MULTI-CREATIVE STORYTELLER
On a Mission
Denesa Chan (she/they) is a professional weirdo telling impactful outsider stories.
As a quirky, open-hearted, queer, neurodiverse, non-binary, mixed-race Chinese girl from a Los Angeles Latinx community who immigrated to Aotearoa New Zealand (Say that three times fast!), Denesa is drawn to outsider stories, especially dramadies that tap into heights and depths with nuance. Bonus points if they're also Sci-Fi/fantasies. Raised among love, play and violence, she's seen some of the best and worst of humanity, which lit a fire in her belly to help make our world more inclusive by telling stories that reflect more of the people and places in said world.
Often an outcast among outcasts, Denesa is drawn to themes of belonging, power, and the majestic in the mundane through their work as a critically-acclaimed actor, an award-winning dancer/singer, an award-winning film producer, an award-winning nature photographer/cinematographer, a script consultant to award-winning films and a published writer and screenwriter who enjoys leading mindful movement workshops. She has performed internationally on 5 continents, and their work has been seen on the SyFy channel, ABC, ABC Family, CBS, MTV’s CMT, in national and international ad campaigns, in several award-winning films and at over 100 film festivals worldwide.
Some of her most meaningful experiences include working with unhoused war refugee children in Guatemala, saving lives in an armed conflict in the jungles of Mexico, and who can forget acting under a pile of live biting mealworms poured head to toe? Living. The. Dream.
Updated website coming soon
On a Mission
Denesa Chan (she/they) is a professional weirdo telling impactful outsider stories.
Growing up as a weird tiny open-hearted queer neurodiverse non-binary mixed-race Chinese girl in a Los Angeles Latinx community who became a bi-hemispheric immigrant to Aotearoa New Zealand (Say that three times fast!), Denesa is magnetized to powerful outsider stories, especially abusurdly profound dramedies and psychological Sci-Fi fantasies. Raised among love, play and violence, she got the best and worst of humanity. By honing her creative voice, she learned her power is in revealing uncomfortable truths through art.
A prolific multi-creative, Denesa wrestles with themes of individuation, power, social/eco-justice, (dis)connection and seeing the majestic in the mundane through their work as a critically-acclaimed actor, an award-winning dancer/singer, an award-winning film producer, an award-winning nature photographer/cinematographer, a script consultant to award-winning films and a published writer and screenwriter who enjoys leading mindful movement workshops. She has performed internationally on 5 continents, and their work has been seen on the SyFy channel, ABC, ABC Family, CBS, MTV’s CMT, in national and international ad campaigns, in several award-winning films and at over 100 film festivals worldwide.
Some of her most meaningful experiences include working with unhoused war refugee children in Guatemala, saving lives in an armed conflict in the jungles of Mexico, and who can forget acting under a pile of live biting mealworms poured head to toe? Living. The. Dream.
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On a
Mission
What if we could disrupt busy as a status symbol and replace it with adventure, connection and wildness? What if we could bring nature’s beauty home and be inspired any time? What if we could breathe easy, knowing that as we take care of ourselves, we’re taking care of the planet?
These were the questions that inspired me to create museum-quality, eco-friendly wall-sized prints that protect the planet.
Come Home
Each image is hand printed on recycled aircraft aluminum, with 4 times the durability of paper prints and a fraction of the environmental footprint. And, with each print purchased, you're helping to ensure that the most important and beautiful places on the planet are protected.
Meet Denesa
Internationally acclaimed, multiple award-winning
filmmaker turned award-winning nature photographer
Two and a half years ago, I had a successful career as an internationally award-winning independent film producer, but I was burnt out, averaging two hours of sleep a night and felt trapped by the hectic pace of my life. The well of joy I once felt from working on films ran dry, and I felt like a zombie running a marathon. My health began to decline, and I had insomnia and debilitating migraine headaches. Something had to change.
I finished the projects that I had committed to and set aside 30 days to do nothing other than meditate, write, sleep in and listen to what my inner artist was yearning to do next.
That was the month that became my life.
My intense soul-searching led me North.
In two weeks I saw the Northern Lights for the first time on the plane to Iceland. As soon as the icy air kissed my cheeks, I felt completely at home, held by the beauty and grace of the landscape.
I had grown up with a camera in my hand, having been raised by a single dad who was courted by National Geographic while in high school. His poverty-stricken parents forbade him to go into the arts, so my engineer dad passed his love and knowledge of photography into my eager hands.
Photography was a constant companion that had held my hand throughout my entire life. It gave me the visual aesthetic in filmmaking that I credit with my success.
Once I held a camera under that glowing sky, capturing the aurora dancing off icebergs, I was struck by pure joy. Everything about it felt right, and there was no turning back.
My life was suddenly expansive, filled with the sweet, wild infinitude of bliss that came with truly experiencing the delicious details of nature and collaborating creatively with her.
I longed to share this feeling with my friends, family and larger tribe, and I wanted to make a positive impact on the world.
Denesa Chan Photography grew organically out of these experiences and desires.
Through high-quality eco-friendly, limited edition photographs made from recycled materials, I inspire people to embrace life’s wildness, fall in love with nature and build a sustainable planet.
Each sale raises awareness and resources for a specific environmental project around the globe, which is tied directly to the ecosystem in the photo. The end result is to foster not only a deep respect and sense of awe for the natural world, but to see the tangible ways in which we are connected to that world and empowered to care for it.
BEVERLY HILLS OUTLOOK
Unconventional....
Sophisticated...
Very strong.
BACKSTAGE
Powerful...
Vivid...
Inspiring
INDIA METROPLUS
[Denesa] reaches to a primordial place, a depth of human feeling that is more the province of music, voice and movement than of words.