in the beginning...

Ilona Concetta was born in foggy San Francisco to two smarty-pants biochemist parents. Her father made her memorize the phrase "quantum-mechanical discontinuity" at the age of 4, and by 6 she insisted on adding "gravity is temperature dependent". At 7 1/2, they picked up and moved to a suburb of Boston, where she spent the rest of her childhood and adolescence. She had already been bitten by the acting bug, and insisted on being a part of every school play and musical. She learned the superlative "wicked," and switched from dance to Taekwondo. She fell in love with the "Lord of the Rings" books, teaching herself rudimentary Quenya (high Elvish). She learned to sew and turned Halloween into her own personal cosplay day. A Japanophile, not content to sit in her room and watch anime, she took language lessons after school and spent a summer in Kumamoto with extended family. No, that's not outside of Tokyo, it's on another island. The only time spent in Tokyo was at the airport, where she talked to a Chinese Canadian heading home after being a translator for the Beijing Olympics. She went to Easter vigil with the Pope in Rome, and accidentally Gay Pride with her mother in Amsterdam. Also, she grew up with "Star Trek: The Next Generaton," so Picard is her captain.

TRAINING MONTAGE

Ilona whisked herself off to the big city for college. At NYU, she studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute and Stonestreet Film and TV Studios. She also took on a second major in Psycho-Linguistics, the study of how language is processed in the brain. Her penchant for phonetics led her to becoming a wizard at dialects. And yes, she speaks Spanish well, rudimentary Japanese, and enough ASL to take your order at a coffee shop. Godel's proof of the incompleteness of arithmetic blew her mind, She went through the intense Summer Training Institute at Shakespeare and Company. Teacher Name Drop Dump: Geoffrey Horne, Ted Sluberski, Vincint D'Onoffrio, Laura Savia, Mihal Zecher, Denis Krausnik, Jeanie Hackett. Having earned a 2nd degree black belt in Taekwondo by the end of her training, she transitioned that knowledge into stage combat, studying primarily under SAFD President J. David Brimmer. She found a passion for it, and has become certified in five styles, including being recommended in knife, unarmed, and broadsword techniques. In LA, she studied at UCB under Billy Merritt, Erin Whitehead, and Marissa Strickland.

This is Midnight. She bothers Ilona when she tries to sew.

THE HERE AND NOW

She moved to LA in 2015, and immediately formed relationships with The Loft Ensemble and Sacred Fools. She founded a TTRPG Stream with the group Flavor_Text, and taught herself to make polyhedral dice rather than sourdough over the pandemic. Check out the news for where to catch Ilona Concetta next!

twenty questions!

Here we go! Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and hear the twenty questions of Facebook Note's past! Here to answer them, our very own ILONA CONCETTA! Give her a hand, folks, she doesn't hear it that often. Okay, okay, that's enough, you're very kind.

What is your pet peeve?
Wow, Starting out a little negative aren't we? I'd say mouth noises. Like those noises people make when they're falling asleep, or trying to taste something really hard. That sound sends shivers down my spine like nails on a chalkboard.
Which website is your biggest time waster?
Imgur. No question. That site is visual and mental popcorn. I am guilty of not reading all of those walls of green text though.
What is your favorite book?
Currently? It's a toss up between "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon and "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss. I've never grown out of the fantasy genre.
What is your favorite movie to watch when you are sick?
"The Princess Bride." I have it completely memorized. My team took 2nd place in a trivia contest. Why 2nd? Because I didn't remember who was up at bat in the video game the kid is playing at the beginning, alright?! Plus, the other team was Googling.
Are you a cat person or a dog person?
Ah yes, the great divide of the internet. I grew up with dogs, I'm better with them, but I always consider myself a cat person.
Where's your name from? It's weird.
Uh, thank you thirteen-year-old girl named Jessica, how wonderful of you to join us! I prefer "unique." Ilona, pronounced "ee-loh-nah", is Finnish. It is a family name, it belonged to my great aunt, who was a badass lumberjack woman in upper Michigan. Concetta, pronounced "kon-seh-tah" is Sicilian, from my grandmother on my father's side. She came to Chicago as a young girl and lied to work in a sewing factory. The lack of child labor laws is actually the reason I'm alive.
Who was your first crush?
Erik (the Phantom) from "The Phantom of the Opera." He's a tragic character! I think if someone just showed him love, he would stop... murdering people... It was a crush, gosh darn it, don't read too much into it.
What is your treat at the end of a long day?
If I'm lacking human contact, I would like to get a close group of friends together and play a game, be it a TTRPG or one of the many board games we have. If I've had too much people, chocolate cake in a mug and watching "The Witcher" on Netflix.
What is your favorite impulse buy?
I have a mug that is twice the size of a normal mug with Batman on it. I drink coffee in it every morning, and tea in it every night.
What is your favorite thing to bake?
Whatever you want to eat, friend! Ha, ha, I'm best at cupcakes with fillings. I personally love red velvet with cream cheese frosting and a white chocolate ganache filling.
What's the most dangerous thing you've ever done?
In terms of personal safety, probably being thrown in the air doing acrobatic tricks at the New York Renaissance Faire. But I completely trusted the person catching me, so it didn't feel that dangerous. God Save the Queen!
Marvel or DC?
I loved "Batman: The Animated Series," "Batman Beyond," and "Teen Titans" growing up. But nowadays I'd say I'm more of a Marvel girl. “Wandavision” is a vision, and I loved “As If.”
If you could talk to one person in the afterlife, who would it be and why?
J.R.R. Tolkien, hands down. Because you KNOW he had more complex language changes figured out in his head that he just didn't write down. And more vocabulary for Quenya. Basically I just want to be fully fluent in Quenya and talk linguistics with a master.
How should we, as America, help end conflict in the Middle East?
I... I don't... next question? I'm not running for president here.
What's the most surprising thing about you?
My love of stage combat and martial arts. I come across as very shy and geeky. Not that I'm not those things. But people don't expect me to be able to kill them.
What is your favorite color?
Ah, the interviewer has become bored, or really likes Monty Python. It's rain! Weren't expecting that, were you! *deal with it gif*
All glory to the Hypnotoad!
All glory to the Hypnotoad!
What is your greatest strength and weakness?
My empathy. Totally sounds like an actor thing, I know, but I tend to internalize other people's emotions and try to fix their problems a lot. INFJ is my Jungian type. In short, don't tell me you're having a bad day unless you want an avalanche of tea.
What’s on your desk right now?
Uh, three different writing notebooks, an empty mug (I probably need more water) and my Crown Royale bag full of dice.
Oh thank gods it's over.
I feel you. Twenty might be too many questions.