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

Kevin, appreciate you joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

If I could go back in time, I do wish that I had started acting earlier. I believe that with all that I have accomplished to date, which is a lot, I would be even further ahead in my career and more established. Research has shown that the average Actors career length is about 28.4 years and although there was wide spread of careers, 46.5% of Actors had a film career between 20 and 40 years. To add to this, the Acting journey is a process full of rejection and layers, which in most cases just like anything else, takes time. Therefore, if life permits it, the earlier the journey and process starts, even with all the rejection that awaits us, the better. However, the good news is that it is never too late to fulfill your dreams, goals and aspirations as there are many people who got their start a bit later in life. Some of the names that comes to mind are Samuel L. Jackson, Alan Rickman, Betty White, Christopher Waltz, Melissa McCarthy, Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, Kathy Bates, Kevin D. Benton and who could forget Actress Dorthy Steel who entered the acting profession at age 88 and at age 92 played a merchant tribe elder in Marvels blockbuster “Black Panther” and returned in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” If it can happen for them it can happen for others who may have started a little later in their lives. It is never too late to fulfill our dreams, goals and aspirations. Therefore, I encourage people to dream big because dreams really do come true if we believe, persevere and do not quit. It is going to get hard sometimes and we are going to feel like quitting but do not quit.

Kevin, 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?

For those who may have ever read about me before, if I can share a little bit about myself, my original dream was to play in the NBA but didn’t make it. I did however, get invited to 76ers rookie camp and earned my way to veteran’s camp where I played against the late, great Kobe Bryant and a host of other NBA players. Even though I did not make it to the NBA as an actual player, I did make it to the NBA as an Actor. I got cast to portray an NBA player for a big project that is coming to a major streaming network.  I had the opportunity to put on an authentic NBA uniform, walk out that tunnel, be on the bench, out on that floor, run layups and play hoops and it was so fulfilling. Just as an encouraging side note, sometimes in life, we have to re-invent or dreams, goals and aspirations when they do not or did not pan out the way we originally wanted them to. There is more than one way to fulfill our dreams, goals and aspirations if we find it and step into it.  Getting back on track, I was the “Player of the Year” as a senior at Mastbaum Area Vocational Technical School where I majored in electronics. I earned a full athletic scholarship to go to the University of Delaware. While at “UD”, I was on the first team in school history to participate in the NCAA tournament. I ended up transferring to Liberty University and finished my college basketball career there. While at “LU”, I was on the first team in school history to participate in the NCAA tournament again. After college, despite not making it to the NBA, I did go on to play professional basketball overseas. It was a great experience that really broadened my horizons and cultivated me as a person, especially culturally. After I retired from playing professional basketball, I continued to work with kids. I really love kids and have worked with kids from all walks of life. I try to use my decorated resume of achievements to encourage, inspire and motivate them, especially the kids that have grown up in the inner city as I did. In addition to being a former professional basketball player, I am also a Best-selling Author and Writer. I am always seeking to reinvent myself and trying to discover the untapped gifts, talents and abilities that are already inside of me just waiting to come out and that I can used. With this being said, I did not know acting would be in my future and I never saw it coming, let along becoming a Multi Award-Winning, “Best Film Actor” and T.V. SAG-AFTRA Actor. To add to this, to be on set and/or work with Industry Legends such as Adam Sandler, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, William H. Macy, Richard Greer, Diane Keaton, the late great Chadwick Bozeman, Gabrielle Union, John Bernthal, Tracy Morgan, Hawthorne James, Kevin Hart, Bryan Cranston, Natasha Henstridge and the list goes on. It is surreal because even though I am an Actor, I am also a fan as well, of course without the fanaticism as I always have to remain professional while working on set. It is surreal because I am actually in the scenes with these great people and great Actors. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure that I am not dreaming but I am dreaming. I am living my dream and it is every bit as real as real can be. 

How I got started Acting is very interesting because I was working a job where I was being treated very badly. I remember being at work one day and while I was cleaning up my work station and thinking to myself, “I deserve better than this and I should be doing more.” It just so happen that the TV was on a channel where a woman who was a backup singer for a famous singer was being interviewed and told the man who was interviewing her that while she was a backup singer, she felt as if she should be doing more. This catching my attention because of what I was just thinking to myself, I decided that I was fed up with this job. I decided to go on our city government’s website to look for another job. I began uploading my degree and work resume to the website as I applied for jobs. I was so desperate that I was open to a career change. Browsing around the webpage, I scrolled down to the bottom of the page and I saw a link that read, “Philadelphia Film Office.” Being a movie lover, I clicked it on and I saw casting notices for commercials, short films, and feature films etc. etc. The listing that caught my attention was the title “CREED” so I click it on and it was a casting notice for fight fans and no Acting experience was needed. I didn’t think that I would get cast so I didn’t apply right away but I looked at the casting notice 3 days in a row until I finally decided to apply by sending in my headshot. Thanks to Heery-Loftus Casting, who does the casting for the major projects in the Philadelphia and surrounding area, I received an email that I was cast. Up on getting the good news, I could have ran the Art Museum steps like Rock 5 times I was so happy. It was one of the best experiences in my life from start to finish. The positive energy on set was magical. Seeing Sylvester Stallone, Michael B. Jordan was amazing. When Sly came out the crowd started pumping their fist and cheering, “Rocky, Rocky, Rocky.” It was unforgettable. When I left set that night I said to myself, ” This is what I want to do” and I have been grinding every since. I learned that sometimes, unbeknown to us at first, our pain, problems and persecution will push us into our destiny. Here I am today with the best still on its way.

I am very proud of all of my accomplishments, especially in Basketball and Acting but I am most proud of my 2 degrees that I earned from college. I have an Associates of Arts degree in Psychology and a Bachelor of Science degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. With this being said, I know that with my character traits, people skills, positivity, professionalism, work ethic, experience and my professional and respectable brand, just to name a few, I will be an asset to any production, set or place that I am hired to be a part of. I do not say this arrogantly but confident in knowing what I bring to the table holistically. If you do not believe in yourself, no one else will.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I do not have a following like some other household name Actors but I do have a good strategy as it pertains to where I am right now in my career. In explaining this, I know that I’m going to offend a lot of people on social media by what about to say but I have to say it. “Poor Man’s Marketing” (PMM) to build your following is laziness, not as effective as putting in your own hard work and will only take you so far. For example let’s look at facebook, “Poor Man’s Marketing” is tagging, tagging, tagging and posting, posting, posting on other people’s wall to market your brand to try to build your own audience, fans and following. Keeping it real and sad to say, but sometimes people in this industry can be very, very selfishly ambitious among exemplifying many other negative characteristics. Ouch! I know that hurt for those who this may apply to but the fact of the matter is, we all have to work hard to build our own social media audience, fans and following by cultivating genuine relationships with them. We cannot live and try to make “Big” off of others but have to find, connect with and build our own social media audience. Too often, I see people tagging, tagging, tagging on other person’s facebook walls and they wonder why they still are not getting the support, clicks and comments that they wanted. The reason is because that is someone else’s audience, fans and followers. In a case like this, if the person who owns the wall endorses what someone has posted on their wall by encouraging their following to support it, then there is a better chance of getting a supportive response. Other than that, people are not going to be interested unless it is something that definitively interest and benefits them personally. Please do not get me wrong, if you have a personal relationship or connection with the person’s whose wall you are posting on and they are ok with it and they endorse it, this is fine. However, you have a lot of scenarios where you meet someone for the first time, you have not worked with them and do not have a personally relationship with them and they want to tag, tag, tag away on your wall. I think that it is fair for us to want our wall to look like our wall and not look like someone else wall. 

How I built and continue to build my audience on social media is by establishing that my social media pages which compliments each other, are professional pages primarily focused on Acting and my Acting journey. I say primarily because it doesn’t mean that our social media pages can’t reflect other ideas, conversations, passions and different aspects of our profession but we have to remember that we are building our brand.  Most importantly, we always want our brand to be professional and respectable because someone is always watching us. Additionally, we also have to remember that the people who hire us are hiring our brand because it fits into the scheme of their brand. With this being said, we have to protect our brand because once again someone is always watching us so we have to be careful what we post on our social media. Keep in mind that once we push “post” even if we delete it, it can still be found. As I stated earlier, we definitely have to be careful what we allow others to post on our social media, especially the “Poor Man’s Marketers” who don’t care if what they post on your wall will negatively affect our brand. The other key to building a social media presence is consistency. We have to be consistently keeping our audience connected to us. For example, there are times when there may not be much going on in terms of things that we can post to keep your audience engaged or connected to us so you might want to create an ongoing weekly blog. I have a blog called, “Kevin’s Korner” that I write every week just to encourage, motivate and inspire my audience, fans and followers. This is my way of making an investment in them. This is my way of giving back to each individual who follows and supports me. What I have found is that every one of our followers wants to feel like we give them that personal touch and within the scope of what we can do, we have to make each one of them feel like they are our #1 fan. I told you it is work. For me I make sure that I take the time to respond to each comment on my post even if it is simply clicking a “heart” or a “like” on it. In some cases, I will personally respond to 300 comments to let me audience; fans and followers know how much I really appreciate them. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to do this if I had millions of followers but on the level that I am at, on the busier days, I may click a “heart” or a “like” on every comment and leave 1 comment at the bottom of the post thanking and appreciating everyone. Just think for a second, if we are not going to respond to everyone in some way shape of form equally, we shouldn’t respond to anyone to the exception of the most meaningful people in our lives. (Grandmother, Grandfather, Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister). If people have a problem with this then there is nothing we can do about this because we can’t please everyone. Nonetheless, it seems unfair but it’s the nature of our audience, followers and fans. They want to connect with us because it something about us, and what we do that resonates with them and that they can identify with. It is something about us that encourages, inspires and motivated them and they want to connect with us. Make no mistake about it, building an audience is hard work but we have to do it because we don’t make it without our audience, our following and our fans.

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

The particular goal or mission driving my Acting journey is serving others. I want to serve the Art well and serve others. Because of all those who have served the Art well before me, I have an obligation to do the same. Being in a position to do what we do as Actors is an honor and a privilege and we need to approach it and treated as such. We live above average lives and have access that the average person does not get every day and it is an honor and a privilege. To add to this, as I use my platform to serve others, my mindset and personal approach is that I assist in providing an escape for people around the world, some of whom may desperately need it. I understand that we live in a world where people are hurting, wounded, fractured and broken. I understand that people are going through pain, problems, persecution, trials, troubles and tribulations and want, need and/or are looking for an escape even if it is for a couple of hours while they watch me on TV or the Big Screen. We are a part of telling stories that influence people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors in positive and negative ways. The characters that we portray make people laugh, cry and even get angry but during that hour or two that they are connecting with our character they are not thinking about their problems, their bills, their job and so forth and so on. We bring people together and cause strangers in a theater to connect through the movie going experience and it is something magical about that. We are a part of telling stories that inform, educate, persuade and entertain just to name few purposes but whatever the case, we provide a desperately needed escape for the world and I have the honor and privilege of being a part of it, thus serving others and I take ever role serious because of it. Our gifts, talents and abilities are to serve others and give away and that’s what I do. To play a small part in this process brings me such inward fulfillment along with the passion that comes from being in front of the camera. God bless.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://imdb.me/KevinDBenton
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/actorkevindbenton
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/actorkevindbenton
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-d-benton-a00111b2
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/KevinDBenton
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/kevinbentonministry/videos
• Other: The Kevin & Nikee Show on iHEART Radio link. https://www.iheart.com/podcast/966-the-kevin-nikee-sho-28826238/ The Kevin & Nikee Show Facebook Community Group link https://www.facebook.com/groups/563614523969844

Image Credits
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