Ninth guest on Actsiders, Riza Takahashi is from Itami, a provincial town in the South of Japan. A dancer, singer and actor Riza is a gifted multifaceted artist. From an early age, she was set on one goal: Broadway. And nothing would stop her.

At 16, she leaves her hometown and move to Canada to learn English. Despite the language barrier, she powers her way through highschool and enrolls at Hartford University within the musical theatre department. Since then, she has performed in a great variety of musicals from "Mamma Mia!", "Les Misérables", "King and I" to "Spamalot" - a hilarious adaptation from the 1975 film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".

As she tells me in our conversation, the journey has not also always been easy. You will hear us talk about her struggle with the language, the highly demanding training she received in Japan, the pros and cons of being a very specific type in this industry, but also her unwavering determination, and passion for coffee!

As a matter of fact, Riza has become a savvy coffee drinker, she now writes for a Japanese company and has a very popular Instagram account where she relates her coffee adventures. Listen to her give her top 3 NYC coffee shops.Don't miss out her beautiful performance at the end of the show. She interprets with her ukulele a song from Miyazaki's "The Cat Returns".

Look out early 2018 because you will be able to catch her on BROADWAY!

Actsiders was recently featured in Queens Courrier and LIC Courrier, you can read the article here: http://bit.ly/2fdTOlW

Follow Riza:facebook.com/riza.takahashi.3instagram.com/rizatakahashi/twitter.com/rizatakahashi?lang=fr

Riza's Instagram about coffee:instagram.com/coffeenyc_riza/