iCarly star Mia Serafino is taking full advantage of the beautiful Southern California climate to do some outdoor workouts. Serafino, 35, shared a picture of herself wearing workout gear and a yellow hat, posing on a hillside in the middle of a hike. The actress has been busy, filming iCarly with Miranda Cosgrove (who is also a bestie) and landing a role in a Suzanne Martin pilot. Here’s how Serafino stays focused in the highly competitive entertainment industry, and what makes her happy.
Serafino’s favorite healthy food is cobb salad, and she loves pasta and wine. When she’s not working she tries to be active. “I (try) to go to yoga. If I’m not working, I’ll usually have an audition or an audition to prepare for,” she told Naluda Magazine.
Serafino says acting gives you natural empathy. “I got home from set the other day and texted my mom something along the lines of ‘I can’t believe I get to do the most fun thing in the world as my job,'” she told Naluda Magazine. “We all get one life but when you’re an actor you get to live out all of these different stories and be so many different people. I think that’s why actors are generally empathetic people.”
Serafino took a chance on avoiding stand-in work to get her big break. “After I finished up standing-in and doubling on Oz; The Great and Powerful after my senior year of college, I moved to LA,” she told Voyage LA. “Slowly, I started to work my way up, deciding to turn down the safety of stand-in work so that I could focus on my own work. I started to get co-star roles, then guest stars, then recurring before landing my series regular job on an NBC sitcom called Crowded. It only went for one season but it was one of the most amazing times in my life and led to so many amazing opportunities for me here.”
Serafino says her journey to success has been bumpy—but worth it. “Someone once told me that everyone thinks an acting career is like a ladder–but in reality it’s more like a jungle gym,” she told Voyage LA. “Before I got my first series regular job, I was working so hard. One of my earliest auditions here, I didn’t prepare enough and it went terribly. My manager sent me the honest feedback from casting and it was not good. I decided that I never wanted to feel like that again, so I found a few acting classes and hunkered down for the next two years, working harder than I ever had before.
Serafino loves hiking on Los Angeles’ many trails. Hiking is a great low-impact exercise that positively impacts both physical and mental health. “In addition to having mental health benefits, being outdoors opens up your senses to your surroundings and improves your sensory perception,” says the National Park Service. “Taking in the sights, smells, and feelings of nature has so many health benefits it can even be prescribed by a doctor.”