All The Worlds A Stage - Bayoa Bio
Bayoa Salazar was born in the Philippines in a massive city, Manila. He is the oldest of four children and two younger brothers that are twins and one youngest sister, the youngest of the lot. Growing up in the Philippines at this point in time was no cakewalk. The government was constantly changing the education system and as their family was always on the cusp of poverty, the Salazars frequently found themselves wondering what they were going to do when their children reached secondary school and it was no longer free. Luckily things changed just by the time he approached that mark, which made Bay appreciate education so much more. Taking notice of his ability to memorize facts, his parents began to write little scripts for the children to perform for them. It was these small performances, where his parents showed him constant support, that he slowly became passionate about acting. Eventually, the children would set up plays at a nearby park on the weekends. It was a great source of additional income for their family because when they were younger the passersby thought it was cute and as the kids grew up they showed actual talent.
In high school, Bayoa was the only one of his siblings that decided to get involved in the drama department. At first, he would only work as a stagehand or an extra, not even bothering to audition. It wasn’t a crippling fear of performing but rather acting in front of people he actually knew. Eventually coaxed into it, he auditioned for the supporting role of Captain Hook. Much to his surprise, they asked him to play Peter Pan and he was both ecstatic and terrified! Being the lead helped Bay overcome his fears as well as set him off on a very determined path to be a stage actor. During his final year of high school, all Bayoa would talk about was the purity of performing on the stage and how sad it was that there wasn’t a bigger theater scene in the Philippines. Keeping in mind that the best places to pursue a theater career were London and New York City, Bayoa found himself wondering how, or if, he could create a well-respected theater company in Manila. Still, as graduation approached, he had been too busy with after school activities with the drama club to work and college was not going to be a viable option for his family.
On his eighteenth birthday, Bayoa was not expecting anything in the way of presents. He’d been out of school since May and it was close to Christmas, which meant that money was tight so that they would be able to have a nice meal. All he wanted was to see his family all together again. With everyone busy with school and jobs it felt like that hadn’t been a thing for quite some time. As soon as he walked through the door when he came home from work Bay heard an enormous shout of ‘surprise’. The Salazars had pulled in the entire neighborhood into a birthday party for him. At the end of the party, when he’d expected everyone to start leaving because there were never presents, he received a final surprise. His family gave him a ticket to Los Angeles, California. They had been saving up for years to send him there. Feeling like it was a place his talent could properly be recognized without him being too far from home, they hadn’t told him in case they couldn’t save enough.
Though Bayoa felt blessed and left his family, he wasn’t nearly as optimistic about achieving his dreams. The first thing he did upon arriving was finding a full-time job working construction, as it was the highest paying job a non-citizen could get. That was the next thing he worked on, saving and applying to become an American citizen because he knew it would be easier to travel as well as stay in the country. Though his original plan was to make his way to New York City, he started acting classes and kept doing little street skits. Eventually, he was pointed in the direction of the Downtown LA Theater Company that was buying out and revamping the theaters in Los Angeles. With his experience in construction and his talent in acting they took him on. Now, Bay lives comfortably in Los Angeles, making enough money to send some to his family and still build a savings for himself. He is a successful theater actor and is generally cast as the lead. His comfortable life was short-lived when his sister came to live with him but he was happy to have a bit of home stateside.
Over the years his bond with his little sister only grew in strength as they stuck together through complicated relationships, homelessness, prejudice and more. Now in his early thirties and no longer his sisters guardian Bayoa is looking to expand his thriving acting career into Broadway or even beyond.
