episode of our Q&A series, The Convo.
"I always went to specialized elementary and middle schools, so we always had access to computers, we had access to robots, we had access to mechanics at a very young age, so that's something that I've always loved and always had an interest in. It was a challenge, it was fun to me."
This interest almost led to a job in IT following a prolonged tech-support call. "I was on tech support with India for like 24 hours—we took a break and called each other the next day. That's how long it was. And 'Joseph' from India was like, 'this was a really good conversation and you were really good on the phone, have you ever considered becoming a Microsoft tech? There's training right near you. I'll send you a letter.' And every so often I get a letter in the mail saying 'it's never too late.'
"The last one I got was in the midst of trying for a lot of roles—and kept getting turned down. And I was sick of bartending, it was never something I wanted to do. And I was almost done and really considering if this is what I wanted for myself."
But, as it turns out, fate stopped her from joining the IT ranks and she was offered the role of Maria. This was a super fun and wide-ranging interview about acting, METAL, tech (we hated on Apple a bit), and so much more! We all fell in love! Check it out in the video above.
The Convo is PCMag's interview series hosted by features editor Evan Dashevsky (@haldash). Each episode is broadcast live on PCMag's Facebook page, where viewers are invited to ask guests questions in the comments. Episodes are then posted on our YouTube page and available as an audio podcast, which you can subscribe to on iTunes or the podcast platform of your choice.
Relax OITNB's Jessica Pimentel: Surprisingly Geeky and Metal A.F. stories
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