Advertise on podcast: Mismo with Mick Torres & Ashley Argota Torres

We’re recording during nap time for the first time, so if Michael wakes up, this episode is over. 😅 Today we play “Then or Now,” walking through what it was like to be an actor every decade from 1926 to today: silent films, seven-year studio contracts, live TV, pilot season, the national commercial that paid your rent for a year, and the self-tape era. We debate whether the audition room should come back, how getting an agent has changed, why actors don’t watch dailies (a Bali High lesson), and why the new triple threat is actor, writer, producer. New Mismo out now. 💛

Black Widow and Captain America take the mic for a Halloween Fit Happens! 🕷️🛡️ Preschool has us sick every three weeks, so we’re talking about staying fit (and sane) through sick season. That covers Mick’s 10-day workout drought and why movement is about mental health first, and his overhead press goal with two months left. Ashley’s check-in includes kettlebells, a Barry’s class with Create, and life after pregnancy. We also get into trainer Olympics numbers, whether Ashley should play a superhero, cooking more at our new table, sinigang as medicine, and holiday advice for avoiding the January spiral. Plus a very important elbow-coughing PSA. 💛 New Mismo every other Monday.

We pulled questions out of the Bali High hat again, and the first one was a big one: how do you separate your worth from your work? We get into it from the start: - what we'd tell our younger selves - the boundaries that protect our family time - Mick retiring after nine years as Emcee of Burroughs on Broadway - the worst career advice we ever got - the comparison trap Mick finally climbed out of (hi, Tom Holland) - making strong choices with thin sides - what we wish we'd known about contracts - how we think about juggling multiple income streams as a creative family Got a question for the hat? Send it our way on Instagram. New Mismo every other Monday.

Big dreams, a two-year-old, and a whole lot of no's. We get honest about the friendships this season is costing us, the theater and improv we've let go of, and the lifers who get it anyway. Plus a dislocated kneecap during Le Dindon, a zero-rehearsal Stranger Things put-in that led to a best friendship with Mathenee Treco, and our new HERNEST table.

We're trying something new this week — a Q&A episode pulled straight from the hat. Residuals and SAG-AFTRA pensions, protecting couple time as business partners and parents, audition habits that used to work against us, roles we've turned down, comedy vs. drama prep, and how we decide what gets our time. Plus a recap of our 5-year anniversary trip to Yosemite. Send us your questions for next time!

Cortez burned his fleet so retreat wasn't an option. Michael Jordan packed one suit to Game 6. This week we'rasking whether "burn the ships" — the ultimate no-plan-B business philosophy — actually holds up for actors, parents, or anyone trying to build something with real stakes attached. We talk audition psychology, the 12-month rule, the year Ashley "scorched earth"-ed her way into a string of bookings, and end up at the zoo watching our toddler make his own risk-assessment call on a flight of stairs. Married actors, real marriage, real business talk. Full episode also available on YouTube!

This week's fit check gets honest — Ashley on falling out of motivation (and the psychology of why it happens), the story behind her wood-anniversary golf clubs, Michael's accidental takeover of the family's golf habit, and Mick's dislocated pinky toe, Hyrox sign-up, and overhead press PR chase. 💛 Full episode available on YouTube!

LA production is down almost 50% since 2022 — but this isn't another stats episode. It's about what happens when the job isn't down the street anymore. Ashley and Mick talk through the real, hypothetical logistics of booking a pilot out of town: preschool, training clients, local hire rules, per diem, and the actual math of deciding if a job is worth the distance. Plus: what filming Bali High in LA meant for them as new parents, and the financial reality of what it actually looks like to "book a pilot." ♥ Check out this video on YouTube!

New studio, new chapter. Mick and Ashley take the podcast into their living room for the first time — literally — with a full multi-cam setup, a couch upgrade courtesy of HERNEST, and our first Mismo guest of this version of the pod. :) With new listeners joining all the time, they take this episode to properly reintroduce themselves: how they met, how Mismo Productions came to be, and where their acting careers actually stand right now — messy, unresolved, and still very much in progress. Plus: rapid-fire questions on their relationship, parenthood, and their creative partnership, and a first look at Mismo's (four-legged) team member.

Are acting classes actually worth it? Mick thinks yes. Ashley thinks… it’s complicated. Two working actors, one honest conversation about how to keep growing when the jobs aren’t there — and what Bali High taught them that no classroom ever could.

For five seasons, Mick's take was: skip school, get your headshots, get on set. Now, with more distance from USC's School of Theater - and a clearer view of what longevity in this industry actually requires - he's not so sure. In this episode, Mick and Ashley revisit the theater school debate: what it gave him, what it didn't, and why the tools for the long game often look useless until they aren't. Plus: they open with 12 minutes of NBA playoff chaos because Lakers + Knicks season is not a drill.

Full episode on YouTube! Back in February, we told you 2026 was our year. This week, the honest update: it's been slow. Really slow. We get into what a slowdown actually looks like for two working actors who are also raising a kid, finishing a feature film, running a production company, and working day jobs. The existential "is it me or is it the industry?" question, Ashley's spiral about whether babies are bad for your acting career, Mick's brutally honest take on financial stability and why he doesn't trust Hollywood, and why the only way you actually lose is if you quit. If you're in a slow season, this one's for you. New episodes every Monday.

Sleep experiment, six weeks in: the receipts are wild. Mick went from 5.5 hours a night to 7+, and his bench is now five pounds off his lifetime PR — at 35. Ashley hit a 270 lb glute drive PR after Mick spent a year strategically bluffing her about what was possible (sorry babe). Nobody touched their nutrition. Apparently you can just… sleep more and get stronger. Also in this one: the bailed 170 lb overhead press (and the woman who walked into the squat rack mid-attempt), why glutes are secretly the most important muscle, "sneaky jacked" as a personality type, and a brief but heartfelt defense of doing the Apple Crossword at 11pm as a form of self-care. Another Fit Happens for the books. We'll be back with another check-in soon — hopefully with a 170 lb press, a body weight chin-up, and the same amount of sleep. 🎧 New episodes every Monday📲 @wearemismo on Instagram🌐 wearemismo.com

Watch the full episode here! A lot of you saw yourselves in the People Magazine article. This episode is for you. Mick and Ashley talk about what it took to write The Kindness of Strangers, what it was like to see Ashley's story in print, and what motherhood has felt like for Ashley as someone who didn't grow up with the kind of mom she's trying to be. Happy Mother's Day to all of the incredible moms out there, but especially to every mom writing the story she wishes she'd been given. 🌐 Ashley: linktr.ee/ashleyargotatorres🌐 Mick: instagram.com/micktorres🌐 Mismo: linktr.ee/wearemismo

Full episode available here! We are coming up on our 5 year wedding anniversary this summer, and 9 years of knowing each other. So wild. We wanted to touch on some of the ways we've seen each other grow. This episode is sappy. We're really proud of each other. You've been warned. :)Enjoy!xa&m