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

Tyler, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

When I was 7, I saw an image of “Falling Water” by Frank Lloyd Wright, and decided then and there I would be an architect when I grew up. I stayed the course and pursued it quite vigorously all through high school, and ended up at a very fancy architecture school in New York for college. I finished that incredibly challenging degree, kept at it, and got a job as a designer at a big firm in Boston. I even began teaching design as a professor at an architecture college in Boston on top of my full time design job. But I hated it. All of it. The professional world of architecture was not what I was lead to believe it would be in design school. It was all technical drawings and staring at a screen, working under someone less talented than me. I felt duped. And rather lost. I left the design firm, and took a sabbatical from teaching for a semester. I told myself I needed to spend that semester doing something completely different, completely ridiculous and fun, something that was very “not me.” I thought about acting. Sounded fun, but I had no experience. I called up some theater companies, asked about auditions, a few let me come in and read some scenes, and one actually offered me an understudying role in their upcoming play. To make a long story short, within a year I had an agent for film and tv. This thing that I thought was very “not me” had become something that couldn’t have been more me. But not the me that I thought I was. Something more expressive and vulnerable and out in the open. Something where I couldn’t hide behind the thing that I made. Something where I was the thing. Corny as that might sound.
A lot of people don’t do that. Don’t give those wild ideas a chance, for so many reasons. Good reasons, too. But I think, if you really want to stretch and grow and find new depths to who you really are, you have to be willing to take those terrifying risks. Leap headlong into the unknown with little more than a hunch and some vague hope. The worst thing that can happen is you fail and it hurts and you learn. The best thing that can happen, is you break through to that new strata of self-awareness and self-actualization, and find something that brings you tremendous joy and wonder.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My mission is to make the world a more beautiful, loving and magical place. A child’s dream that’s gained a man’s revisions and refinements and tone.
My background is diverse, so I pursue this mission in a diverse manner. I have practiced professionally as an architectural designer, design professor, furniture maker, artist, actor, writer, director, producer and teacher. My work as a designer is simple yet innovative and unique, rooted in the blend of the antique and the modern. I’ve always been inspired by the rebels and out of the box thinkers like Gordon Matta-Clark and Raimund Abraham. I studied architecture at Cornell University, and operate a small design business called BLU Design.
My work in film, which is currently where I am more focused, is preoccupied with sharing gorgeously epic, though complex and dark stories with audiences that challenge them to think differently and see more beauty in the world and in themselves. These stories are often told through the darker toned lenses of the science fiction, fantasy, psychological thriller and horror genres, though that is not exclusively where my film work lives. I take considerable inspiration from such filmmakers as Guillermo del Toro and Denis Villeneuve, though I’ve realized my style and preoccupations are truly my own and I haven’t seen another filmmaker who I am truly in common with.
My work tries to utilize the scale of Myth and Supernatural to talk about current issues, but ground them in stories that are timeless and relatably potent. Modern myths, if you will. I think in the commercial machine that is Hollywood, filmmakers have lost a bit of the bravery and ingenuity of storytelling. Tones are safe–stories are repetitive–and their concepts don’t reach too deep into our souls.
My work is an answer to that critique. Epics that go straight for the soul.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn the notion that you can’t change your mind about your career, about your trajectory in life. As I mentioned earlier, I was quite certain I wanted to be an architect. I pursued that very pointedly, only to realize that the reality of it was not satisfying to me. At least not in a truly professional context working for a firm underneath tons of out of touch people. It was extremely difficult to embrace this demystification and be open to the idea that I might have been wrong, or that I’ve changed, or that I needed to change. But, letting myself shift and pivot and evolve enough to try something new was one of the smartest and most powerful choices I’ve ever made. It’s never too late to change your mind. It’s never too late to be something new. Your identity is not a fixed thing. We are quite boundless, if we let ourselves be.

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

When I first started pursuing acting on the east coast, I experienced a lot of success in a short period of time. It was shocking to me, but it also felt right, like it was a sign that this was something I was meant to do. At first, it was really all about how hard you worked and how good you were. So then I naturally moved to LA to expand my chances of larger projects, thinking this was a smart and obvious thing. I quickly hated pursuing acting in LA because it clearly abided by different rules–rules like connections and hustle and nepotism–rules I had no interest in or respect for. I was also reading poorly written scripts a lot for potential roles, which really demoralized me even further. I started to write. On one hand to get me to shut up about the bad writing I was reading, and also to just give myself more of a sense of agency within this new lawless land of Hollywood. I thought maybe I could write things that I could cast myself in. Easy, right? No one’s ever thought of doing that before. The truth is, I think a big part of my diving into screenwriting, truly enjoyable as it was and is, is to run from my disappointments and discouragements from the acting culture in LA. How my dreams had been stomped on a bit by coming out here; and instead of being relentless, I shifted to something else. But every route encounters these massive blockades and setbacks and disheartening realities. I didn’t know that inherently. I had to smash my face right up against it time and time again.
This past year, I recommitted myself to getting back into acting. To stop hiding from it, even in this intensely imbalanced Hollywood culture. It’s something that I love, and I’m just not willing to let someone or something else get in the way of that anymore. I don’t need permission to pursue my dreams. No one does.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tylerpeck.com
• Instagram: @tyler__peck
• Other: BLU Design on instagram @blu__design Current feature in development @aeternum_film

Image Credits
Stephanie Girard Marisa Gerardin