By Lizeth Tello
Gavin Alton-James Bailey is a 20-year-old Sacramento County-based actor, fashion creative and amateur kickboxer who began his creative journey about two years ago.
Bailey grew up in Shingle Springs and always had a love for the arts, recalling how he had originally wanted to pursue fashion design while attending high school. He described his hometown as a very conservative area, where being an artist is difficult due to limited acting opportunities and a lack of community support.
“It was very difficult being an artist there, feeling accepted and feeling like I could stand out,” Bailey says. “It was hard. No one thinks that dream is real there.”
While attending Union Mine High School, Bailey decided he wanted to pursue his love of art but had concerns about the financial cost of attending fashion school, and considered potentially attending a community college to spend some time building up his credits and GPA to be able to transfer to fashion school. During that time, Bailey spent almost a year working in construction for Bonar Engineering before graduating in 2023.
Bailey recalled how the manual labor made him reflect on whether he wanted to continue working construction for the rest of his life. He found the answer was no, his mind constantly returning to fashion and the arts. While exploring that train of thought, a desire for acting popped up.
“I’ve always been interested in the fashion of actors or red carpet looks, and so I’ve kind of finally clicked and like, ‘Oh my gosh, what if I could do that?’” Bailey says.
Starting in July 2024, Bailey began taking acting classes at Studio 24 in Folsom, which focused on on-camera acting and scene study. He recalled how difficult it was for him to get accepted into Studio 24, considering he had no prior acting experience as of two years ago. One of his greatest struggles has been anxiety relating to his self-described status as a late bloomer.
“It’s always felt like I’ve had to do extra work just to feel like I belonged in the room because everyone had so many years [of acting] on me,” Bailey says.
Bailey’s acting focus is on on-camera roles for film and TV rather than local theater. So far, he has appeared in two films, with his self-proclaimed greatest achievement being his SAG-AFTRA eligibility status.
In summer 2025, Bailey played a supporting, non-speaking role in the film “DREAM” by Ben and Samuel Pauling. In fall 2025, he scored a part in “Double Trouble” by Selene Renee Scott-Femenella as a character named Riley; the film was played at that year’s J Street Filmfest.
Fashion-wise, Bailey recently completed a six-month fashion design management certification program at eCornell in November 2025.
Bailey also practices kickboxing and Taekwondo, which he has earned a black belt in. Though acting takes precedent in his life, Bailey admits to really enjoying athletics and feels that it acts as a good complement to his main career.
He says combat sports are very discipline-minded activities, which he feels artistic-minded people tend to lack and rely more on talent. To keep the spark alive, Bailey says he implements that mindset toward his acting and fashion.
“The greatest shortcut that I found is realizing that there are no shortcuts. The biggest shortcut is to get down and do the work,” Bailey says. “You have to trust that work is going to translate into something tangible.”
As Bailey’s journey progresses, he hopes to continue his creative endeavors, land an internship with a big fashion brand like b:SR or Armani and get signed to an agency in the San Francisco or Los Angeles area to get some proper representation. He also hopes to land a role in a nationally or globally-streamed film by the end of next year.
“I want to show people that are in a similar situation to me, or people who don’t think the arts or self expression is possible while being a career, and show them that it is possible,” Bailey says.