We recently connected with Theodore Taylor III and have shared our conversation below.

Theodore, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I was truly a late bloomer when it came down to acting. I never grew up in drama, musical theatre, community theatre and all that because I was doing sports my whole life. My first time truly breaking into theatre came my senior year of high school when I did the August Wilson Monologue Competition and made it all the way to the regional finals at the Mark Taper Forum. I then graduated high school 2020 and enrolled into Long Beach State as a theater major and that’s been the foundation of where I develop my skillset. I have had multiple professors and even colleagues that were truly instrumental and have pushed me and helped me become a better actor. Outside of school, acting conservatories like AAFTA helped teach me the true business of the industry while developing my skillset and then I have my own film and theater experience which helped. Despite all of that though, the most essential skill is “talent” and “confidence”. Unfortunately for me 2023 was a year where I lost that “confidence” as an actor. It was not a good year for me at all when it comes down to an acting and because of that I made a decision to go study abroad in the UK for the first few months of 2024. Doing that will allow me to just like reset and rebuild my confidence and acting career as a whole.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Theodore Taylor III and I am a 21-year-old actor from Compton. I attend Long Beach State where I study theatre and journalism. I believe God has given everyone a gift and special talent and for me, as a young kid, I have always been one to just like entertain people, whether it was me going in front of the class and writing stories or even being a class clown I just always loved to entertain people and make them “feel” something. That’s why I love this acting stuff, to be on camera or stage and to make someone have the ability to feel something is amazing. I can make someone feel joy, anger, and sadness just by playing a character and that is beautiful to me. I also have broken into journalism as of late. I first got into journalism because I have always been a huge sports fanatic. I grew up watching my Jets lose on Sundays and my Clippers having the worst luck in the playoffs. Being able to write and verbalize those things is such a cool thing to do. Outside of sports journalism, I think it’s cool in general that as a journalist you have that same ability as an actor where you can truly tell a story or give platforms to people who wouldn’t otherwise have them. Those are things that I truly take passion in……. I am also a Swiftie.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I’ve said this a lot but, it’s the ability to make someone “feel” man and also like blacking out. What I mean by “blacking out” is when you are so locked in with your scene partner and/or your character that you forget that you are acting or on camera. You just like black out become locked in on what your doing. Every actor will relate to what I’m talking about, it’s an amazing feeling. Then obviously the ability to make someone “feel” when acting. When your doing theatre in front of crowd and hear laughter, gasps, etc it is such an amazing feeling. Like your performance has the ability to control that. Even with film too, if you don’t get a live audience reaction the work still radiates. Titanic dropped 20+ years ago but people still get emotional when they think about Jack’s death. It’s amazing to evoke that feeling out of someone.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Making it out doing something that I love. I grew up in Compton and I’ve seen a lot. I knew people growing up who couldn’t make it to 18 and while it has cooled down ALOT the violence and crime persists. When I was 17, a few weeks after graduating high school, I was held at gunpoint and that literally could’ve been the end for me then and there. It’s things like that that give me the motivation to put my all into acting and to make it out and serve as an inspiration for people who grew up the same way I did. I look at someone like Kendrick Lamar, his childhood home is 5 minutes from me and he’s my favorite rapper and a big reason why is because he makes music that I relate to. The same impact he has on me is the same impact that I wanna have. Making it out and making a living with acting is the goal and the mission.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/official__tt3
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theodore-taylor-iii-06b6a9188
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/official_tt3

Image Credits
Solomon Payne Julian H.