Today we’d like to introduce you to Cedric Gegel

Hi Cedric, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?

It all started with playing in the backyard with my siblings. Really, that’s what I do now – use my imagination. So I think it started then, and with all the books I read as a kid. It kind of came naturally, and when I got to college, I decided to keep doing it for fun while studying to be a teacher. When my education professors eventually told me that I was really supposed to be acting, I realized they were right – after all, it was what I’d been doing ever since I was a kid in the backyard, right?

So I changed majors to study acting, kept doing theatre, and started acting in as many student films as I could. Eventually, I started dabbling in screenwriting, writing the parts I wanted to play, and then would direct those with some of my friends from the film program on the crew. It all kind of blossomed from there, and before I knew it, I was working on sets throughout the Midwest while still doing theatre in Columbus. I directed my first movie at the ripe old age of twenty-three, combining my friends from college with some legit name actors to make “Cadia: The World Within.” Then I moved to Philadelphia, where I began branching out a bit more for films, and then spent a year in Rhode Island, where I truly began travelling across the United States for projects. I had a brief follow-up stint in Philly and now live in the New York City area, where I’ve been fortunate to make a home base for myself as I continue to travel for films and theatre while being in one of the great artistic cities in the world.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

It started off as rocky as they get – three weeks after deciding to pursue acting, at just twenty years old, I was diagnosed with epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EHE for short – blood vessel cancer) in my left elbow. I was in the musical Xanadu, practicing my roller skating. I fell and landed on my elbow, they did scans because of the pain, and there was a tumor. It was one of those life-defining moments. I spent that summer having surgeries and radiation therapy and constantly in pain, along with having the fear of the tumor spreading or getting an infection, which was a serious, fatal threat. This kind of cancer is so rare that there really isn’t a lot of research into it or a set treatment plan; mine being in my elbow only complicated that, as it’s often found in the liver or lungs instead of a joint.

My medical team managed to save my left arm, and I’ll be forever grateful to them for it. However, I am still in daily pain. I can only safely lift about thirty pounds or so with that arm, and the joint itself remains so fragile that the risk of shattering it is hyper-present, but I’m thankful to have an arm to feel that pain in. While this disability has limited my dancing – I trained in jazz and contemporary/lyrical my entire childhood and was briefly a member of a professional dance company in Columbus, which I miss – and it does limit my abilities to take certain roles due to stunt work or other physical limitations (although I’ve been fortunate to work with wonderful and compassionate directors, producers, choreographers, and fight coordinators that have adjusted to make things work), it’s also given me a perspective of my career and myself as a resilient, grateful artist. Life is fragile, and brutal, and painful, and beautiful.

I also have a blood disorder, and have had a few concussions, so the medical list goes on and on. On top of that, in late high school and early college, I was diagnosed with clinical depression. While I’ve managed that for the past decade, it’s something I’m aware of. Mental health can be a real challenge, especially in an industry where rejection is the norm and imposter syndrome is all too easy to fall into. I’ve got a good handle on it, and I’ve become really grounded in who I am and what I believe. While I wouldn’t wish those struggles on anyone, I am glad to be where I am now, and I had to go through what I did to see the world the way I do now. As a society, we’ve gotten a lot better about discussing mental health, and that’s great, but there’s plenty of work still to be done, and I hope that my work can help those struggling with their own mental health to feel seen and included. I think my art reflects that, too – I love comedy and making people laugh, and I love finding those stories that take a unique and in-depth look at empathy and what it means to love, to care, to be human.

The biggest struggle I’ve faced – and am still facing, and will be for a long time – is the tragic loss of my younger brother, Austin, in July 2023. My grief is something I’m still working through, and I’m guessing I will be for years to come. I hope so. I think we too often perceive grief as negative, but I don’t feel that way. It’s accompanying me, like my pain from my cancer battle. It’s reminding me of what I’ve lost, of what I still have. Austin was a wild, weird, wonderful human. Someone I loved – love – dearly, and miss every single day. The industry was on strike last summer, and I was, in a small way, grateful for that time to process the intense and sudden pain of losing one of the most important people in my life, the best man at my wedding, who had just graduated from college six months before. A dreamer and passionate advocate for the environment. An Oreo- and Pokémon-loving kid. I’m still reeling from losing Austin, in many ways. I think that’s bled into my work quite a bit since then, especially my writing. I’ve been wrestling a lot with meaning, with time, with love – with God. But it’s a good kind of wrestling. It’s a long journey to whatever healing is. I’m on it. Step by step.

I’m sure there were a million little struggles along the way, but those are the big ones that I think have defined me to this point. It definitely rocks life into perspective when you’re twenty years old and you’re told you won’t ever play contact sports again, no more riding a bike, no more of half the things you always took for granted. They say “time heals all wounds,” but that’s not true. That elbow won’t heal, and that’s okay. It sucks, but it is okay. I’ve accepted it, and honestly, the healing thing has become a nice metaphor for life, where healing is relative and pain is a reminder of what we’ve overcome and toxic positivity is runs rampant among our public dialogue regarding things like pain and disease and loss and grief. I still hate that I am not allowed to play football or basketball, and I miss riding a bike, but I’ve accepted that those things are just too risky.

Ultimately, we are what happens to us. That’s absolutely true. But so much more than that, we are defined by how we respond to what happens to us. How we choose to approach each day from there. I’ve suffered terrible pain and horrible loss. But I’ve also found, along the way, that people are good. I’ve made the most amazing friends and beautiful memories, and I’m so thankful for all of them, as well as my incredibly supportive family, and my wonderful wife, Sarah. I could never have gotten through any of this alone. I’m so glad I didn’t have to try.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?

I’m an actor, a screenwriter, and a director. I’ve appeared in nearly a hundred indie films, short films, web series, musicals, plays, you name it. I’ve had two feature scripts produced (Cadia: The World Within and Forbearance), along with one pilot and about sixteen or so short films. I also directed Cadia, and am gearing up to direct my next feature film pretty soon, which I wish I could share more about right now. More on that down the road.

I’m definitely proud of Cadia. I was only twenty-three years old and there I was directing Corbin Bernsen, whom I’ve always admired, and James Phelps. I think we were all a bit nervous, but they were both wonderful beyond words, onscreen and off. We also had a number of terrific indie actors, like John Wells, Nicky Buggs, Rick Montgomery Jr, and Russell Hawkins in the cast. And our leads, Keegan, Carly, and Tanner Sells, were unbelievable in their energy and professionalism. They were fifteen, I think? Sixteen? I would’ve never been able to handle it as well as they did at that age. But then again, as a crew, I think we had two people over the age of 25. It felt a lot like summer camp and I think we benefited from that – it was fun. It was exhausting (principal photography was just thirteen days, largely in a forest), but it was fun. I really didn’t know what I was doing, I suspect, but I didn’t know that yet, so I did it anyway. We never lost that sense of joy, and I’ve carried that forward with me in my career.

I’m really proud of the film. It’s a beautiful little indie family fantasy that grapples with the difficult realities of loss and love and family, and I’m especially proud of some of the shots – Daniel Stemen is a terrific cinematographer and was able to elevate so many of our locations with his eye for light and frame. And I’m so grateful to my producers, Zach Throne and Schalet Jackson, for their incredible work driving that film forward – and Mark Stewart, who was an early believer in Cadia and who later bought my script Forbearance and produced it. Having Mark champion me early in my career made a world of difference. He gave me the chance any young, hungry filmmaker needs.

As an actor, I’m proud of many of the amazing projects I’ve been a part of, but The Coroner’s Assistant will always ring out as a favorite. This was the most indie series you could imagine. A period piece, set in Victorian England, filming in Cleveland, Ohio, made by a bunch of people that just loved the story and wanted to have fun together. There’s that word again: fun. And wow, did we have fun. We worked incredibly hard and took big risks, and the first season ended up being nominated for two Astra Awards and eleven Indie Series Awards, where I was nominated for Best Leading Actor – Comedy (I didn’t win, but the show won Best Costumes, Best Supporting Actor – Comedy for Jeremy Gladen, and the ISA14 Spotlight Award). I just love the show so much, I love the character of James, and I’m really, really excited about potentially making a second season soon.

I’m proud of my stage work as well – I recently appeared in Butterflies Are Free at the Judson Theatre Company alongside Stephen Shore, Morgan-Ellene Davis, and Morgan Fairchild, and I got to play one of my dream roles as William Shakespeare in Something Rotten! with Devon Frieder Productions in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I just finished up a run as Gleb in the musical Anastasia with Sceneworks Studios and am about to play him again in a different production of Anastasia in Lynchburg, Virginia. I also got to play Robert F. Kennedy Sr. at the Bluff City Theatre in the beautiful one man show Kennedy: Bobby’s Last Crusade, a ninety-minute monologue about Bobby’s run for the presidency in 1968. I’m extremely proud of that one, and I’m really hoping we can organize another run of it soon.

I also have a YouTube channel where I analyze music videos and live performances and teach my audience about cinematography, symbolism, production design, editing, acting, and vocal technique for singers. That’s been a ton of fun, and it’s been cool to learn more about my craft and discover some pretty amazing international artists as a result. And yes – it did turn me into a BTS Army stan. I love them.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?

Luck is where hard work meets preparation, right? It always plays a factor in this industry. The casting director got a text that put them in a good mood right before your audition, you happened to submit your materials right as the producer was checking their email, a friend you met on set has a feature coming up and your Star Wars t-shirt led to a conversation about film that leads to them offering you a role (obviously we both love The Last Jedi in that scenario).

But it doesn’t mean anything if you haven’t done the work. Several of my roles have happened because the actor originally cast had to drop out. That’s luck, but I had to see the opportunity and go take it. Sometimes I wonder if luck mostly disguises itself as kindness, compassion, and drive. A door opens, but you have to choose to walk through it. So much of that comes down to treating people well, caring about your art and the story being told, and being ready with your craft. It’s a small world, too – the more people I’ve met, the more friends I’ve made, the more lucky I’ve been. There’s something to that, I bet.

So ultimately, I’m not sure. I don’t want to discredit it. Luck is an absolutely necessary part of this industry and this life. But I also think it results from what you’re putting into the world. The kind of people you attract, the kind of dreams you dream. How prepared you are, how dedicated you are, how secure in yourself and your identity you are. It’s all random chance, I guess, but isn’t it derived from the choices we make? Would I have found out that I had cancer in time to treat it if I hadn’t fallen while roller skating? I’m currently playing a supporting role in a feature where one of my best friends happens to be the lead – is that luck? I live in a world where Paddington 2 exists. Luck? I don’t know, but I’m grateful.

I believe that I’m fulfilling my vocation as an actor and writer and director – is it luck, then, that my professors pushed me to change majors, right before my cancer diagnosis, which forced me to really commit to this dream? And is it luck that I happened to go to school in a city with one of the top cancer hospitals in the country? I suppose it is, but it’s also unlucky that I got cancer, right? We make meaning out of experience. And that’s not a bad thing! That’s what gives life texture and beauty and poetry.

I guess it’s something of a theological question. And I guess how one defines God – an inherently indefinable concept – would impact how one perceives luck. For example, I don’t believe that God is writing out a script for my life, pushing little pieces around on a board. None of it would be luck if that were the case, right? But since I believe that God is love, and if I love others and myself as best as I’m able in each moment I encounter, then what matters more than luck is how our life leads us to respond to those moments. Do we choose kindness? Do we choose empathy? Do we choose inclusiveness and hope and joy? Do we let ourselves cry and hurt and feel righteous anger? If we do – and I think I do, I hope I do – then maybe luck plays a larger and larger role in our lives as we open ourselves up to the painful and beautiful variety of life’s experiences. Especially as an creative, where you need to be vulnerable, to trust others. You have to be able to authentically live to whatever circumstance you are in and choose how you will respond to it.

Bad things happen to good people. Good things happen to bad people. Things happen to people. Who we choose to be, when things happen to us, is what matters. So I guess I’m defining luck as our relative perspective on that which occurs to us and how we fold that into our lives. And under that definition, it’s played an extraordinary role, for better and for worse. I’ve been both incredibly lucky and incredibly unlucky, and I’m grateful to be surrounded by friends and family that are there for me in both circumstances.

So… yeah. This’ll be a fun thought spiral for days to come. I’m gonna go make some coffee and stare out in the distance now.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cedricgegel.wixsite.com/cedric-gegel
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cedricgegel/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cedricgegel/
• Twitter: https://x.com/CedricGegel
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CedricGegel1
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7391561/

Image Credits

Alexander South / Southern Productions, Kaitlyn Lunardi, Schalet Jackson, Just a Skosh Productions LLC, Diana Cambronero, Jerri Shafer / JAMS Photography, United Front Films, Spen Gollie Pictures / IDC Entertainment, Western Star Entertainment Group, Dark Temple Motion Pictures / Trick Candle Productions, Daniel Stemen, JD Saugen, Amy Graves, Old Coal Pictures / Angeline Productions