Oceanside CA— A high school teacher once told Jamie Leodones she would never be able to do anything with a degree in arts, let alone make a living out of it. Today, Leodones can proudly prove that high school teacher wrong.

Leodones, a 2010 MiraCosta College graduate in dramatic arts with an emphasis in technical theater, is now one of 15 contestants on season eight of Syfy network’s popular reality competition show, “Face Off.” Contestants in the show transform models into mutants, goddesses and human and creature hybrids in a quest to win prize money and fame.
Leondones’ journey into stage makeup began in 2002, when the then-music-major took a MiraCosta stagecraft class and switched her major to technical theater.
“In order to earn the technical theater degree, students have to take the stage makeup class, which I didn’t want to… but I had to,” said Leodones.
While Leodones had some experience in sculpting, drawing and painting—applying makeup to a face was completely new to her.
“I don’t wear makeup in general so I was kind of scared,” Leodones said. “Then I realized makeup was just like painting, but on the face. It just clicked.”
In 2003, Leodones began to work as a makeup and hair designer for various MiraCosta College theater productions, including 1940s Radio Hour, Once Upon a Mattress, The Matchmaker, Charlie’s Aunt, Once on this Island, As You Like It, and most recently, the fall 2014 production of Twelfth Night.