I am now at just over 4 weeks on my first rotation back in oil and gas, and if the project wasn’t behind schedule, I’d be on a flight back to Atlanta right now. But the project is behind schedule and since I have no acting work until the end of August, I am happy to stay longer, potentially missing my first rotation home and doing an extra long hitch.

With all the downtime I’ve had the last month, I have had time to work on personal projects. I am working on two screenplays, built 4 apps and watched shows and movies to research my next roles. It’s also given me a lot of time to think about where I am and how I got here.

How I Got Here

My first year of acting, in 2023, I did a horrible project for an actress who wanted to make a reel for herself. She wrote the dialogue and hired some crew and a few cast and we went to a park to film everything. Everything about that day was cringe with the exception of a couple things. The first was an actor I met that I am still in contact with today. The second and most important was meeting the DP and her assistant.

A few days after this shoot, the DP contacted me through social media. She said she really enjoyed working with me and that I was the best thing about that project for her, and she asked if I’d be interested in doing some stunt work in a feature film shooting in Columbia, SC. I had taken some stunt classes in hopes it would make me more castable and I said I was and sent her my resume with my contact information. Not long after that, the director/producer/writer, David Axe, contacted me and offered me a stunt role in the film Stuntgirl along with a small role called Boxer. Since that project, David has cast me in every film he has written and produced, about one a year. But then things changed.

Last year, David produced another filmmaker’s film called American Dollhouse. It was written and directed by an up and coming filmmaker named John Valley. American Dollhouse premiered at SXSW and things started happening for both David and John. They started taking meetings and getting offers for projects at a bit higher level than where they were. David is now producing full time and he’s not only casting me in his own projects, he has introduced me to other filmmakers and their projects. With the filmmaker’s approval, I am getting cast in those projects. All of which David is producing.

So the whole thing goes back to a bad shoot in a park and a message from a DP who liked working with me.

Why Me?

I honestly have no idea why this is all happening. David and I get along and we work well together, but he also works well with other people. I try and be fun and easy on set. I try and be helpful and do whatever I can to move the project forward. And if there’s drama on set, I stay out of it. Maybe he thinks I can make it or that I bring value to the project, but at the end of the day, all that matters is that I get to act and work on films.

What’s Next?

Next is spending my time offshore being productive along with preparing for my upcoming roles:

  • Legacy short film. Lead. SAG. August 2026
    A widowed handyman living out of his van hires a young man sleeping in his car to help finish the dream house his late wife never saw completed, and when his heart gives out, the stranger and his estranged son inherit both the house and the work of finishing it together.
  • Having Fun feature film. Supporting. Non-union. September/October 2026
    A washed-out pair of detectives hunt a serial home-invader who films himself terrorizing families and signs each crime with his own face. Catching him means going rogue, and the closer they get, the harder it is to tell how much separates them from him.
  • The Session feature film. Lead. Non-union. December 2026
    A vengeful former patient books a session with the psychiatrist who falsified his diagnosis and stole eight years of his life, turning a quiet Saturday-morning appointment into a battle of wills where the only way out runs through a confession neither man can walk back.
  • Tipfinger feature film. TBD role. Non-union. February 2027
    This is a fully improvisation feature film set in NYC.
  • Killbilly feature film. Lead. Non-union. March 2027
    A struggling high school wrestling team, including the team’s first woman member, gets stranded in the wilderness during a cross country trip in 1995. They’re not alone. To survive, they must battle the elements and a murderous band of cultish mountain people. And they must learn to work as a team despite their differences.
  • The Silence That Follows feature film. Supporting. Non-union. May 2027
    Two siblings torn apart by a zombie plague must fight for survival against the infected and their own inner demons, as they search for each other across a rural wasteland.
  • Great Big Pig feature film. Lead. SAG. TBD 2027
    When a downdraft strands a birthday helicopter hunting party deep in the Texas plains, the hunters become prey to a sounder of oversized wild boars that stalks them across the wasteland, and getting out alive means outlasting both the pigs and one grieving man’s descent into vengeance.

There was a time where I wanted to act at a certain level so I could work with actors and directors that I have watched over the years. I don’t want that anymore. I just want to act. The independent films I have been cast in are being made by people I respect and like, and they are actually getting made, which right now is more than a lot of people at every level of this business can say. And if this ends up being the rest of my career, I’m not settling for anything, because this is what I want.