BIO
- Preferred pronouns: he/him
- Hometown: Paducah, KY
- Graduation year from MSU + degree: 2007, Theatre (acting) and English (creative writing)
- Current place of residence: Los Angeles, CA
Q&A
How did you get interested in theatre? What brought you to Murray State?
Somehow — probably because I had a very good mom — I was aware from a young age that people in films were acting, and that was something I wanted to do for as long as I can remember. But public schools in rural Kentucky aren’t really known for fine arts education, so I wasn’t able to exercise that impulse until I had the privilege of being the first member of my family to go to college, thanks to Murray State’s recruitment efforts and federal low-income grants. Even when I got to MSU as an English major, it didn’t really occur to me that acting was something that you could study. Eventually, the theatre kids got so annoyed at this English department kid for getting cast in their plays that I ended up majoring in theatre alongside creative writing.
What’s one of your favorite MSU memories?
Late in my time there, we were able to perform a multi-format play called Tooth & Nail at the Actors’ Studio Theatre, under the direction of Jonathan Awori. It was a piece by the Junction Avenue Theatre Company that dealt with the South African apartheid via absurdism, puppetry, song, dance and straight theatre, and up to that point, it had only been performed twice — once in Kenya, once in Canada. So here we were in western Kentucky, selling out this radical work — a performance that we really pushed for — night after night, staging it for its third ever run. People that didn’t normally feel represented by theatre felt seen. Every night was special. I really cherish that one.
Tell us a little bit about your professional life after you graduated from MSU. What projects do you have in the works now?
After graduation and a year as a salmon fisherman, I landed in LA with about $400 and a busted Plymouth Valiant. Since then, I’ve insisted on living as a full-time creative, filling the weird niche of working-class, blue-collar creative. As an actor, I do features, shorts, TV shows, commercials, video games, audio books, audio dramas, webseries, theatre on occasion. I also co-own a small production company and sometimes freelance as a writer, indie producer, art director or script doctor.
In the past year-ish, I’ve lent my voice to Ultraman Zero in five Ultraman movies, appeared in games like Wasteland 3, won Best Actor at the Independent Horror Awards for a short called Berserk, and was able to transition two stage plays — Where the Others Are and My House, which just ended its run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August — to a remote format. The pandemic has me leaning into voice acting, so next up there’ll be lots of games and animation, but we’re also prepping for a horror feature that explores identity deconstruction within the LGBTQ+ community called Better Run with my friend Travis Coles from David Makes Man.
What are some of the skills that you gained at MSU that you’ve used in your career?
Well, you’re never really finished being an actor; if you’re out here trying to reflect a full human person, you don’t ever say, “I’m done now. I’ve got it.” So it all takes a very long time and you have to be comfortable failing or faltering publicly, but one thing I’ve learned lately is that there is, performance-wise, immense freedom in structure. It sounds contradictory, but when you have a repeatable method — call it a backbone or a foundation — it’s within that security that you’re able to be free and discover. The professors at MSU absolutely laid that foundation. You can’t build a performance without it.
Also, Bob Valentine told me, “When you show up on set, bring your lunchbox,” which is a very solid credo.
Photo 3: Van Thomas in WHERE THE OTHERS ARE (E3W Productions, 2020).
Why do you think the arts, and especially theatre, are useful and important subjects to study?
I mean, this might be a cliche, and if it is, it’s because it’s excruciatingly true: but the fact is that virtually every single person reading this is very likely immersed in art that is just as real as it is taken for granted. Almost every object you interact with isn’t just engineered for function, it’s designed with an aesthetic or emotional value in mind. More than that, we don’t think about our stepdads on the couch watching movies or our cousins streaming games on Twitch as engaging with art — in this case, engaging with performance — every day, but they are. Full-stop. And so are you. If you engage with media, you engage with art. Tell me who doesn’t engage with media, or even consider certain media a big part of their identity?
Without the arts, humanity exists in a vacuum, and it exists without comment.
Thank you, Daniel!
College of humanities and fine arts 