Hey everyone,

There are a lot of new faces in our community, which I love, and as such, I decided it may be a good time to do a bit of a “get to know me” introduction. Grab some coffee. I'll try and keep this brief, but that's not always easy.

I was born and raised in England. That's right. If you've seen my acting work, a good portion of it is playing British characters. That upbringing came in handy. It's always funny on set when someone says “that accent is really good” because I sound like an American in my day to day life. I usually say thanks or sometimes I may say something like “oh good, this British passport comes in handy.”

In England, everyone wore school uniforms, even in public school, and I was no exception. I hated it. I grew up basically like a non-red headed Ron Weasley. Always had my shirt untucked, tie askew, getting in trouble from teachers.

Most young boys in England grow up loving football, or soccer. I was no exception. So, that school uniform always had grass stains on it from playing during lunch break.

I was a goalkeeper. I wanted to be a professional soccer player, and honestly, I got pretty close. I was fortunate enough to go on trial with a team called Ipswich, who used to be really competitive, but in recent years have fallen on some harder times – though they were in the premier league in 2024-25 and again in 26-27.

When my family moved to the US, we moved to a small suburb of Atlanta and I stuck out like a sore thumb. It was bad. I had that British accent and I played soccer – two things that weren't really coveted back then. That's kind of how I was able to quickly come up with my own non-regional version of an American accent...self-preservation, I guess.

Thankfully, I found a group of friends who played soccer, so I joined a team and found my friends.

In high school, I went to THREE different high schools. Crazy. Freshman year, I went to a super redneck high school that was very “old school” focused on football only. I couldn't stay there, so for 10th and 11th grade, I went to a private school that was really focused on soccer, and hated that for different reasons. There were far too many rich, spoiled kids at that school. By the end of my junior year, I'd gotten enough exposure for soccer for college, so I opted to go back to public school – thankfully a new one had opened, and I got to hang out with all my friends again.

There was ONE bright spot at the private school – I took my first acting class. In addition, I was cast in my first play. Dracula. I was cast as Dracula. I was terrible, I'm sure, but my teacher, Mr. Freer, believed in me. I've never forgotten that.

I was so intimidated by so many of the triple threats in that class. I've shared this picture before. I was convinced some of these people would end up on Broadway, end up famous. And honestly, out of everyone in this photo, I'm the ONLY one who pursued acting professionally.

Side note: There is also a two time Olympic medalist in this photo, who was in Dracula with me. Google Adam Nelson, shot put. His story is amazing, too.

College took me to Richmond, Virginia and the University of Richmond. What a gorgeous campus. I had a great college experience, overall. Soccer, however, wasn't so great. It started out great and sort of fell off the cliff from there – we got a new coach, who I couldn't stand, who couldn't stand a lot of us, and I ended up not seeing eye to eye with him and sadly, I didn't finish out my career there. I had a lot of options to transfer and continue playing elsewhere, including some Carolina schools and a couple of CA schools, but I loved the school so much, that I stayed.

Post-college, I was hoping to play professionally, but after a few stops and starts, that never materialized, so I did the responsible thing and worked for a couple of different Fortune 500 companies, using my degree in Finance.

It's also around this time that I found myself in my first adult acting class.

Things started to change VERY quickly. I knew I was in the right place. In a relatively short period of time, I got headshots, got an agent, started auditioning, and working in commercials and industrials, and also auditioning for the very few amount of film and tv that were in the southeast at that time.

After a few years, my best friend and I decided that LA was calling. We BOTH booked the same commercial, earned our union eligibility, circled a date on the calendar, and moved to LA, convinced we'd be series regulars and known actors in no time.

It did NOT work out that way. LA was a punch in the mouth.

I immediately immersed myself into studying Meisner at Playhouse West, self-submitting for student films and whatever else I could muster up...finding reps was INCREDIBLY difficult.

This was mostly before the prevalence of social media and doing online research for all of our acting pursuits. Instead, you'd go to Samuel French bookstore once a month, pick up a printed, stapled guide called The Agency Guide, and you'd see who was taking submissions that month.

You'd print up a hundred headshots and resumes, mail them out, and wait.

Rinse and repeat for years...endure a strike...and bam, almost a decade passed, with almost nothing to show for it.

One of the biggest upsides of living in LA is that my friends and I co-founded a sketch comedy company, called The Straitjacket Society.

We had four separate casts, each doing a totally unique show, every weekend for three months at a time. Over years, we probably put up over a thousand shows, entertained a ton of people, and had a blast making memories, sharing laughs and late nights, and our company actually yielded a few marriages, several kids, and a few pretty well known cast members, including Jillian Bell and Laura Clery.

Around this time, GA's industry was really picking up, thanks in part to a robust tax subsidy. I saw my friends starting to book meaningful work, while I was still scraping by, barely auditioning. It was time to move back to Atlanta.

Now, I want to say how dangerous ego can be. In my head, my returning to Atlanta would be seen as me, tail between my legs, as an abysmal failure.

The reality is:
A. No one really cared.
B. I wasn't important enough for anyone to notice.
C. All that noise was in my own head.
D. Moving back was the best thing for my career at the time.

I MISS LA and especially my friends and the weather, but Atlanta was a great decision.

Within a year of moving back, I was beginning to make meaningful progress in my career.
For more than the last decade, I'm proud to say I've made my career as an actor, as well as a teacher and acting coach and consult, helping over 2,500 actors pursue their dreams as well.

This career has allowed me to create savings, invest in my retirement regularly, own a home, qualify for a pension, qualify for health insurance, and work opposite the biggest A listers in the world.

It's also afforded me the ability to not have to rely on acting but rather appreciate it while living a well-rounded life. For that, I'm so very grateful.And, the best part is, I'm just getting started. So many more magical times are ahead.

Thanks for being here.
-Alex