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

Alright, Kyle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I am a firm believer in work ethic, tenacity and mental toughness. In entertainment, especially in today’s climate with covid and strikes and so many variables we have little control over it can be easy to throw in the towel. Excuses and legitimate reasons to pursue a stable career and “take a break” are more available than ever, and I’ve seen a lot of really talented creatives ring the bell, so to speak. It is difficult to see people who are so good at what they do have to make those decisions, but I understand doing what is best for financial situations or if you have families to feed.

That being said, for those of us still in it, that is where those factors come in to play. In order to find success in anything I believe persistence is key. One of my mentors told me “You’ve just gotta be available. If you’re prepared and you hang around long enough you’ll get an opportunity.” I love that and have lived by it over the last few years here in L.A.

I look at actors, writers, and people outside of entertainment who have been successful in their chosen fields, and those are the consistent elements I’ve found. They aren’t afraid to work hard, they aren’t above any work, and they have the belief in themselves that will carry them through anything that comes their way. I try to embody that in my pursuit of the entertainment industry as much as possible, especially right now.

Kyle, 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?

One of the things I love most about L.A. is the fact that everyone here has a “Hollywood story.” A driving force that brought them out here for one reason or another. I’m no exception to that.

I grew up in a law enforcement household, and as a kid I had two dreams: To be a police officer, or to be an actor. On one hand, I grew up riding in my dad’s police cruiser, hanging out at the station, and seeing him in his “superhero uniform.” On the other hand, I loved everything about film. We would rent a Papa John’s pizza and watch a movie every friday night as a kid and I remember being in complete wonder of the make-believe worlds and thinking how cool it would be to be a part of them. I would also write scripts and make home videos with my friends in the neighborhood. You could call it ultra-ultra-ULTRA low budget, but it allowed me to develop those creative skills from the time I was 9 or 10.

Fast forward to high school and I started focusing on becoming a police officer. However, I also began writing and performing stand-up comedy and YouTube sketch videos that I would act in with friends. I was still straddling the two dreams of mine and hadn’t really committed to either one yet.

A few years later I would commit to law enforcement. I went to college and graduated police academy at the top of my class, worked as a Corrections Deputy for a short time before being promoted to patrol, where I got to live my dream of being a police officer. I would watch the desert sunset from my patrol car, share holiday meals at the hospital with my coworkers, or give a kid a badge sticker and think I had the best job in the world. My years as a police officer were some of the best memories of my life, and always will be. But something was missing. As happy as I was, I would also patrol the empty roads at night and wonder what would have happened had I really pursued the entertainment industry?

I believe everything happens for a reason, and a short while later I was given the opportunity to act in an indie film. My sergeant knew the directors and they needed a few real police officers to arrest their leads in a bar scene. My sergeant asked if any of us wanted to be in a movie, and I almost turned on my lights and sirens so I could get there first. I had an amazing experience on set with two talented (and patient) directors, and after that hour or so spent going over blocking, improv’ing a few lines, and talking with the cast and crew I knew that I wanted to do that. I had to do that. My love for film making and acting specifically was re-ignited.

Six months later I moved to Los Angeles and started taking classes. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to work with those two directors on other projects, meet countless new people I’ve grown to love and support, and have had experiences I never would have thought possible if I was still a cop. It wasn’t easy to walk away from a stable career that I was excelling at, especially at 25 years old, but I’m very proud to say I’ve been surviving out here in LA for over four years now, and I’ve made a lot of progress since I started.

One thing I’ve found sets me apart from other actors is my experience of being a cop. I’ve seen about every aspect of human life, the best and the worst, and that real-life experience has been invaluable in developing characters both as an actor and writer. I use those experiences almost daily in my work. Aside from that, it has been very beneficial to have real weapons and tactical training, so that when a project calls for those scenes, I can not only be comfortable, but help other people on set feel comfortable. I’ve been able to do a lot of precision driving as well, which has been great. Every time I sit in a police car on set, I feel at home.

I’ve enjoyed working with about every kind of person since moving to LA in 2019. I love that about this industry. You never know who you will meet, when you will meet them, or how your paths may cross again in the future. Keeping that in mind is essential to success in anything, but especially in entertainment since I feel it is a much smaller world than most believe. I’ve enjoyed building the network I currently have and look forward to continuously growing it. At the end of the day, I love every aspect of film making, and I hope to have a long, fulfilling career where I can work with amazing people and make a difference with my work. I miss being a cop sometimes, but with acting and writing, I have the opportunity to make people feel something. To make them question, or reflect, or hope, or help them through something they are going through without ever meeting them, and that is such a cool thing to me.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Everyone always asks me the same question: Why leave a stable career if you enjoyed it and were good at it? My answer is also the same, I was missing something. I couldn’t explain what it was, but I always had that nagging feeling that I should have given acting a shot. Finally, I just told myself I’m not getting any younger, and if I start now (at 25) I still have plenty of time to learn and develop into the type of actor, writer, and person I want to be.

Again, I absolutely believe everything happens for a reason and purpose, and that night on the indie set for me was the catalyst I needed to make a change. I loved being a cop, and I loved the people I worked with day in and day out, but I had to take the opportunity to pursue something else that I wanted. I don’t regret anything and I also wouldn’t change the way any of it happened.

I watch a lot of videos of creatives and their journeys, both known and not well known, but a video that stuck with me was Jim Carrey’s commencement speech. He talks about his dad wanting to pursue entertainment but choosing the safe job of being an accountant. He said that once his dad was laid off from his accounting firm, he learned that you can fail at something you don’t enjoy. So if that’s the case, why not pursue what you actually want to do?

I try to encourage people as much as they can to pursue what they enjoy, no matter what industry it’s in, and I hope my story can also be an inspiration for that.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Freedom. For me, I love the freedom to express myself however I want through art. Whether it’s acting, and having the freedom to build a character a certain way, or writing and having total creative control of the world and all the characters, I love being able to create in that way.

Aside from that, I’d be lying if I said it’s not also nice to be able to grow my hair out and not look like such a cop all the time!

With the freedom comes responsibility and accountability to manage my career and time, but I enjoy having that kind of autonomy. I can wake up and say today I’m going to write out one of my ideas that’s been sitting in my notes for a year, or when an audition comes along I can spend my morning developing backstory for the character or reading scripts that take place in worlds I have an opportunity to live in. I love that.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/kyle_r_maddox
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kyle.maddox.16

Image Credits
James Lamarr, Jessica Staples