Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jude Carl Vincent. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jude Carl, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

But two moments stand out that solidified my passion.

There is a Haitian comedian named Jesifra whose videotapes I would watch all the time growing up. I knew all his plays word for word, bar for bar. He was magnetic on stage, hilarious, had genius timing, and all of his pieces, although they were funny, spoke to the times of Haiti and always had a theme of peace and unity. Watching him planted the seed in my head.

What really sealed the deal for me was being a huge fan of The Famous Jett Jackson. Seeing Lee Thompson Young on screen in The Famous Jett Jackson and Johnny Tsunami made me realize that I wanted to do exactly what he was doing. So those two men are on my ‘Mount Rushmore’ and the reason I knew I wanted to do this. To make people laugh, smile, feel, and think through my art.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am Jude Carl Vincent, an actor, producer, and writer born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. I first started acting at five years old, performing shows and skits in church. Throughout my education, I was very active in all of my schools’ drama clubs and choirs, from PS114 all the way to graduate school. I’m a first-generation American, with both of my parents having immigrated from Haiti. In high school, I was part of my school’s Forensics Team, where in 2010, I became the New York State Varsity Oral Interpretation Champion, performing Bernie Mac’s ‘I Ain’t Scared of You.’

I attended Clark Atlanta University for my undergraduate studies, where I was involved in the theater scene, and then went to graduate school for my MFA at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. There, I trained for 3 years. Was able to go to London and study, and performed at the Clarence Brown Theatre where I was in about two shows each semester. I moved to LA in 2018 and was fortunate enough to secure representation before arriving. I’ve had roles on CBS’s ‘The Unicorn,’ Apple TV’s ‘Puppy Place’ and ‘Lady in the Lake.’ I was also part of the 2021 Disney Television Showcase cast (formerly known as the ABC Showcase) and appeared in Episode 3 of Keke Palmer’s web series, ‘The Psychological Evolution of F*ck Boys.’

Coming off the strike, which in hindsight was a huge blessing for me, I was forced to sit down and think about two things: 1) The concept of fulfillment and what that really looks like for me, and 2) How I can use every ounce of creativity I was born with outside of just acting. With that, I ended up writing my first short film and produced a play reading series at the Soho House in West Hollywood called ‘ Soho House Stage Stories’

I wanted to be a working actor, and if casting directors aren’t ready to cast me right now, that’s cool because the world will catch up to me when they’re ready. But I was going to bank on myself and cast myself and my friends who I know are genius actors and inspire me, in pieces that I love or that resonate with me. ‘Topdog/Underdog’ is one of my favorite plays of all time, and I could wait until it goes on Broadway again, or I could take matters into my own hands: cast myself in the role I want, get a director, get a space, gather some people, and make it happen. That’s what I did, and it was the first show I performed in my series—giving myself space, permission, and betting on myself.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A big thing I had to unlearn was equating fulfillment and my love for acting with the business of acting. When I first moved to LA, I remember my manager and I went out for dinner. She told me, “You need to make sure you have happiness outside of this and not attach your happiness to this business because it will really affect you.” I was like, “lol, of course,” but then I started living here and saw that I was doing just that.

Think about it, LA wasn’t home. I moved to LA on business and to make a dream happen. If we’re being real here, the more you’re in this industry and around people in the game, it’s EASY to start comparing yourself to someone else’s journey. It’s easy to have moments of feeling defeated or frustrated because you’re not getting callbacks, or seeing everybody’s Deadline article on Instagram, or a casting office not giving you the time of day because you don’t have enough credits, or seeing something on TV and thinking, “Now, why didn’t I get seen for this?” and LA can be a transactional place where often times you go to these different spaces and people lead with “what do you do?” “What were you in?” and your value and how the interact and treat you is determined by your resume not who you are as a person.

But it took work. Real, real, real work to get to a grounded place and actively silence that noise, separating my love for this from the business of this, having an unshakable spirit. Do those thoughts still come? Man, absolutely, but the work I’ve done allows that thought to just be a thought and not something I have to attach myself to or ruminate on. And with that, it forced to take matters into my own hands and betting on myself more, etc.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is making people feel. Whether someone feels seen by a piece, they feel heard, or it triggers something from their past that they haven’t dealt with, or it unlocks a core childhood memory, or they see something that inspires them or makes you want to call something just to talk because a character reminds you of a friend or loved one—it’s all about the heart and what you feel. For me, whether I’m in something or watching something, it’s always about connecting with the audience on an emotional level.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @judecarlvincent
• Twitter: @judecarlvincent

Image Credits

@iamneither