We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Spencer Mumford. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Spencer below.

Spencer, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Alrightyyyyyy, I moved to Los Angeles, CA on February 13, 2022. And I booked a TV Show in Atlanta 2 days after I moved to LA. I’ll talk about that later.

Anddddd well that might’ve been the stupidest thing I’ve ever done orrrr it might be the greatest choice I’ve ever made. Time can only tell from the outside looking in and from my point of view as well. lol.

(I saw this topic and was like, ya I’ve taken a risk lately but I don’t know how it’s going to turn out. Thinking about that made me pretty vulnerable to express where I am at in this “risk taking process”. Then I thought to myself, “what if I just sound like an ass.” But then I was like that’s why I should write about this point in my life because typing this now…… I have no idea how my life will turn out or this essay lol).

Did you just leave Atlanta?

– Ya. hahahah. About 3 weeks before I left, my roommate in LA found a place for us to stay. We signed paperwork 2 weeks later. It came about very quickly. My dad on short notice flew up to Atlanta, helped me pack my car, and we drove across country on February 11. Honestly getting to spend those 3 days with my dad made me really happy. And I love that he did that with me. Coolest thing: we woke up and drove to the Grand Canyon to watch the sunrise. (my dad is afraid of heights so he wouldn’t go anywhere near the edge. lil babyyy lol).

Why did I decide to move to California?

– I have wanted to live on the West coast for a while now. Honestly I would love to live in New York City… but I am from South Florida and I don’t do well with the cold (I’m a baby). My dad lived in San Francisco when he was 19. My whole family lives in Florida. Part of me wanted to try something new and maybe create a family on west side. So, I’ve had that stuck in my head. AND also, It’s HOLLYWOOD BABYYYYY. (hahahah I’m lame but read it like it should be read).
I always thought the ceiling was higher out here but also knew the floor would be lower as far as creating longevity in this business. Also, I want to continue pushing myself in training and I think there are more options out in LA.

How do you like LA?!? (everyone’s question to me):

– I love it. I really do.
However, It’s a beast. I don’t know many people here in Los Angeles and I left
a place (Atlanta) where I had created 6 years worth of relationships and had “success”.. It was hard.
I knew it would be hard, I told myself that…… Telling myself that and then having to deal with it was harder than I thought lol. I’ll be honest there were a lot of lonely nights in LA. There still are for me, but honestly I love driving towards my apartment and seeing the Hollywood hills and just thinking to myself I made the right choice (and I don’t know why, but I feel it). So yes, I love LA. There is a creative energy out here that is everywhere and and a hustle. When I go to AMC (with my AMC Stubs A-List Pass) there is always energy in the movie theaters. People here are so excited for movies and they cheer, and clap and laugh and cry, I love it. But I also love Atlanta and I do miss Atlanta and the relationships I built in Atlanta. I basically had to start over again at 30. (That involved a lot of beer drinking after bartending the first 6 months in LA hahah which was great. buttttt not the best lol).

What scares you the most about California ?

– You know, if the risk I took will be worth it?
For me as a person it has been totally worth it. I have had to grow and put myself in uncomfortable situations. I have had to grind which I still am doing. Which pushes me to make sure that I am going to acting classes and putting in work and not getting comfortable.

Ok…. so, I booked a tv show 2 days after I moved to LA. Really exciting!
I can look at it 2 ways: I was being rewarded for taking a risk and just up and moving to LA and that this was a way to reward me. OR: I had made a mistake by leaving a place where I was just about to have some kind of success and that I messed up leaving Atlanta.
The show I booked is called “Heaux Phase” and I was casted by George Pierre. That was freakin’ awesome, I like George Pierre and I was really excited. So I came back did the show for about a month and a half, worked as a local hire, went through all my savings lol and learned a lot. I had a character and was pretty high up on the call sheet. I had to create a character and really it gave me a lot of experience I needed. (We actually just did pick ups in Los Angeles 2 weeks ago). It’s being made my FUBU – For Us By Us Network.

I write this sitting in Atlanta because I was lucky enough to book a commercial here. But after I got back to LA in April…. I didn’t have many opportunities and that’s ok. I knew moving out to LA would take a while but it doesn’t mean that it sucked and messed with my hope or optimism. Those first 6 months were really hard. I felt like a bartender and not like a creative/actor. I didn’t necessarily miss Atlanta, I missed the relationships I had made. Getting to explore LA has been fun (but expensive). I got myself out of it by throwing myself back into Acting Classes and going to the beach. And opportunities started to come..little opportunities but opportunities. I got to work with a USC Film School a lot because of my friend Zac Thurman (who is in film school there and an Atlanta Native). I booked a tv show that will air in Germany hahah. And I got to work a lot in class. I take classes with Deborah Lemen Acting Studio in Los Feliz. I love her. She pushes me and supports me.

So… I am currently in one of the biggest risks I have taken in my life. I don’t know how it’s going to turn out. At times it’s felt amazing and beautiful and other times it has felt dark, lonely and like maybe I made the wrong decision. Regardless of anything, I know I made the right decision because I am growing. And if anything that will help acting. Getting to better know myself in hard times and when the time is right I’ll be ready for whatever opportunity comes my way. =)

….. except reality TV. I’d be soooo good at it but that is not the road I want to go down. hahaha.

Spencer, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

ayoooo! I am just trying to be the most genuine version of myself I can be. I am trying to be more vulnerable. I love music. I love dancing. I like making people laugh. I like making people think.

Hi. I want to make a living acting and telling stories. Creating stories. Writing stories. Directing stories. All that I want in the future but at the moment I want to get good at acting and be able to make a living doing that. I want to be the token white guy in everything. lol. I have been that in my life so much in so many different cultures.

Oh ya, I’m a professional dancer. hahaha that’s what I tell other dancers in LA. Like real professional dancers when I meet them. Mind you I have never taken a dance class butttt Go check my Tik Tok, I dance on there. And! I am a professional dancer because I was paid right??? Atlantic Records flew me out and paid me to dance in a Kodak Black music video.
“Usain Boo” which Kodak had sampled a Miami Artist, DJ Chipman from a song “Beam ah”. Now listen I grew up in the suburbs =] but I played basketball really competitively and I freakin love music, specifically hip-hop. So, I was up to date on the songs lol. And I had gotten a lot of attention for dancing on a boat to DJ Chipman’s “Beam ah” in 2021. As well as dancing to a video of South Florida legends Grind Mode’s “Im so high” song that also got a lot of attention lol.
Regardless, what an experience that was!

First off, Kodak Black was so impressive. People were running up to him and acting all crazy just trying to touch him. Kodak took pictures with people and he was present. And he was very nice to me and so was his team. It made me more of a fan of Kodak because he could have been a jerk and “too cool”. He was super cool by taking pictures with people and making people’s days.

Secondly, There were only 2 white boys in the music video. I expected that and I love being in that situation. However, the first take we did was in front of some bleachers where they filled with people from Miami and they had professional dancers and then me. lol hahahaha. The first take we did I saw people doing choreographed dances and one girl did a back flip and I’m just standing there ahahahahah “What the hell y’all want me to do!?!?” ahahaha. “I usually just get drunk and dance in my living room or on a boat 1 time! ahahah” This is all internal monologue I’m having. My insecurities were coming out. But after the first take I got my butt in there did some Jookin’ and Boppin’ and by the end people were laughing but also like, “Okk White Boy!” and I just got hyped up all day and that was really nice to have. It made me feel so welcome and free to just stop thinking and have a good time….. But, because I stood next to that girl doing a back flip likeeee “Oh shit!” *starts sweatingggg*. *going through my rolodex of movies like, “I aint got nothing like that” * hahahah.

I even had a to do a solo dance in front of the who crew and 80 people looking on and standing on a glass box with the camera pointing up at me haha. but I was getting hyped up and I thought I killed it. =]

– Why did I tell you all that?? Because it’s freakin’ cool!
Ya know, I don’t try to be anything that I am not. I am a white boy from the suburbs of Boca Raton. FL (bout’ an hour north of Miami) and I think it’s really cool that because of my love for other cultures and especially Miami Hip Hop, My White ass got to be featured in a Kodak Black Music Video. Like What!

How did you build your audience on social media?

I don’t know if anyone wants my advice. Because I do have some followers but like I don’t have A LOT of followers. For me my strategy is to be as authentic as I can. That’s hard on social media. It is very easy to lie and over exaggerate things or show people a version of yourself you only want to show.

For me, I don’t think anyone comes to my page to learn about life. I think they come to laugh and be entertained.
With that in mind: When I started getting attention on Social Media it was me dancing to music I love. I love music. I think music and movies are the best thing in the world. I love dancing to great music. My social media started getting a following with me dancing to 70′,80’s, and 90’s music I love. That’s all.
Then, It really took off when I started putting prompts to my videos. The first video was me dancing to a Young Dolph song, “To Be Honest” and the prompt was “When you’re the only White Guy in the Club”. Which in my life I have been that guy. I love hip hop music and if I want to go out and listen to hip hop music well it’s not gonna be a place where a lot of white people are, just to be honest.

I made other videos about being on a first date but the DJ keeps playing bangers and the struggle to concentrate on the conversation hahaha. That really happened to me.

While I was first in LA, my bosses at my restaurant have been very controlling about our attire and us not dancing or singing behind the bar…. What I do? Made videos about that.

So my advice through all those examples is find what you love and then be authentic. If you love Cooking? Make content about cooking. Messing up cooking. Having Fun. Getting into fights with loved ones when they don’t compliment you on your cooking. We know that has happened. For me, I love all these songs I post. I genuinely do. I like Tik Tok because everyone has their music on there.

One of the coolest things that happened was that I made a Tik Tok to Big Daddy Kane – “Smooth Operator”. I was sitting at home in a bathing suit, drinking a frozen margarita and smoking a cigar listening to music. Smooth Operator came on and I was like…”Im gonna make a video”. THE Big Daddy Kane shared that video on his instagram.

I made a couple videos to songs produced by Mr. Collipark and then he started following me on Instagram. Which is so dope because I grew up listening to his produced tracks. I didn’t make those videos for him to follow me. I just love his music. lol

So do something fun and don’t fake it. It doesn’t have to be perfect. People want to see you burn cookies while cleaning. Or fall over dancing. Or be eating on camera and you get mustard on your shirt. I don’t know. And don’t plan that ish either! lol.

But you know, Social Media can be really fake so be authentic or just create a really fake and fabricated persona.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

This might be deep and wordy and I’ll try to not be as much as possible. What have I had to unlearn….?

The idea of Winning OR Losing………or really the idea of us being taught that everything is a binary. Good vs. Evil, Heaven vs Hell, A good student vs a bad student, I like it vs I don’t like it, etc. ……… I’m still trying to unlearn it.

The Backstory:

I struggle the most with winning vs losing and being right vs wrong.
I grew up in sports until I was 25 years old I wanted to be a professional athlete or work in sports. Sports are still a big part of my life but before I decided I wanted to pursue acting, I was all sports. Because of that, you either Win or you lose. I don’t like losing. Honestly I don’t even like winning, I just really f******** hate losing.

My major in College really got me to question how are society has taught us all to live in these binaries (primarily through totalizing narratives or grand narratives). The Matrix is such a great movie at explaining this. wow. I love the matrix.

Ok. Basically, I have been trying to to change the way I view the world. Art has shown me that it can’t be good or bad. It just is. It’s both. There are movies out there that critics hate or people hate but then a lot of people love it. Example: “The Master of Disguise”. I love that movie. I don’t care what you say. So as I view a performance I am trying to change my brain of thinking that was amazing, “that person won” or wow they sucked, “that person lost”. I am trying to not live on that binary. How? still figuring that out.

Life is constantly changing. What is success? What is good? What is bad? I have been taught by sports to win. And there is no other outcome you can accept. For me, changing the idea that not getting a booking is a loss because that happens a lot lol. But I guess the other outcome is booking which is a win so maybe I need to change the way I view that. lol.

I am kind of rambling but I hope who ever is reading this understand what I am hinting at.

I’ve tried to learn this and challenge my thinking because I think Art is non-binary. Art IS. And it’s not about winning this business. It’s about connecting with people through story. maybe. Until college I really thought you won or lost the game of life. I’m thinking about how binaries have been taught to us through school and everything we see in media and how me questioning and challenging those binaries has allowed me to be more open and open to new experiences. And also to be more forgiving to myself and others. Not being as judgemental because there is no right way to live or act. You just are. =]

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spencermumford/?hl=en
• Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/spencermumford1
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQgWqhoKck-YQ7gEazhmn5w?app=desktop
• Other: Tik Tok – @spencermumford Instagram – @spencermumford

Image Credits
Todd Tyler, Zac Thurman, Mikey Espeleta,