We were lucky to catch up with Tommy Jacobs recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tommy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

As a child, I was always into sports—baseball, Hockey, Football, Track and Field. I loved watching and participating in any and all sports I could get my parents to sign me up for and that my friends were also doing. I didn’t get into acting until a little later in my adolescence.
My first experience with theatre was a summer program for kids aged 5-15. I was around 8 or so. The play was called “A Night in the City” and I played a crooked Stock Broker which is hilarious. I remember having an absolute blast during the whole rehearsal process and the run of the show.

I didn’t do another play until my Sophmore year of high school in which I was a zombie in a post-apocalyptic version of Romeo and Juliet. Before I fell in love with the craft, I fell in love with the community it brought into my life. The people I have met and the friendships that I have made as a result of my taking a chance on theatre in high school have altered my life in such a positive and drastic way that I honestly do not know if I would still be here without it.

All that being said, I don’t think I ever consciously decided to pursue a creative/artistic path as a profession. I began to and continue to show up to the places I feel the most welcome and purposeful and that has led me to where I am today. It has never felt like taking big risks or chasing a dream because to me there is nothing else worth doing that I am any good at.

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.

My parents were always incredibly supportive of anything I wanted to try. My father was a high school English teacher for 21 years and was constantly trying to get me to read anything at all. To his dismay, I was not going to do anything I didn’t want to. But nowadays we trade books and reading lists quite often. My mother is an artist who has dabbled in everything from smithing to graphic design but who really shines, in my opinion, with watercolors.

Looking back now, having two parents who were so dedicated to art, literature, and culture, it makes perfect sense that I have ended up where I am.

I have always been seen by my peers and myself as someone who excels in comedy as an actor. My own sense of humor is incredibly dry and I think it lends itself well to acting. Once I got to college I discovered improv and quickly became addicted. I was in a troupe called Oddly Appropriate that did video sketches and in-person improv shows regularly. Playing that straight, dry character in a lot of scenes was a ton of fun and I am forever grateful for that time in my life for giving me so many reps and incredibly fun times.

After college, I moved to Chicago to pursue improv and sketch opportunities. I attended Second City where I took improv for actors and subsequently got cast in a writing class’ sketch show. COVID struck soon after and I had to go back home to Colorado and finish the sketch show online. I also got to fill my quarantine time with the Second City Conservatory via Zoom during that time which was a wonderfully unexpected, very mixed bag of annoying computer advantages and limitations.

Now based in Los Angeles I have more or less put a hold on my improv training. Sketches continue to be something I love to do with friends on Instagram, but my main focus now is scene study at Berg Studios’ where I hope to build on my craft and technique that I laid the base of in college.

I audition when I can and take any and all opportunities that people throw at me. It’s been a tough and trying first two years in LA but I have incredible friends and am slowly starting to find my lane on my own timeline.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

When I first started acting it was purely because it was fun. I got to hang out with my best friends and basically get to fuck around and call it productivity.

As I have gotten older I have delved much deeper into spirituality, and as corny as it sounds I think acting, theater, and film have an incredibly profound affect on that aspect of life.

The main driver of my creativity now is a desire for a deeper understanding of the human experience.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think the arts, at least in most of America, are seen as something that is made purely for entertainment purposes. Sure, that’s true for a large portion of films, but I think it’s doing a disservice to artists and to society at large to write art off as extra-curricular fluff.

I think funding museums, theatres, music venues, and other public spaces for art is much needed. All great art inspires, and not just more art. It can inspire a desire for education, the capacity for change, the acceptance of a worldview outside of your own, and even hope to get through hard times. Although it is fun to do, art is not just for fun and it is a shame that so many people miss out on a rich life because we are told it is unimportant.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @jommytacobs

Image Credits
Chris Jon Photography for the two studio shots.