Jasmin Torres

Jasmine’s love for acting began in 2003 when she took an intro to theatre course just for fun and was nudged into auditioning for the theatre department’s fall play, The Lion in Winter.

Taking her professor’s words to heart that it would be fun but hard work she devoted her Summer to prepping for the Fall audition. With knees knocking and hands literally shaking she auditioned and was cast into her first lead role, as Queen Eleanor.

Her next role was Titania in Midsummer Night’s Dream. Both roles garnered a Best Actress nomination, which she won. Her graduation loomed and with it came the “real world” but she did not give up on acting.

She went on to work for an entertainment agency that allowed her to inject her passion for acting into character roles for a variety of public and private events in Houston, Dallas and Austin. Longing for the stage, she joined a bilingual theatre troupe, without being bilingual!

Knowing that hard work, devotion and practice would help her achieve the troupes’ stage goals, she was able to fully participate in her first Spanish play, The Bride That Never Was. Jasmine was so impressed by the direction and training she received under the Spanish director that she asked to be trained by him. His work ethic stemmed from the fact that he himself had been trained by 1st generation Stanislavski and Brecht students.

What started as a one on one training program turned into a troupe of four. This one year intimate study included acting, voice, movement, drama, clowning and playwriting. While in training, she was offered the role of Priscilla in The Brush via Midnight Theatre Co. A play written about a normal lively girl with a psychosis that could only be “tamed” by her favorite brush. She followed up with the complex and tragic role of Jessie, in ‘Night Mother, which garnered her accolades from the theatre community and even inspired some audience members to participate in theatre!

From here she was offered an exciting opportunity to play Detective Tupolski in the The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh. A play typically reserved for all male leads. Being able to work and develop a character that is characteristically male was a welcomed challenge which she embraced with open arms and counts herself amongst the lucky few women who get to gender bend roles in contemporary plays. Once the run ended, she took a step back from the theatre world to re-focus her energies on training once again.

Her time with the four person troupe had ended; however, she continued her studies by auditioning for the first ever bilingual acting school founded through TBH. Her studies with the school encompassed the same fundamentals taught to her by her previous director but also combined the opportunity to stage and direct, with her fellow theatre mates, La Casa de Bernarda Alba in Spanish and English and an original musical, Viva Venezuela.

Viva Venezuela allowed Jasmine to choreograph a full dance routine from the stage play All That Jazz and teach it to her fellow actors for use in the musical as well. The courses also introduced the concepts and techniques for auditioning for film and television. Once Jasmine realized she could perform off the stage, she began auditioning for short films in Houston.

Her first short was Unhinged, directed by Sinai del Castillo, a senior film student at the Art Institute of Houston. Unhinged ended up with several accolades through the Art Institute. Since then, Jasmine has collaborated with a variety of directors for short films and short film contests in Houston. Her most rewarding experiences have been playing Leila in Turn Me On Dead Man and Mrs. Willis for Macho Metro Men (a comedic pilot).

Once the bilingual program ended, Jasmine continued to train with teachers in Houston and Austin in order to refine her on camera acting skills. One such class was an advanced acting class with Gary Chason. Gary told Jasmine that he felt that she was more than ready to have an agent and introduced her to Jeffrey Nightbyrd of Acclaim Talent. Since that meeting, Jasmine has been repped through the Acclaim Talent Agency. A believer that experiences shape your authenticity has an actor, Jasmine continues to train in and out of Houston. Some of her training workshops have included firearms, combat, dance and accent training.

Her last training trip was to Second City in Chicago for a two week intensive program which encompassed improvisation, improv for the actor, and sketch writing. Her experience with Second City opened her eyes to the opportunity to do more as a writer and improvisationalist. She continues to study improv and improve her writing through online collaborative sketch writing courses and regional courses. With her continued training, Jasmine hopes to produce her own shorts and sketches with other talented artists in the near future.

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