We recently connected with Scott Takeda and have shared our conversation below.

Scott, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I started out as an engineering student in college. Somewhere inside my brain resides five semesters of calculus. To this date, I still process everything from a math and science perspective. And yet it didn’t quite feel right. I didn’t like it. Heck, I actually hated it.

What a terrifying moment, right? I thought I had it all figured out. I was good in math and science so it made sense that I would graduate with a BS in engineering. Go get a Masters like my dad did. Then work as an engineer and make a good living. Along the way, meet someone, get married, pop out some kids. There was a plan! (If you haven’t noticed by now, I am immediate past-President of the Control Freaks of America.)

I eventually switched majors to Journalism. I clearly remember making the phone call to my mother to tell her who was also a scientist. (I was terrified, so I can somewhat empathize with people who’ve had to come out.) I told her that I was switching majors, but I quickly emphasized that I was still getting a Bachelors of SCIENCE degree, not a Bachelors of ARTS.

And yet, I’ve only earned a living as an artist. Right now, I’m writing this while on the set of a new single-cam comedy series. I’m recurring as one of the characters on this show. That’s pretty artsy, right?

I teach other actors how to audition in this post-pandemic world. I’m teaching and helping to expand minds. That’s being an artist.

Oh, and I work as a director, telling stories with pictures and sound. It harkens back to my journalism days when I worked in TV news, essentially doing the same thing. Again, making a living as an artist.

Scott, 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?

I have six Emmys. My lovely bride has a NATIONAL Emmy, so she’s more important than me.

I’ve been on the red carpet for “Gone Girl” at the New York Film Festival. (Probably because I was a cast member of that Academy Award nominated film.) I’ve also been on the carpet of “Dallas Buyers Club” at the famous Toronto International Film Festival. (Again because I was a cast member of that film.)

Just this spring, I was on the carpet of SXSW in Austin. Another film.

You may know me because I am recurring on “General Hospital.” (Come on, admit it. You sometimes watch soap operas. Or you used to.) I’ll be honest, I don’t any more. I used to watch “Days of Our Lives” after TV news class when I was in college. A group of us future TV news journalists would gather at the commissary to plan the newscast for our next newscast while “Days” was playing. We’d toss out stories while yelling back at the TV when the bad guy would show up.

A few decades later, I was recurring on “Days of Our Lives.” (I seem to do a lot of soap operas.)

And I’ve done evening soaps like the CW’s “Dynasty.” Hmmm… (cue the faraway look in my eyes.)

I don’t claim to live anywhere. I seem to live a nomadic life. Last year I worked in six states on nine different shows. The closest I have to a residence is seat 11C on a United Airlines jetliner. However I always stop to smell the roses.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I gave a graduation speech to a group of students at the University of Colorado just prior to the pandemic. I told them congratulations on graduating, but that piece of paper only shows that they’ve been taught enough to be able to self-teach the rest of life’s lessons.

I told them resilience was key and that virtually all graduates (after 10 years) are working in a field different than their major.

I held up a cell phone. I showed them how it put my old profession (TV news) out of business. Apps now provided instant access to weather and sports and news and could even shoot video at much higher quality than those at a TV station. Viewers no longer need to wait until 6pm to get that information. They could have it whenever they wanted, wherever they wanted. One little invention has put an entire industry out of business.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

So let’s build on that.

I live hundreds of miles away from the nearest casting director. So to audition for TV shows, I either have to drive for a full day to get to an audition, or I can tape.

Now-a-days, this is called “self tape.” However I’ve been taping my auditions since George W. Bush was in office. That’s 15 years. The word “self tape” didn’t exist back then because no one was doing it. However I work as a professional director-filmmaker, so I just applied those skills to an audition, and was able to book major projects.

I’m a working actor who is rarely in the room with a casting director. Ever. I’m beating out actors who are in the room.

And in 2020, something funny happened. Perhaps you’ve heard about it. I guess this pandemic hit. Some people call it COVID-19, and suddenly our industry could have NO actors in the room. No person-to-person contact. All auditions needed to be self-tape.

I’ve been doing this for 15 years, and now people are asking me to teach them how to do this. So that’s what I’ve been doing for about two years — teaching actors how to actually use self-tape to get an advantage over every other actor auditioning for the role.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1956106/
• Instagram: @scotttakeda
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scotttakeda/
• Twitter: @scotttakeda
• Other: Actor – https://scotttakeda.com Director – https://www.takedaentertainment.com Filmmaker – https://winedogpictures.com