- Born
- Birth nameBrianna Elyce Canillas
- No dream is too big or far fetched for this Los Angeles native, Bree Elise, born Brianna Elyce De'Canillas. Her family surname dates back to the early 1900s when her family migrated from Spain to the the Philippines and then finally settled to her hometown of Los Angeles, CA in 1918. They then dropped the "De'" from "De'Canillas" to give it more of an Americanized feel. You can say her family lineage is relatively new to the United States. Once Brianna was born, she took her family name change a step further and changed it from Brianna Elyce Canillas to Bree Elise to give it a more simpler ring for branding purposes and a twist of Hollywood's star quality. By the age of 5 everyone was calling her "Bree".
During preschool Bree gave a speech in front of her school's auditorium declaring her desire to become a nurse, little did she know a few months later she would forget the premature dream of becoming a nurse and would be found performing in numerous ballet recitals, holiday parades and training to become a professional figure skater. This began Bree's journey as a performance artist. Soon she reached a peak where many people were suggesting she become home-schooled and begin training for the Junior Olympics. Although she spent the majority of her time baton twirling, ice skating and training in dance studios she still had a passion for school and education. She decided to spend less time in the arts and focus her studies in school to becoming a meteorologist or archaeologist.
By time Bree entered high-school she still was engaged in her performance arts on the weekends and enrolled in drama class as an elective during the week. One of her classmates then asked if she wanted to audition for a paid gig on an MTV Show. Bree could not refuse the offer! This role she landed and then began a domino effect for her on-camera entertainment career, landing gig after gig as a dancer, actor and spoken word artist. Bree saw this as a great avenue for capitalization and making money while having fun. Since then she has worked for companies such as "Coca Cola", "Ecko Red", "21st Century FOX", "CW", "Warner Brothers", "Jimmy Choo", "BET", "Helmut Lang", "Phillip Lim", "Tri Destined Studios", "Oprah", "TiSA Vision", "James Perse"; and has worked with celebrities such as Kerry Washington, Naya Rivera, Ashton Kutcher, Eddie Murphy, Aubrey "Drake" Graham, Tika Sumpter and many more to say the least.
Being pulled on the battle of her more economical dreams to becoming a meteorologist, archaeologist and later a historian; and then on the flip-side being centrally located in the heart of Hollywood and somehow accumulating friends who all also worked within in the entertainment business, she consistently, easily and more conveniently found herself working in front of or behind the cameras of a movie, editorial and/or TV production.
Since then she has landed the attention of many agents, producers, writers, and directors who all encourage she stick to her natural path of working in the entertainment business. She honed her crafts and took their feedback to heart by sharpening her natural talents to detailing the technicalities with the masters of her skills. Starting first with fashion at "Fashion Institute NYC", second with the improv greats at "The Groundlings" in Hollywood, third, the highly sought after acting coach of Brad Pitt, Vil Kilmer, Salma Hayek, Tori Spelling, and Diana Ross (to name a few) "Howard Fine" at "The Howard Fine Conservatory", fourth with the well know casting director workshops by Craig Campobasso and last but not least she also studied alongside the undefeated dance talents Darrin Henson, Gene Anthony Ray and Wade Robson (to name a few) at the Edge Performing Arts Center and the Millennium Dance Complex in Hollywood. Also to mention, she attended the Archer School for Girls in Brentwood, CA alongside many high ranking celebrity's children, graduated high-school with a 4.0, attended Santa Monica College with the intents on transferring to the Harvard School of Divinity, completed cosmetology school, contributes her time annually to a charity called "HOPE Worldwide", and last but not least completed two externships working as an assistant recording engineer and Publicist to Celine Dione (under the senior Publicist Jacqui Chazen) and many other well known musical acts.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Youssef Grant
- SpousesJarrell Wingfield(June 6, 2009 - March 3, 2012) (divorced)James Lewis(February 14, 2008 - present) (1 child)
- Her trademark logo is two Brain Stems growing from one brain to form the letter B.
- Of mixed nationality: American, Bahamian, and Filipino.
- In her earlier years of childhood she trained as a professional figure skater and baton twirler. She has been performing in recitals and parades since the age of 5 years old. She took training courses in ballet, yoga, jazz, baton twirling and hip-hop to help her form, balance and technique in ice skating. Before she knew it she fell in love with the art of dance and traded her figure skates in for dance shoes. She has performed in many musicals, and dance teams such as the LA Spark Kids and has also choreographed shows for and danced alongside many recording artists signed to major labels such as Interscope, Universal and Warner Brothers in the United Stated and in Berlin, Germany.
- Before acting she aspired to work in music as a producer and in fashion as a "Creative Director". She worked as an assistant designer for "Jacqui Chazen Watches and Accessories" in Beverly Hills and also worked as an assistant publicist in the company's PR department. Shortly after she moved to NY and interned as an assistant publicist at a record label and worked in many showrooms and fashion week's as a wardrobe stylist with many of her editorial spreads published in well known magazines.
- Bree has also worked behind the scenes as a writer, choreographer, casting director, boom operator, lighting, camera woman, and director. She has also worked as a stand-in for years for many famous women in Hollywood. Some of the women she has worked for are Kerry Washington, Naya Rivera, and Mirtha Michelle to name a few. She has also landed roles in front of the camera where she is hired a stand-in of her own. She feels very lucky to know what its like working in front of and behind the camera lenses.
- She used to work as a seat-filler and talent escort for many awards shows since the beginning of age of 19. Some shows she has worked are listed as: "The NAACP Image Awards", "Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards", "The ALMA Awards", "The Grammy's", "The Teen Choice Awards", "The ESPY Awards", and "The BET Awards" to name a few; and she hopes to one day take an award home for herself.
- If you can say in seven words what most would say in a million, by all means do it!
- Work and Business are two separate things. Love is work. But love is not a business. You can have business in love, but you cannot have love in business. It doesn't work that way. Unless your a writer or an actor--even then that on screen love is love in art, and that is art that is in the business, not love.
- There are two types of people in this world: Deities and Entities; and then there's me.
- Love should not be viewed or treated as a business. In business you invest to gain a profit back. In love you simply pay for the moments/experience.
- When you view love as a business and it "fails" because it ended; and u did not see profit back---YOU are viewing it wrong. It's not a business, but an experience.
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