Character actress. Building bridges between Hollywood and the Philippine screen — one waiting room at a time.
The essentials, for anyone on deadline.
A one-location, immersive, stereoscopic 180° short.
Set entirely inside a chronically understaffed hospital ER waiting room, directly across the street from a raging music festival, Desert Palms follows a growing crowd of injured, increasingly unhinged patients as they wait — and wait, and wait — to be seen.
Equal parts existential comedy and slice-of-life absurdism, the film finds its humor in the special kind of madness that only a waiting room can produce: the boredom, the bureaucracy, the bad luck, and the strangers forced to share it all together. It's a portrait of patience pushed past its limit, shot in an immersive format designed to put the audience directly in the waiting room chairs.
Desert Palms will have its international premiere at the 83rd Venice Film Festival.
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A name she helped write herself.
A fitting name for the one calm, controlled presence trying to hold order inside a waiting room quietly descending into chaos.
The role was originally open to any gender — the casting call welcomed either a man or a woman for the part. Vanah's answer was to bring both to the table: she auditioned performing both a male and a female voice for the character, a piece of vocal range and creative instinct that made her the director's first choice for the role.
The name carries a personal layer of meaning for Vanah as well. As a trans woman, she's spent plenty of time on the receiving end of exactly that kind of question — boy or girl? — and rather than shy away from it, she turned it into the joke, on her own terms. It's a sharp, funny piece of writing that folds her own lived experience directly into the character, and a clear example of the wit she brings to a role.
A filmography that spans festivals, streaming, and the fast-growing world of vertical drama.
Vanah de Guzman's path to Venice didn't start on a film set — it started with a plane ticket. She moved to the United States in 2017, settling first in the Bay Area, before making the leap to Los Angeles in 2020 to chase a career in acting.
Like most actors building a career from the ground up, she's balanced her craft with work in the hospitality industry, steadily turning her day job into a full-time acting career.
International premiere as Nurse Angela Dimawari — the current chapter.
An official selection at Raindance, now streaming on AMC+. Vanah played a drag queen.
An early credit in her streaming filmography, now available on Tubi and Prime Video.
Commercial work for a retail store brand, plus a Filipino-language campaign for an online banking service.
Ongoing work across the fast-growing world of vertical drama series.
Vanah de Guzman is turning heads with their scene-stealing role in Betty St. Clair, the buzzy short film currently making its rounds on the festival circuit. The film follows an anxious Chinese-American drag queen navigating the high-stakes world of hosting an all-AAPI drag showcase directed by Kyle Casey Chu and Syra McCarthy — a night where nerves, identity, and community collide under the spotlight.
Betty St. Clair has been racking up festival selections across the country and abroad, including a screening at Raindance Film Festival, the UK's largest independent film festival, along with stops at the San Francisco Film Festival, Palm Springs Film Festival, HollyShorts Film Festival, and several others. The film is also streaming on AMC+ as part of the NewFest Future of Film collection, putting it in front of an even wider audience of queer and indie film fans.
In the film, de Guzman plays Shia Heaux, a quirky, high-energy drag queen who just cannot handle her substances — and it shows. Leaning fully into physical, slapstick comedy, de Guzman turns Shia into one of the film's funniest and most unpredictable presences, injecting a jolt of chaotic energy into every scene she stumbles through.
With Betty St. Clair continuing to pick up momentum, Vanah de Guzman's turn as Shia Heaux is proving to be a standout introduction to a performer worth watching.
Behind the scenes from the Venice-bound production.
More from production and public appearances.
A behind-the-scenes moment from Betty St. Clair, in full costume between takes.
A clip from Acceptance.
A character actress at heart — moving between drag performance, ensemble comedy, and the tightly-wound, dual-toned energy of Nurse Angela Dimawari.
The person behind the characters — LA, and the community that comes with it.
With Desert Palms headed to Venice and Betty St. Clair still finding new audiences on AMC+, Vanah is focused on the next chapter. She is also eager to connect with and create projects within the Philippine showbiz industry, looking to build bridges between her work abroad and the film community back home.
She continues to champion character-driven storytelling — and to bring a distinctly Filipino-American point of view to every role she takes on.
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