Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Megan McNulty. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Megan, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
As an educator at heart, I am deeply grateful to all of the educators who have given me the continued gift of craft. No matter what I am teaching (academics, character study, on camera auditioning), I reflect back on the wisdom and words from my own mentors. My acting mentor, Warner Loughlin, gifted me with the permission to fail. I’ll never forget her telling my type-A achieving self (after seeing my verbose analytical written work) to do less, including not worry about the words (of my work or my scene). She taught me to throw my focus on the other person and think a thought… one thought to the next… and to leave the ego that worried over whether I was good enough at the door. It took the focus off me and back to what mattered… the characters and the work. My writing mentor, Charlotte Chatton, gifted me with the power of the truth. “It carries a weight no lie can counterfeit.” She taught me the importance of character based story telling and gave me the literal knowledge (and my most favorite docs) to break it all down so that I could devote those 10,000 hours towards the craft of film and tv writing, which I’m so blessed to share with my writing partner, Nikki DeLoach. My Martial Arts mentors, Grandmaster Keith Winkle and Master Kati Peregoy, gifted me with a curiosity to achieve something beyond what my mind could ever comprehend. I’m not a first degree black belt working towards second because of perfection, but because I just keep showing up when I can, as I am. I “practice like perform and perform like practice” and I see my feet (or hands) going through boards in my mind’s eye. Still, there’s a massive amount of skill and the fundamentals must be strong. When those fundamentals are off, boards don’t break and I don’t pass a testing to get my next belt. Developing skill and craft is always the key and I have tried to impart that across my own classroom settings, ages and areas of study. It’s at the core of everything we do and when we make it about the work, we find the purpose and the joy. Every time I have made it about anything else (a credit, an accolade, a paycheck, a proof of who I am), I get frustrated and the imperfection manager takes over. By going back to what I know, what I’ve learned and what I still need to learn, I get back to the place I always want my own students to find. The place where it’s a conversation and we’re all working together to figure out the best story.
Megan, 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?
My website will tell you I am a Writer-Producer/Actor/
I always knew I wanted to be an educator, a special educator to be specific (and specificity is a big deal for me in all aspects of my current industry/craft). I organized my class schedule senior year of high school to student teach in the special ed class at our local middle school. I still remember my students’ names and think about how they’re doing now. I’ve amassed hundreds of students in the 30 years since and envision a giant gathering someday, where they’re all together. But moving on, I attended my dream school (UVA), majored in Drama in the College of Arts & Sciences and pursued my Masters of Teaching at the then Curry School (now School of Education & Human Development). During the academic year, I worked by day at the Drama Department Box Office for my work study and learned how to teach young minds. This led to my 5th year of student teaching middle and high schoolers in Albemarle County. By night, I performed in many a show on the Helms and Culbreth stages (previously shared by amazing alum Tina Fey). And during the summers, I was blessed to both perform and choreograph for the then Heritage Theatre Festival (now Virginia Theatre Festival). Dancing and singing in the ensemble for Guys and Dolls was my first professional paycheck and I was exhilarated to work alongside the actors who were jobbed in from New York. It was magical summer theatre in Charlottesville and by my fifth year I was choreographing those New Yorkers (West Side Story, Carousel). I moved to New York with my best friend (who I met at a different summerstock) and my girlfriend from the Ed School at UVA. While bartending at the then Mars 2112 (alien themed restaurant/Times Square tourist trap), I found out we were robbed in our Willamsburg apartment. We promptly moved to Hells Kitchen, cramming three of us into a teeny (barely) two-bedroom, and I started trekking to Westchester to teach dance to kids, while I waited in the Equity line to audition and went on VHS tape for TV/Film to be sent out to LA. Quickly into that whole shuffle, a tutoring business fell into my lap (via another UVA Ed friend) and within 2 weeks, I became “Megan the Tutor.” I walked endless blocks and rode the subway from the Bronx to Battery Park to work one-on-one in my students’ homes, helping them find confidence in whatever creative way I concocted. I started as an early reading and math specialist, but then phonics and fluency morphed into AP US History, essay writing, test prep, comprehension skills, organization, college personal statements and everything in between. I grew with my students from kinder to high school graduation, and sometimes beyond into college and grad school. And while I managed a successful one-tiny-mama-tutoring shop in NYC (soon to be relocated to LA), I kept auditioning and working, when I booked acting gigs. As much as I loved musical theatre (and still do), it wasn’t quite my game as I was a solid eight inches below the dancer norm. And I was very much the “dancer who sang,” trained in the pre-professional program of the Princeton Ballet Company (now American Repertory Ballet). So I heavily pivoted to TV/Film, as the mid 20-year-old who legit played a tween, got my SAG card on a commercial, and finally followed my VHS audition tapes (made at the WB in NYC) all the way to La La Land. A small on camera class brought me to my manager, who I’m still with 20 years later, and I redefined “Megan the Tutor,” now driving from the Palisades to Sherman Oaks on the daily, with stops at FOX/CBS/SONY etc. in between for auditions. I combined my passions for acting and teaching at Warner Loughlin Studios, where I trained in Warner’s Master Class, with the most wonderful humans (wonderful Warner at the helm). As a studio director, teacher and coach, I ran the Young Adult Program, the Foundation Program, and led numerous on camera audition workshops. I joined the adjunct faculty for the UCLA Professional Program in Acting (where I still teach on camera classes) and all the while, I tutored away for my beloved families. I ate weekly dinners with them, went to their bar and bat mitzvahs, celebrated birthdays, attended graduations, and beamed with pride whenever I got “the call” (they got an “A”, they got into their first choice college). It was through one of these beloved families that I found my way into my last muti-hyphenate of writer-producer. When a tutoring dad saw potential in me (beyond showing up to his house to tutor wearing a semi costume from my last audition stop), I started developing stories and scripts inspired from my life. It wasn’t instant. It took Mega motivation, discipline, and focus (which happen to be my top 3 strengths on the strength finder test:) But its evolution was as organic as my tutoring business. I hadn’t planned for either career or seen them as viable sources of income, yet I said “Yes” to both, put in the work, and thanked God most of all for bringing me to my purpose. My tutoring business morphed into my current startup (The Tiny Tutor) when I taught my daughter (and then my son) to read, write, and do mental math. I saw the need for all my parent friends to have access to quick, fun, and efficient strategies/tangible materials to support their own kids at home. Just as I’m using my experience as a private tutor for 20+ years on my own kids, I want to instill parents everywhere with the confidence to do the same… in tiny, achievable steps that really do have big effects. (Yes, that’s the tagline there;) It’s all about making our kids feel massively confident about learning, and it starts with us at home. Of course, I couldn’t do any of this without my writing/producing partner, Nikki DeLoach. That’s how this whole tutor/actor/coach turned writer/producer story doesn’t end, but continues… Nikki and I navigate parenting with our writing projects, alongside our passion for service work, because we truly are Better Together (and the other half of one another’s brains:) We’ve written numerous movies, including Hallmark’s Taking The Reins and the recent True Justice: Family Ties, and have numerous other TV/Film projects optioned and in development across networks and streaming platforms. Mostly we aim to find, write and produce projects that help people connect to themselves and others, in order to look beyond their current circumstances and find hope, grace, and love. That’s our motto for how people are truly better together. And it all starts with confidence in yourself. Whether I’m teaching my own kids or another student a math fact or formula, reading a chapter book, guiding them through a sentence or an essay, leading my girls in a small group, coaching an actor on an audition, honing partners into the specificity of their choices in a class scene, crafting a story that will amplify the arc of the character within a compelling world, IT ALL COMES DOWN TO CONFIDENCE. I always say a little prayer before I venture into any piece of my creative/mentoring work that I will leave my students/clients/anyone I connect with, more confident after our time together than when we first began. That’s what I’m most proud of and will never take for granted… those moments that I get to witness a beaming smile, a genuine moment of connectivity, a realization about humanity, a chance to be a human with complex thoughts/funny spins/deep truths, a “get,” the energy to keep going, a peace, a knowledge of who you are and what brings you purpose, and a passion for using that purpose to uplift and help others in a way that’s so needed.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I’ve had to unlearn that I cannot do it all, do it all right now, or do it all perfectly. I probably should’ve learned this lesson sooner than my later 40s, but everything happens in due time and we just have to show ourselves a tremendous amount of grace in the meantime. With all the hats I wear, as a working mom, and all the students I want to be there for, again raising my two favorite tiny humans on the planet, I typically default to a lack of self care. I bring my Mega energy and focus to everyone and everything in the continual quest for perfection. And then life rocks you to the core, as it did this past year for me. I lost my dad, not quite a year ago, and as I flew back and forth to New Jersey multiple times, I had no choice but to let pieces of perfection peel off of me. I literally couldn’t do all the things I had to do, and I couldn’t do them immediately, and certainly not “perfectly.” Without going into his whole life story (which is fascinating and beyond enlightening), I can say my dad carried a hefty dose of perfectionism, which I undoubtedly inherited. It’s partly responsible for my achievements that I’m so proud of, and… it’s also unsustainable. When I said goodbye to him, after he went home, I whispered, “You don’t have to be perfect anymore, dad.” And I did it standing next to my 7-year-old son, holding his hand. He commented that Grandpa Tony has a much better life now and I was floored. My son understood what was happening on a deep, spiritual level that will astound me for the rest of my life on this Earth. That’s when I realized that even in my guttural pain and grief, there was healing. My dad had true peace of mind and the drive for perfectionism was over. And somehow, without even realizing it, I was starting to do things differently in how I was parenting my own kids. If that doesn’t teach you to finally let go and surrender, I don’t know what does. I’m not claiming to have fully achieved imperfection. I’m just happy to give myself some grace. It changes how I parent, write, teach, craft, and step through each day.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I’ve touched on this, but it certainly bears repeating. Know who you are, what your specific talents are, and how your skills and passions can meet a need in the world. When I hone in on that, I find my confidence without a need to strive to be perfect or strive to be anything. Then I do the work. And I make it as specific as I can. When it gets vague or blurry, it doesn’t do me any favors. I put my physical self in a chair by the keyboard, on the floor with my kids and some word cards/their homework/a book, next to the camera while I’m reading with my actor, or across the zoom screen before their audition. I just keep doing the work, getting super specific in thought and word, and creating my own deadlines if they don’t yet exist. I make it the best I can, hopefully without sacrificing my own self care. I do Martial Arts. I kick a bag, punch a target, do Yoga, maybe skip that high intensity run and take a walk, listen to a Marco Polo, send one, and DANCE! I always have a dance party, with my own kids in my tiny family/multipurpose/everything room, or on the blacktop with hundreds of elementary school kids I’m teaching, or with my friends on the beach, or at a gathering. Movement matters and I’ve always found confidence in movement. My kids seem to have followed suit. When I move, creativity sparks.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.meganmcnulty.biz/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megmcnut/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/megmcnut
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-mcnulty-352552bb/
- Other: https://www.thetinytutor.com/
Image Credits
Images by Inda Dana Patrick Photo