I Stumbled Onto My Calling
My acting career started in a speech class during my sophomore year of college. My friend, who was a filmmaker and writer, gave a speech that transferred everyone in that class to the scene in which he was speaking. It was a moving experience and I told him that I would be honored to be an extra in one of his movies. Secretly, I was hoping to be a featured extra. The next day, he flopped his script on my desk and told me I was going to be the lead for his short film. After thinking of every excuse not to do it, I found myself on set filled with excitement. It turned out that acting gave me an incredible feeling that I’d never felt before. I had found my calling and I instantly caught the “acting bug”. We sent the movie to the small/local film festival in LA, and… it was good! I went on to win Best Actor and Best Picture of the film festival. The biggest surprise was the fact that people actually enjoyed something that I was a part of. This, paired with my excitement about the craft, was all I needed to decide to give acting my all. It has been about 4 years since then and there have been many learning experiences. One of the highlights of the last 4 years has been being nominated for Best Lead Actor in a Feature Film by the largest international Christian film festival, ICFF. I was humbled to have been in the same nomination category as Steven Baldwin and to have lost to Cole Hauser. I will be forever grateful for these, as well as future, opportunities.