Top 6+ Creatives On How They Forged Their Dream Careers

These people make a living from their passions, we asked them how.

Lake Kelly

Image: ELLE Lake Kelly wears Coach jacket, $1,295, dress $695, bag $995 and shoes price on application and her own jewellery and socks

“Pragmatism meets fairyland” is how the therapist turned harpist Lisa Tran Kelly — aka Lake Kelly — describes herself. “My parents valued academia and stability, which meant I never really came into my own artistry until I had ticked some pragmatic boxes first,” she says. Alongside her studies, Kelly grew up painting and playing piano, but everything she did was with the goal of learning to play the harp. “Making art has always been a quiet angel on my shoulder,” she says. ‘My path has always lead like a Zelda quest towards the harp.” In 2021, she built her own instrument and began experimenting with recorded soundscapes. “The harp became my way of expressing what words couldn’t… music and art create portals, escaping into a different tie, different feelings, different worlds.”

Tim Commandeur

Image: ELLE Tim wears Coach jumper, $450, jeans, $450, bag $895 and his own jewellery

Tim Commandeur can thank Myspace for fuelling his career in music. In 2006, when he was 15, his band Operator Please got their big break online. “It allowed us to drop out of high school, write a couple of albums and tour the world for six years,” he says, not to mention win an ARIA. After the band went their separate ways, he became a “drummer for hire” and has played with Genesis Owusu, Tkay Maidza, King Princess and Dua Lipa, to name a few. He’s currently playing with the pop duo Royel Otis, and he produces his own electro/big beat, ’90s-inspired music as Channings. “On stage I love the push and pull of energy between the band and crowd,” he says. “There’s a friction that grows and reaches moments of ecstasy. It’s so special and unique.”

James Majoos

Image: ELLE James wears Coach T-shirt, $195, shorts $750, bag $1095 (keychain POA), and shoes, POA, socks stylist’s own

If you ask James Majoos what he does for a living, chances are he’ll lie. “It’s easier,” he says. “Saying ‘I act’ feels way too intimate — like admitting I believe in crystals. In the wrong crowd, it’s just asking for trouble. Usually, I say something vague, like ‘I work in film.’ If someone recognises me on the street, I tell them I’m my twin brother. I don’t have a twin brother.” Chances are you would recognise him thanks to his star-making turn on Netflix’s Heartbreak High. Majoos was always destined to perform: “As a kid, I’d make up characters and speak in random accents for weeks at a time,” he says. “My parents put me in theatre classes. That’s where I found my people — we’d compete to see who could tell the wildest story or do the best impression.” And even if he does lie to your face, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t love his job. “I love what I do, though. It’s strange and fleeting, full of the best kind of chaos,” he says. “Oh, and I do kind of believe in crystals now. That’s new. I’m still figuring it out.”

Amy Crowther

Image: ELLE Amy wears Coach T-shirt $225, skirt $750, bag $1095 (keychain POA), shoes POA, socks stylist’s own

“There’s not much that doesn’t inspire the painter Amy Crowther. “I paint things I find funny or attractive,” she says. “Lots of my inspiration comes from books like Half Asleep in Frog Pyjamas by Tom Robbins, old housewife magazines, writers like Roald Dahl, the Cardigans and the Kinks. Subtle contradictions and people with a cheeky sense of humour.” Crowther says art was the only thing she got good grades for in school, but it still took a while for her to pay attention to her talents. “I’ve been painting properly for six years; it takes a while to take yourself seriously, and I’m still on my way there,” she says. The thing she likes best about painting is “seeing an image develop — it’s such a nice thing to see how your hands translate your thoughts.”

Maina Doe

Image: ELLE Maina wears Coach dress $1095, bag $795 and her own jewellery

Maina Doe has only been a solo musician for six years, but her style and skill are of someone far beyond her years. She’s made a name for herself as a singer-songwriter whose music is a melting pot of influences: old-school R’n’B and neo-soul infused with influences from her Somali-Indonesian heritage. She started out as a backing vocalist before taking the leap to fly solo in 2019. “Music has become my home, my medium and my life saver,” she says.

Luke Hayward

Image: ELLE Luke wears Coach jumper $595, shorts $350, bag $895 and his own jewellery

If you ask Luke Hayward what he does, he’ll simply say “dance”. But delve deeper, and he’ll tell you it’s actually “a collision between music and body, where something intangible becomes physical. Dance, for me, is the output of everything happening in my life … it’s about translating life into movement.” Before he joined Sydney Dance Company six years ago, he studied and worked in Germany, France and Russia. Behind the scenes, Hayward is studying a master’s of management at UNSW, with the aim of working in arts management to support the industry well into the future. Hayward will perform in Somos in Melbourne from March 13 to 23 and Sydney from March 27 to April 6.

Shoot credit:

Talent: James Majoos, Maina Doe, Lake Kelly, Amy Crowther, Luke Hayward, Tim Commandeur @jmajoos @maina_doe @lake__kelly @boogiephantom @lukas.hayward  @timcommandeur

This story originally ran in the March issue of ELLE Australia