Faces of

Top lef: Vinelli looks up at the palm trees in the CSUN on-campus housing complex in Northridge, Calif. on Sept. 25, 2021.

Top Right: Vinelli with his cat Nyra in Southernwood Hall in Northridge, Calif. on Sept. 25, 2021.

Right center: Vinelli holds up his arms in anguish at his cat, Nyra, because she walked on the paper pumpkin he was working on at the Southernwood Hall in Northridge, Calif. Vinelli holds up his arms in anguish at his cat, Nyra, because she walked on the paper pumpkin he was working on at the Southernwood Hall in Northridge, Calif.

Bottom right: Vinelli tears large paper sheets at the resident mentor storage and craf room. Te paper will be used to craf a large pumpkin that Vinelli wants to place on his tree of accomplishments for fall.

Vinelli works on his notes for a possible flm in his dorm room in Southernwood Hall in Northridge, Calif. Vinelli spends his time thinking about script writing, helping students at CSUN grow as individuals and occasional building maintenance issues.

Aring light and a script is all Nestor Vinelli needs to bring his own stage to life inside the dorm rooms at California State University, Northridge. His cat, Nyra, becomes his audience.

Vinelli is a cinema and television arts major, the resident advisor for on-campus student housing’s Southernwood Hall, a U.S. Army veteran and an aspiring actor.

In his 11- year career in the military, Vinelli was never deployed.

“I’m happy about it because I didn’t have to go and see some of the things these soldiers have to see,” said Vinelli. “I have other ways I am supposed to help vets, by being a vet.”

Life’s unexpected twists led Vinelli to attend community college where he took a class which helped him become comfortable with speaking in public.

An unexpected decision to audition for a local Antelope Valley children’s theater show made things click for Vinelli. He decided on a performance based on a character from “There is a monster at the End of this Book,” Grover.

“In a Grover voice, I created this giant invisible book behind me and I turned the pages as Grover. I brought it to life,” Vinelli said.

Little did he know, this was a favorite book of the show’s director Jeffery Whitehouse. Whitehouse selected Vinelli to play the leading role.

“After every show we performed, these kids stood up and clapped their little lives out. Tons of little hands clapping at the same time,” Vinelli said. “Then you talk to them and they’re like, ‘you’re my favorite, you’re just like me, can I be an actor?’”

“And, I’m like, yes. You can be whatever you want to be,” Vinelli said.

This experience made Vinelli feel as though he had found what he was supposed to do with his life and career. A multitude of theater and acting opportunities followed.

However, Vinelli got the sense that he became a big fish in a little pond in the Antelope Valley theater scene. He needed to seek growth and opportunity elsewhere, which brought him to attend CSUN.

“I am a train engine, I am headed forward. If you want to attach on, cool. But if you hold me back, I will release the latch and leave you there,” Vinelli said.

Vinelli’s goal is to become eligible for the Screen Actors Guild, build his own production company to be on par with the big players in Hollywood, and write and act for television. His YouTube show “Opposites” aims to appeal to a broad audience by portraying underlying messages that unify communities.