Arriving from Germany, Angel Hass was not expecting to find a home in Los Angeles. She was a dancer and had hoped to open a ballet school in her native country. When that fizzled out, she decided to give the United States a try.

Growing up, she and her father watched a lot of action movies. He taught martial arts, specifically kung fu, and the two of them imagined a future where Hass could be the next Jean-Claude Van Damme or Bruce Lee. Acting was not too far removed from how Hass expressed herself on the dance stage, and soon enough she wound up in Los Angeles taking acting classes at UCLA Extension.

“I fell in love with the craft, the city and the sun. Germany is so dark and rainy,” she said with a laugh. “After arriving in Los Angeles, I called my parents and said, ‘Maybe I should enroll and just stay here. It’s now or never.’ I loved the campus so much and the environment made me want to stay as well.”

On June 15, Hass will celebrate a moment in her life that is inextricably linked to UCLA Extension. She earned her Entertainment Studies Certificate this spring. She completed an Acting Certificate before that. And she currently works at UCLA Extension in the facilities management department. It is all enough to make Hass begin to feel like she is a full-fledged Angeleno.

“Once you settle in, I feel like L.A. is such an open place, and it can take you in so many different directions, as long as you stay open to the possibilities,” she said.

Hass has always expressed herself through movement. At age 3 she began to follow in her father’s footsteps by taking up martial arts. There was only one problem.

“I never liked the physical fights,” she said. “But I liked the choreography. I didn’t like getting hit or hitting someone else in competitions. And I’d get medals for movement, but for fights, I was like, ‘Dad I don’t want to fight.’”

It was clear she loved movement, though, and her mother served as an inspiration. A young Hass would watch her dance in a jazz troupe when she was 6. Her mother also became an aerobics instructor, and Hass remembers joining in whenever she could.

She tried gymnastics, but she did not like the hard falls. She made it through only one competition. But at 10 she finally found her place with ballet. She already had an aptitude for physical movement and quickly found acclaim.

“I saw ballet and I thought, that’s it,” she said.

Hass filled her life with ballet, even while earning a more “practical” degree in health communications.

“I wanted to open a ballet school. I didn’t want to sit in an office,” she said. “Creativity is in my blood and I’m never going to stop.”

She could not find the right facility to get her school off the ground. So, she decided to put her quest on hold and move to the United States in 2019. After a brief stint at the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles, a peer recommended she take acting classes at UCLA Extension.

“I was always interested in acting, and I did a play in high school,” Hass said. “Being a dancer, there is a lot of physical acting.”

But just as she started her classes, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and she was forced into remote learning. She was unable to see her family for two years. It was a lonely time, but Hass remained undeterred. As the world began to open back up, she signed up for the UCLA Extension Entertainment Studies Certificate Program.

“I still wanted to have that in-person experience,” she said.

Hass found that the curriculum really rounded out her skills.

“As an actor, it actually fulfilled me even more because you have to cooperate with so many different people on set,” she said. “This helped me to understand each department – producing, directing, writing – everything that comes with entertainment.”

Hass also was meeting a whole host of creative people eager to work with her. In a directing class, she quickly realized she stood out.

“None of the people were actors in it,” she said. “But I made so many connections with the directors in there. It was great for networking. Casting and filming is so global, so just being able to connect with people I would never meet in any other circumstance was great.”

In class, she was able to show that she could be trusted, so later she would receive emails from her new directing friends asking her to participate in their projects.

“When you already know someone is reliable, you’d like to work with them,” she added.

And overall, Hass feels a greater openness to new opportunities.

“I think the certificate definitely opened my perspective,” she said. “It showed me that entertainment is such a wide thing. For example, everyone has to be, at a certain point, a writer. Sometimes you have to write your own scene to keep yourself working. You have to be open to everything these days.”

Hass’ parents are visiting and will be ready to cheer for their daughter at Pauley Pavilion during the certificate graduation. This celebration is a long time coming.

“I’ve been here dealing with all this sort of on my own,” Hass said. “It’s going to be fun just to have them around. I feel like a kid again, it’s exciting. It’s also a bit like their accomplishment too because they were so supportive.”

And although her father likely would have loved for her to stay in martial arts, maybe she really could still become the next great action star. Hass remains on the move. When she is not pursuing her burgeoning acting career, she participates in a contemporary dance company.

“The grounding, fundamental thing wasn’t even ballet, but movement itself and that spirit of, always keep moving and be fluid like water,” she said. “When you train your body, your spirit trains as well. I’m fortunate to have been raised with my dad’s mentality and almost having that sense of a warrior inside, and my mom’s supportive care and love. The tools I’ve learned over the years can be used everywhere, in all the different paths I’ve followed.”