Elvina Beck


Elvina Beck is an American entrepreneur, councilwoman, and videographer. She is known for founding Californian coliving company PodShare, where she also serves as CEO.

Early life and education

Beck was born in Moscow, USSR in 1985. In 1990, when the wall fell, Beck emigrated to Brooklyn, New York City with her parents, Elvira and Antony. After an initial period of support from the Russian community in Brooklyn, the family moved to Livingston, New Jersey. Beck was educated at Livingston High School, and Pepperdine University, Malibu, graduating in Political Science in 2008.

Early acting and modeling career

From her late teens, Beck worked as a model and actress, with her roles including and commercials for Skechers, Wells Fargo, Xbox, Yoplait, and Apple.
More recently, Beck appeared as herself in a 2020 video story produced by the United States Census Bureau, highlighting her advocacy for affordable housing.

Transition to videography

In her early twenties, growing disaffected with the lack of control over her career that she felt as an actress and model, Beck taught herself how to operate a camera and to edit video. In her career as a camera operator, Beck has worked for, among others, Randi Zuckerberg, Avril Lavigne and Maxim Magazine.

PodShare

In 2012, recognizing the lack of available, short-term housing for freelancers and transitioners, Beck co-founded coliving company PodShare with her father.
The company opened its first location in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and has since added locations in Los Feliz, Arts District, Venice Beach and Westwood in that city. In July 2019, PodShare opened its first location outside of Los Angeles in Tendernob, San Francisco, California.
PodShare has flexible residency, and a floorplan that excludes privacy and forces interactions between guests, which Beck calls "collisions".

Other pursuits

Since 2015, Beck has served as President of the Central Hollywood Neighborhood Council. In 2019, she was re-elected to serve a second 4-year term.
Beck is an advocate for the unsheltered homeless of Los Angeles. In recognition of her ongoing non-profit work to improve the lives of the homeless, as well as the success of her startup PodShare in addressing urban affordability, Beck received the 2020 Stratiscope Impact Makers Award at Los Angeles City Hall on January 29, 2020.