Actress, filmmaker and yoga instructor Tamara Duarte settles down in Las Vegas
Love brought much-traveled actress Tamara Duarte to settle down in Las Vegas, the one city she visited briefly on her previous global jaunts. Her parents are Portuguese, but Tamara was born in Toronto, a first-generation Canadian, and moved to Hollywood. She worked around the world filming and as a children’s yoga teacher in Vietnam.
From watching, then appearing in folklore plays at Vitorio Setubal Community Club in Toronto, she caught the acting bug at an early age and starred in Nickelodeon’s “DeGrassi: The Next Generation.” Currently shooting Season 3 of “Hard Rock Medical,” Tamara also appeared in Stephen King’s “Haven” for SyFy and “Longmire” on Netflix.
Tamara made her movie debut in Daniel Radcliffe’s “F-Word,” starred in “Badsville” with Emilio Rivera, and “Bottom of the World” with Jena Malone is upcoming. Her success isn’t only in front of the camera. Behind the camera, she was associate producer of her first film, “Verona,” which won the Viewers Choice Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
When Tamara isn’t busy working in film or TV as an actress, director or producer, she spends her time practicing yoga. A year ago, she traveled to Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam to work with underprivileged children through Krama Yoga.
Today she travels from her new home in Las Vegas to Hollywood studios. “That was never the plan,” she told me. “It wasn’t in the books.” But love changed everything: Her husband, Gerald Pacheco, became director of operations for SBE, which runs Hyde Bellagio, and he came here to open Hyde at T-Mobile Arena.
“We were doing the whole back-and-forth thing for a while, and I decided to make the commitment and move here full time,” she said. “My team said, ‘No matter where you are, especially with technology these days, you can be anywhere for auditions.’ If there’s ongoing interest, I can immediately get to Los Angeles.
“I can be there within two hours. I grew up in Toronto, and my career flourished there first and foremost going from Toronto to L.A. I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything by moving to Las Vegas.
“It actually worked out for my benefit because the food, restaurants and chefs are so good here. I love writing about that and have been able to write more. I’m taking classes. It’s funny how things transpire: You can either go with it and see the best in it, or you can try to put the brakes on it and go do something else.”
Tamara lived in L.A. for four years before moving here. “My husband’s career hasn’t interfered with my acting career at all. The move just transpired. I also have a stepson, and we all just came to Las Vegas. It all happened very quickly,” she said.
“I’m loving Las Vegas. I only visited Las Vegas briefly four other times in my early 20s, but I never filmed here. I’ve got this acting bug, and I have this travel bug. Working with underprivileged children in Asia through the yoga classes began when I finished shooting the medical series. I was really burned out from work, and I just wanted to leave.
“My intention wasn’t to go there to help the children primarily. I wanted to get my yoga certification in children’s yoga. I am certified in prenatal and natal and children’s yoga, and I went specifically for my certification. I got certified, and my teacher asked if I wanted this job in Cambodia because I was certified in Vietnam.
“Another Canadian girl had started Krama Yoga working with children, so I went there to live and teach classes. I taught the kids and expats. The adults who paid for it enabled me to teach the kids for free. I fell into it, but it changed my life forever. I love yoga. I’ve been doing it for 10 years, and I almost wanted to finish with the acting. It was a really incredible experience.”
I asked Tamara what yoga gave her that acting didn’t: “Being centered. I definitely need the feeling that yoga brings me back to a center. It keeps me grounded and focused. The acting is all creativity, and the travel, too.
“Traveling gets you to meet different people, whereas with the acting you’re working with new characters. Yoga turns your mind off from the other side of the spectrum.” Tamara said of the many hats she wears, it’s love that’s most important.
“There are many things that make me a human and who I am. But it’s being a wife, a stepmom, then the writing, directing and creating other projects. I am not just a one-trick pony. Especially nowadays with the way things are going online, there are so many outlets to get your story out.
“You can create a story and literally get it in front of people quicker than we’ve ever been able to before. I definitely want to do more of that. But if I was to put them all in order, I would say my most favorite role other than acting is being the wife and stepmom.
As the wife of a nightclub operator, is Tamara out dancing nightly? She told me: “I’m a morning person, not a nightclubber. I’m up at 6 a.m. sometimes. I’m the annoying ‘good morning’ person. I was a bartender and did bottle service in Toronto for a few years while getting my degree in business marketing and trying to be an actress.
“It’s great, and I see all the back end of it because of my husband. I see how much hard work goes into it on a daily basis on the operational and marketing levels, and it’s fascinating. Once in a blue moon, I’ll go dancing, but I really love the restaurants here and Downtown. You can find the best mom-and-pop shops. I’m a big foodie, so I love finding these little places.”
Tamara says that before she wanted to become an actress, she wanted to be a private investigator. “There’s a lot of acting in that role, too. I love watching people’s behavior and the intrigue that comes with that. For now, though, my priorities are all switched, and it’s all about family.”
