BIO
If there's anything to know about Krystle Tugadi, it's that she takes great joy in being a storyteller. A theatremaker, screen actor, writer, musician, teaching artist, content creator, painter, and producer — she believes art is for everyone, and that the best things in life happen when we gather together.
Rooted in the richness of her Filipino-American experience and a deep love for community, Krystle creates work that asks us to remember who we are, where we come from, and how much we need each other. She is the founder of Balete Roots, a matriarchal-centered arts collective where artists of all disciplines share their gifts through accessible workshops, classes, and events, and The Golden Collective, an arts enrichment initiative bringing creative joy to senior citizens. Both are extensions of something she has known since she was a child — creativity heals and everybody deserves a seat at the table. And if there isn't one? She'll build it herself.
Her platform The Food That Fed Us is a cozy corner of the internet where food is never just food. It's the songs that raised us, the recipes that came without strict measurements, the memories we didn't know we were making, and all the little moments that fed our souls long before we had words for them. Come hungry, leave fed.
In 2024, she brought her one-woman show space exploration because SPACE EXPLORATION because sPaCe eXpLoRaTiOn!!! to the Hollywood Fringe Festival which sold out and earned an HFF StageCrafts Select Award nomination and a spot in the Spotlight Series along the way. The show is a love letter and a reckoning, exploring colonization, imperialism, and patriarchy through the lens of the Filipina-American experience with humor, heart, and a whole lot of herself.
She also wrote Our Heavy Doors, published in the anthology Kuwento (Kuwento Co., 2023) — because apparently one creative outlet is never enough.
For four seasons, she co-hosted and co-produced the MeSearch Podcast, carving out space for emerging Filipino-American leaders to tell their stories and spark the conversations the community needed but hadn't always known how to start.
A musician since before she can remember, Krystle released her self-produced EP Time in 2011, has headlined stages from the Ford Amphitheatre to the Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture, and once opened for R&B star Miguel at the Viper Room.
She holds an M.F.A. in Acting from CalArts and a B.F.A. in Theatre Arts from CSU, Dominguez Hills, and is currently completing a Teaching Artist Certification through the UCI Continuing Education Department. With over 10 years of experience bringing arts programming to communities ranging from classrooms to affordable housing communities to senior centers, she shows up to every room with her whole heart, ready to make something together.