Video Model on the Journey to Success

Her thick, curly hair bounces as she walks on set. Make-up done, she looks the part- she outshines every other girl in the room. She stands next to rap superstar Drake. She belongs.

But Christa Elise Graziano wants to be more than “that girl from the music video.” She wants to be on the big screen.

Five years ago, Graziano started off at a call center. Her fellow co-workers and herself had been involved in a conversation about America’s Next Top Model. This led Graziano to Google about the show. Soon enough, she came across an ad on Craigslist.

“I didn’t know what Craigslist was,” says Graziano. “That was my first time seeing it, so I went on there and saw they had the ‘gig’ section and there are all these castings so, right away I’m submitting.”

Graziano got a response back from a magazine casting call and was introduced to Chris Royster, who later became her agent.

“I guess Craigslist is who I owe it to,” says Graziano.

In addition to modeling, Graziano has also appeared with a promotion team, on a radio station 1055, in her home town of Fort Myers. Being the “face of the station,” she mainly worked the hip hop and country stations. As a part of this team, she has showed her face in parties and parades and has even been involved with her community and fans.

Graziano needs to work consistently, as she currently lives off of her gigs. Graziano is all about remaining on track, she’d much rather wake up every morning and search every inch of the web to find a gig, than to have a nine to five as a second job to live off of.

“I’m working on branding myself, that’s something that I realized, looking back, that I may have lacked or slacked off on,” she said.

Graziano tends to find her own prize worthy gigs and refuses to settle for any more videos that don’t have definition to them. She uses the internet to her advantage, always on Model Mayhem, Craigslist and even joined a group on Facebook which always updates her on any gigs that may come up.

“I have a group of friends where we are all in the industry, so if there’s a casting, they’ll let me know and a lot of it is actually networking,” says Graziano. “They’re not playing, it’s definitely who you know.”

As a video model, Graziano has appeared in such videos like, Birdman’s “Money to Blow,” Young Money’s “Bedrock” and just recently Lupe Fiasco’s “B*tch Bad.”

“To be able to be that person to help convey that message [felt] good,” she said.

Graziano plans on more acting classes and workshops to sign up for and wants bigger roles in movies and television. She can see herself acting in a Tyler Perry movie or show.

When it comes to hosting events, she lets her personality shine. She has hosted in nightclubs in Miami such as Opium; she’s also helped judge for an agency, to look for talent as well as interview for magazine publications.

Although it seems as though much has come easy for this young talent, it hasn’t been all flowers and daisies. Graziano shares that along the way as she had been on the look for gigs, her friend and herself had applied to a gig to where they would be in a movie. Graziano was chosen instead of her friend.

“This set up a red flag for me; I’m very intuitive with my gut, but I figured I didn’t want to miss an opportunity so I checked it out anyway,” she said.

As she had read the script and acted out part of the scenes, she then realized that the script was more vulgar than expected. The casting had offered plenty money, but she knew that she would never stoop down low to make it; she explains that she was glad she walked away.

Graziano explains that she’s just an average girl when not in front of the lights and cameras.

“I’m a home body, I’d much rather stay in the house in a t-shirt and jeans,” says Graziano “I usually go out to clubs when my friends are hosting and need support, other than that I love lounges and happy hours.”

Her goofy personality opens up new doors and possibilities as she also comes from a great support system, her family. When she started off, her grandmother, she says, had constantly been nagging her to keep her clothes on and Graziano passes the same advice on to those young women who aspire to be in the same business.

“You don’t have to take your clothes off to be a model, there are other ways of doing it,” says Graziano. “Not all video models talk to the rappers, some, like me, look for castings and work hard to get in.”

Graziano has proven to be a hard worker and a smart one. She even hopes to one day write a book about her childhood and on, as it might be a great tell all, she leaves one anticipated on her up and coming activities. She has high hopes of climbing on board of the success train.

“Stay tuned there should be a lot more of me coming up,” says Graziano. “I’m in the middle of filming a movie called ‘The Caribbean Heist.’” “It’s an independent film but it’s my first. I plan to continue to keep trying to perfect what I am doing, I’ll get there.”