Paid Actor

Our program has been rescheduled to later tonight at 9 p.m. CST. Please tune in for Trena's interview with screenwriter Bryan Croes on screenwriting and the role the write plays in a production.

Born in Mexico City, Emilio Merritt received his BA in Acting from UNAM (Centro Universitario de Teatro). After graduating from college, je got a scholarship to assist on a full time program:"Acting for film and TV" at SchoolCreative (now Vancouver Acting School), in Vancouver, Canada. After he graduated, Emilio was signed at Premiere Talent Agency and worked in Canada for a couple of years. In Vancouver he made " A Simple Day", which was accepted in festivals around the world. After this work, Emilio went back to Mexico City, directed two plays, won an award as best director for one of his plays. Currently, Emilio works as a casting assistant for Cortazar Abiatti, and on film crews for different movies. As an Actor, Emilio has acted in more than six soap operas as a guest star.

Trena Bolden Fields hosts Q and A with David Patrick Green.

David Patrick Green, Actor and founder of Hack Hollywood, will answer your questions on being a professional actor. Call us with your questions at (646) 378-0586.

Trena Bolden Fields interviews casting director Lynn Steele about the auditioning process.

Even after 29 years in the business, Lynn still gets excited about every new casting job. She is an outside the box thinker who gets a kick out of visiting small town festivals to find unique faces. She approaches every job - large or small - with the same enthusiasm, commitment and attention to detail.

Lynne began here career as a talent agent at the Eleanor Moore Agency (now Moore Creative) in Minneapolis and went on to explore different aspects of the business, doing everything from producing and location scouting to becoming the talent coordinator for the Dayton Hudson Corporation (now Macy’s).

In 1988 Lynn founded Akerlind Steele Casting in Minneapolis, a full service company serving national, regional and local clients. She cast talent for feature films, industrial films, made-for-television movies, commercials, talent searches and print advertising.

After ten wonderful years, including countless 80-hour weeks and two babies within 12 months, Lynn decided to sell the casting business. She continued to work for a small exclusive group of clients.

Lynn returned to the casting business ten years ago, providing casting services for commercials and print advertising.

Trena interviews actor and filmmaker Chike Johnson on his career and current projects.

Chiké Johnson most recently appeared in the Broadway production of A Time To Kill.  He spent most of 2013 in the Midwest where he was part of The Goodman Theatre’s production of Meet Vera Stark and Milwaukee Rep’s production of Raisin in the Sun. His New York credits include; Manhattan Theatre Club’s Wit on Broadway and Off Broadway’s Lost In The Stars in New York City Center’s Encores! He also appeared in the Off Broadway production of Ruined co-produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club and The Goodman Theatre. Some of his other Chicago credits include: Sizwe Banzi is Dead at the Court Theatre and The Crucible, The Unmentionables and Huck Finn at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Regional credits include a revival of The Unmentionables at Yale Repertory Theatre; Lincoln in Topdog/Underdog at Renaissance Theaterworks; Duke of Cornwall in King Lear at Milwaukee Repertory Theater; Cephus Miles in Home at In Tandem Theatre; Willie in Master Harold and the boys at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre; and Martin Luther King, Jr. in Smoldering Fires at First Stage Children’s Theater. Some of Mr. Johnson’s film credits include Friends with Benefits, Sleepwalk with Me, The Machinist and his television credits include Law & Order, Girls, Veep and Prison Break.

Trena interviews the talented Michael Allen on the twists and turns of his career.

Michael Allen is currently appearing all across the USA in The National Theater of Great Britain's production of War Horse in 2013 he can be seen in  a PBS project entitled Admiral Rickover, starring Tim Blake Nelson. He also recently ended a stint in San Diego at The Old Globe Theater performing  in  Amadeus andThe Tempest (directed by Adrian Noble) and Much Ado About Nothing (directed by Ron Daniels).  His credits also include:  King Lear, Taming of the Shrew, and The Madness of King George at The Old Globe Shakespeare Festival (San Diego Critics Circle Craig Noel Award nomination). He has been in several Off Broadway productions, most recently Margaret (Red Bull Theater), and including Moby Dick Rehearsed, The Tempest, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Love, Shakespeare (The Acting Company) and the title role in Don Carlos (Prospect Theater Company). His recent credits include The Foreigner (Festival Stage of Winston-Salem), Hamlet (The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey), A Tale of Two Cities (People’s Light & Theatre Company), King Lear and Much Ado About Nothing (North Carolina Shakespeare Festival), Doubt (Hippodrome State Theatre), The Tempest(Folger Theatre) and Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath (Arkansas Repertory Theatre). His film and television credits include “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and voice work on Cold Mountain.

Trena interviews actor and business owner, David Patrick Green on what is most important for an actor to know.

David Patrick Green is a professional actor and the founder of Hackhollywood.com, a membership-based website dedicated to empowering and educating actors around the globe on how to become a professional actor. His simple five-step approach inspires actors to be ruthlessly creative in their approach to the art and business of acting and life in general. He has an MBA from the University of Southern California and was an international management consultant before realizing Platinum frequent-flyer status had few rewards other than boredom, bedbugs, and beer. David is also author of the “Become a Famous Actor” series of books available at Amazon.com. He has lived and worked as an actor in Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Toronto and coaches/consults actors and businesses who want to get on the short path to success while maintaining a sense of humor. He is happy to be reached at [email protected].

 

You can also sign up for a month free membership with Hack Hollywood at www.paidactor.com/davidpatrickgreen.

Trena Bolden Fields talks with Colin McPhillamy about acting, where an actor should life, how he has used energy in his career and his new book "An Actor Walks Into China". 

About Colin

Colin McPhillamy was born in London to Australian parents and now lives in New York. He trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. His first job as a professional actor was at the remote, but well known, Little Theatre on the Isle of Mull where he performed a solo version of Henry V playing some 40,000 parts including both the French and English armies.

He wrote an account of this experience and it was broadcast on BBC Radio, receiving great press and a large mailbag from the public. He continued writing plays and short stories during the 1990s and published a volume of this work in 1999 as The Tree House and other Stories (second edition 2010).

McPhillamy's second book, An Actor Walk into China, tells of his experiences playing Kent in King Lear in Beijing, and of the Shakespeare scene in China, he also describes producing a season of Chinese theater in London and some of the cultural confusion that went on.

Trena Bolden Fields gives her audience six key steps to building their acting career and how to take that next step to have the career you want. This audio is for those who are just starting out and for those who want to hear a great suggestion on what next.

Trena interviews Brad Lemack about his book and how actors can begin to build their acting career.

Brad Lemack is the author of two books for actors, The Business of Acting: Learn the Skills You Need to Know to Build the Career You Want and The New Business of Acting: How to Build a Career in a Changing Landscape.

He is also the owner of Lemack & Company Talent

Management/Public Relations, producer and host of the Web TV series Inside the Business of Acting, writes The Business of Acting Blog and has been a contributing columnist for Back Stage. Brad earned his undergraduate degree at Emerson College in communications; he earned a Master’s degree in Theatre Arts and Dance, with a concentration in performance for social change, at California State University, Lo