We were lucky to catch up with Bryan Kreutz recently and have shared our conversation below.
Bryan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?
Sooner! I acted in a stage play with heavy dialogue as a child (9-10 years old) in St. Louis Missouri. being friends with child actors. Shortly after that huge co-starring stage play performance, my parents and I didn’t pursue acting. Instead, I was heavily persuaded to get into broadcast journalism, sports play-by-play, and TV/radio news. More than decade after graduating college with a broadcast journalism/communications diploma in hand and bouncing around from radio gigs, one with a CBS radio affiliate in Illinois, I realized I missed performing. I soon starting to take acting seriously again, getting called by first name with casting directors in both Missouri and in California in my early 30s after signing with talent agents in both states. I noticed there’s something special that happens when working with child actors. As a child or even an adolescent actor, they typically have less responsibilities and overhead. Therefore, more time is afforded to naturally develop their acting craft in the game that can be developed with casting directors over time when they reach young adulthood. As a performer in my 30’s and now in my 40’s, I find more than half of my time is spent working as the writer and producer to ensure the acting project I’m involved with has the best production value and meaning when performing. Homing in on solely the craft of acting alone is more challenging now. If only I had started …..and continued acting seriously sooner. To date I’ve acted in over a hundred commercials either in front of the camera or behind the mic in Voiceovers for companies, products or promotional spots for shows or sports.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’ve always had a creative imagination loving to mimic commercials or acting roles then add my own spin on it. An easy way to put it would be singing a song and replacing the words with something more edifying to my own liking and growth. To do this, I would listen to an actor’s voice with careful listening of each beat then get the tones and inflection spot-on to then mimic and translate this into a character motivation for my own. This led to me wanting to also be creative as a writer, performer and producer by make something creative that already worked and made it to Hollywood and then make my own spin on it. Even down to the written dialogue by playing someone else, sometimes written by me. I started acting in plays alongside “St. Louis Muny” theater kids at the age of nine then I was in rather large stage play at ten. In my first stage performance I was the lead actor alongside two other biblical kings with about forty lines of dialogue playing on stage in front of hundreds of people. Before getting into the entertainment industry, I would mimic car or food commercials in 1980’s and 90’s television, which would give me emotional inspiration that intrigued me in the delivery. Doing this delivery thousands of times and even repeating it back to my parents, friends and sometimes siblings helped me realize If I deliver a solid statement, like a commercial does in an announcer voice, I have inner fulfillment and the attention I desirably sought after. The main thing I want potential casting directors, TV production companies and followers to know about me is the emotional attachment of playing a character or even being myself as a TV talk show host is driven by a strong emotional inner-kid with no boundaries, societal rules or limits to bring life to the camera. The project I’m most proud of is the current TV talk show I’m co-hosting with Lili Fox-Lim called “A Captain’s Log”. Not only do we both get to fulfill our dream of meeting and interviewing Star Trek’s franchise personalities, but we get to do this together as friends in front of fans on television! Our TV show “A Captain’s Log” has grown exponentially entering homes on 30 television stations in 14 states and Lili and I are coming off being Star Trek panelists at our first comic-con alongside Manu Intiraymi (Star Trek: Voyager actor) in Aurora Colorado (Aurora Mini-Con 2024). Moreover, we’ve already pitched our TV show to a major television network in 2024, learned a lot in that experience, to now pitching our show as a streaming series for pickup with the Try Guys entertainment (2nd Try Entertainment ) in a few weeks.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Reading a script or teleprompter that has been conceived and imagined by another person or even myself in a different mind-set behind a computer keyboard or talk-to text note is a good start to writing out research and eventually a script. But as an actor and also a talk show host, these two roles have played heavily into my life both recently and currently doing a Star Trek talk show on broadcast TV (“A Captain’s Log”). This talk show is on a larger scale now that were taping the show in Los Angeles. The stakes are higher and the goal is to sell this show not just as a pilot but as a wholly developed and produced show and concept. The energy and camera presence working opposite my co-host Lili Fox-Lim is critical to have an open mind and open friendship to trust each other that we will say or back each other up on what is needed in an ad-lib or reaction moment on camera. Vigorous energy and delivery within seconds to breathe life into an episode is the recognition for my work that I like to see with not just an award, but a laugh or reaction out of someone on set or later after watching the show. Acting in a character dialogue role is something I ensure that I have passionate and friendly sets of people to surround myself with so the experience is positive. Having a positive outlook or silver lining on any given situation makes me want to research and play the role to the best of my abilities and gives a hop in my step to make people smile and have that warm fuzzy feeling inside.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
First off just because I have celebrity friends or work with people in high-profile positions doesn’t mean I agree with their expertise on social, political or religious topics. I respect that American’s and these friends, like me have our own opinions, based on our own unique experiences, but because they are famous or influential doesn’t mean society should take every word they say and run with it. Do your own research and know what’s in your heart matters. supporting artists and creatives would help tremendously if we have bigger and better tax credits, especially here in California. We need every edge we can get whether it’s a TV talk show, a sci-fi scripted TV series or a streaming gem diamond in the rough to get off the ground. The state is oozing with wealth and if used properly we can thrive in Hollywood, union or even non-union.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://up-on-high-ground.fandom.com/wiki/Bryan_Kreutz
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a_captains_log_show/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bryan.kreutz/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-kreutz-503b9918/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ACaptainsLog
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3840743/
Image Credits
BK Studios
Tristan Brown
KJSL Radio – Crawford Broadcasting company
Tooth Fairies – LILLIXLILI Productions