I grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. If you look at your right hand like it’s a map of Michigan, Bloomfield is right where the base of your thumb and your palm meet. I was homeschooled until 3rd grade, but I should probably leave that part out. During homeschool I used my time wisely to begin honing my craft. From playing Peter Pan, pretending to be horses and playing army there was no place the imagination couldn’t go. My unofficial acting journey began in 4th grade when I played a cowboy in who knows what show. I had one line and was told I needed to be loud so everyone could hear me. When it came to the part in the play where I needed to say my line I stepped down stage and yelled at the top of my lungs. Needless to say everyone could hear me. 

After that I completely forgot about the theater and fell in love with sports. I was always active and outside playing games with friends. I’m very competitive and playing pick up games was always the highlight of my day. Football might’ve been my first love but at 5’9 and 140lbs that wasn’t gonna happen. So in high school I also decided to try acting. This was mainly because I went to a small school and the director (also my English teacher) needed boys for the school play. I had hoped that by joining the play she would like me and therefore my grades would begin to increase. She’d probably deny it but I’m pretty sure it worked.

While working on the play “Twain’s Tales” in 9th grade I began to fall in love with acting. The community of the ensemble, the playing around in rehearsal and the adrenaline of being on stage for the first time (well since my 4th grade yell). I decided to do the school play the next year and the following year after that. Now I not only had football to look forward to in the fall but the theater as well. Although during this entire time, I never thought of acting as a career my interest just came from the pure joy and excitement of the process. That is until Christmas Eve my senior year of high school. I was at the stage in life where you start to decide what you want to do and I couldn’t figure it out. I would go see a movie and whatever the main character did I’d be like that’s what I want to do for a living. James Bond? I’ll be a secret agent. Chef? I’ll start a food truck and drive around the country. But as I watched Silver Linings Playbook on Christmas Eve while everyone slept I realized that as much as I wanted to I could never be a substitute teacher with bipolar disorder who’s dating Jennifer Lawrence. It was in that moment that I realized people actually act for a living and since then I’ve never looked back.

I knew acting was what I had to do but I was afraid of telling people for fear of getting the “good luck” that actually means you poor soul you’re gonna be waiting tables for the rest of your

life. I’ve also always been into financials and investing (it’s the polar opposite of acting) and I think that’s the field most people I was close with saw me going into and I didn’t want to disappoint them. So I began to secretly take acting classes at the Michigan Actor Studio in Ferndale Michigan (if you look at your hand again it’s a little lower than Bloomfield). I slowly began to tell people acting is what I wanted to do and worked for 2.5 years in order to save up for school. I ended up enrolling at The Atlantic Theater Company’s full time conservatory program in New York and began to seriously pursue the craft of acting. During my time at Atlantic I’ve learned so much about the art and myself as an artist. Although there have been ups and downs I’m now having more fun acting than I ever have.

I’ve always felt like I should be a “serious” actor whatever that means and that I need to be super “artsy” again whatever that means. This just isn’t me. I want to touch people through stories that make you laugh and cry and then laugh again, kinda like life. But unlike life I also want to be a part of stories that provide an escape for people. I hope to spread love and joy by doing things that bring people together to see that we’re not all that different after all.