Alyssa Herzinger is an AuDHD actor, musician, writer, and COO of The Gorgeous Agency. Her work focuses on creativity, women's stories, and myth. You can sign up here for her newsletter, Creative Practice and to learn more about Alyssa’s verbal branding agency, Tonefolk, click here.

Where were you before you moved to London?
I initially came here in 2018 from the States to do an MFA in acting and musicianship. I stayed in England to work in theatre but I've shifted since the pandemic, as I think everyone in theatre has, and I've been doing a lot of freelance writing and project management. I'm also trying to keep a toe in the arts and write my own play while I'm here.

What have you been doing since the start 2024?
I played in a record-breaking concert! We played 26 hours and 20 minutes straight of music all by women and non-binary composers. It set the Guinness World Record for the longest stringed acoustic concert. I played music by Fanny Mendelssohn.

How did prepare to break a Guinness World Record?
I played a lot of piano! I've been studying Fanny Mendelssohn for five years: her life, history and her restricted career because she was a woman in the late nineteenth century. When I saw the opportunity for this show, I connected to Molly McCaan in the States, who is digitising all of Fanny's music, and I chose a few pieces that have never been performed before.

What do you do when life gets stressful?
I tend to retreat to my room because I always need that to be a safe, comfortable space where I know all of the sensory things I'm going to experience. I'll read and play musIc. Something I should do, and I find it very hard to get myself to do, is exercise. Even the idea of going out for a walk can be too overwhelming because there may be unexpected things happening.

How do you build a life that works for you with AuDHD?
It's always a work-in-progress. I shape my life in ways that I always have flexibility. I know I can't do an 8 to 5 job, Monday to Friday, so I've created my own work where I'm always in charge of my schedule. I work with clients that I really love and who appreciate [my need for flexibility and] that I'm good at doing lots of things for them.

Tell us about something you learned this week.

I've been learning Procreate on the iPad and it's really fun. An artist and graphic designer I know inspired me to take some drawing classes on YouTube, then I downloaded the Procreate app. It's great - you don't even have to be good at drawing lines because it fixes them all for you!

Curiosity Spotlight is an interview series where we spend five minutes with a Londoner who is making a positive difference in the world. Want to be featured? Get in touch.

You might also like