The Acting Business Boot Camp Podcast

About Michael:

Michael Kostroff is an established TV and stage actor best known for his role as unscrupulous gang attorney Maury Levy on HBO's legendary series, The Wire. In addition to his many television gigs, he's toured with The Producers and Les Misérables, appeared on regional stages all across the country, served as an advice columnist for Backstage, created the popular workshop "Audition Psych 101" (which focuses on the psychological side of auditioning), and written four books, including his recently published manual, The Stage Actor's Handbook: Traditions, Protocols, and Etiquette for the Working and Aspiring Professional.

The gospel of low expectations. My philosophy is very different from the popular philosophies—no one's entitled to a career. If you decide this is what you want to do, then you're signing on for the unemployment, the insecurity, the inconsistency, and you don't get to...

About Christin Baker:

Christin Baker (A Baker Production) is an award-winning director and Emmy-nominated producer. She has been playing with video producing and storytelling since she was 13 after her family got their first VHS camcorder. She started out directing music videos, and SNL parodies with the neighborhood kids and moved on to start her own digital distribution and production company, tellofilms.com.

She is the co-founder of Tello Films, which focuses on stories for the lesbian/queer community. Tello is the first lesbian/queer network to receive an Emmy Nomination. The series Secs & EXECS has received a 2017 Emmy Nomination for Mindy Sterling, Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy/Drama Series. In 2019 the series "Riley Parra" received 2 Emmy nominations for actresses Liz Vassey and Carolyn Ratteray.

Christin is passionate about telling relevant and meaningful stories. Christin was early in the streaming content creation and founded Tello Films in...

Time Management Workshop

About Jeremy:

Jeremy Redleaf is an Emmy and Streamy award-winning artist and entrepreneur. He tells stories and creates experiences through his Brackets Creative shingle, including "Odd Jobs," the Streamy Winning web series, "3rd Street Blackout," a feature film (Available on Peacock), and the SYFY special "Who Won the Year?" He's the co-founder of Caveday, a global community built around having a healthier relationship to work. Follow him at @jeremyredleaf on all the platforms!

The ultimate multi-hyphenate.

"Every time I was waiting for the phone, he was going out to make something. And I started to get a little jealous of that because it can be disempowering to wait to hurry up and wait or just to wait."

How empowering it is to make your own films, to make your own work.

Successful working actors are very curious.

Curiosity sometimes just comes out of necessity.

"Well, as soon as I built some self-esteem, I encountered, you know, fiercer...

Katie’s Interest List

David Cady Commercial Class

Andrew Dolan's Monologue Slam

About Rick:

Rick first started acting in 1990 when he was cast as Tony in the long-running Off-Broadway hit Tony N' Tina's Wedding. He later made his Broadway debut in the Neil Simon comedy Proposals.

His first film role was in the 1996 short film The Dutch Master, which also starred a young Mira Sorvino.  He recently appeared in Mank, directed by David Fincher. 

In addition to numerous TV roles, including Friends, NCIS, and General Hospital.

Rick also does voice-over work for commercials and video games. Some of his more notable works include Civilization V, Halo 5: Guardians, Batman: Arkham Knight, The Darkness II, and Grand Theft Auto V. In 2010; he voiced Vito Scaletta, the main protagonist of Mafia II and its 2016 sequel, Mafia III.

He is the co-writer and star of the one-man touring show "Channelling The King."

“You need to believe in yourself that that’s what you...

About David:

DAVID CADY is currently a professor of commercial and musical theatre performance at AMDA, NYU, and Pace University.

Prior, he was a casting director for Donna DeSeta Casting for close to 30 years.

In addition to countless commercials, his casting credits include the original Dirty Dancing, Disney’s Enchanted, Michael John LaChiusa’s The Petrified Prince for the Public Theater, and the world premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman’s Whistle Down the      Wind, directed by Harold Prince.  

He was an original cast member of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Merrily We Roll Along, and can be seen in Lonny Price’s film about the experience, The Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened.

Actors don't think like the rest of us. They have a very, very particular way of doing things, and that can lead to actors getting stuck.

You need accountability.

...

About Don:

Don Fullilove is an American screen live-action and animated voice-over actor who has had roles in numerous projects over the course of his fifty-year-plus career in both films and television.

He portrayed Hill Valley Mayor Goldie Wilson in the first Back to the Future film, as well as Goldie's grandson, hovermobile salesman Goldie Wilson III in Back to the Future II.

Donald, who graduated from Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles in 1976, currently resides in Burbank, California.

“Maintain the cockiness. Don't be an asshole because the cockiness is your strength against what the business is going to throw against you.”

“At one point in my career, I wasn't working, and I said, well, maybe your ass needs to go to school.”

Putting the ego aside and learning to love the work.

About Eric:

Eric Nelsen is a 4x Emmy Award & Tony Award-winning actor and producer.

He is currently starring on the Paramount+ hit tv series 1883 alongside Sam Elliott and Tim McGraw.

He has been seen on the big screen in NIGHTMARE CINEMA, opposite Academy Award Nominee Mickey Rourke, in RAVAGE opposite Academy Award nominee Bruce Dern, A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES opposite Academy Award Nominee Liam Neeson, and COMING THROUGH THE RYE opposite Academy Award winner, Chis Cooper.

Some of his favorite tv roles include a series regular in Hulu’s revival of ALL MY CHILDREN, a recurring role in Showtime’s THE AFFAIR and working opposite Kevin Bacon in THE FOLLOWING, opposite James Spader in THE BLACK LIST, opposite Adam Driver in GIRLS, and opposite Denis Leary in ERASE.

Notable producing work includes WAKEFIELD starring Bryan Cranston and Jennifer Garner, and THE INHERITANCE on Broadway.

Instagram: @EricNelsenOfficial

Just ask.

Remain...

About Amelia:

Amelia Campell was most recently in the Lucille Lortel nominated Coal Country at The Cherry Lane Theater. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her first Broadway play Our Country’s Good in 1991.

Additional select theater: Broadway: A Small Family Business; Translations; The Herbal Bed; Waiting in the Wings; A Streetcar Named Desire. Off B’way: Middle of the Night(Keen Company); Taking Care of Baby(MTC); The Exonerated(Culture Project); The Fall to Earth(59E59); Philip Roth in Khartoum(LAByrinth); The Misanthrope(NYTW); Tryst(Promenade); Love, Janis(Village Theater). Regional: A Midsummer Nights Dream; The Night of the Iguana; Desire Under the Elms.

Film & T.V includes Anthony Arkin’s “Sender”; “Things Like This”(upcoming); “I Am Michael”; “Stand Clear of the Closing Doors”; “Coming Up Roses”; “Leaves of Grass”; “The Paper”; “Bull”;...

About Matt:

Matt Corboy is a journeyman actor who has appeared in over 100 television shows and movies as well as over 125 national commercials.

Most notably, he was Cousin Ralph in the Academy Award-winning movie, The Descendants, alongside George Clooney; Officer Ray Carlson on Emmy Award-winning television series The Shield; and most recently, four episodes as Matt Dickson on This Is Us that aired this February on NBC.

When you're new, it's OK to be new, and you don't have to pretend that you're not. 

• That goes back to like being your authentic self.
• Nobody expects the first time you're on set to be like, "Yeah, hey, I just came from my trailer, and I'm ready for it." 
• You don't have to put on airs of anything. 
• Keep your mouth shut, observe, let it happen to you, and learn.

There's nobody on this planet who does you better than you.

The sooner you realize that authentic you...

About Annie:

Annie Tippe is a director and creator of new work, film, and music theater. Recent: Premiere of Dave Malloy's OCTET at the Signature Theatre (Lucille Lortel Award for Best Direction, SDC Callaway Award Finalist) and GHOST QUARTET (Premiere, The Bushwick Starr, etc...), Leslye Headland's CULT OF LOVE (Premiere, IAMA Theatre Company), Bess Wohl's CONTINUITY (Goodman Theatre), Molly Beach Murphy + Jeanna Phillips’ COWBOY BOB (Village Theatre; New York Stage + Film), James + Jerome’s INK (w. Rachel Chavkin, Under the Radar/Met Museum) and THE CONVERSATIONALISTS (Bushwick Starr). Former Ars Nova Director-in-Residence, Drama League Directing Fellow, Williamstown Directing Corps.

Upcoming: OCTET (Berkeley Rep, April 22); LIFE AFTER (Goodman Theatre, June 22). www.annietippe.com

Pursue people who inspire you.

Follow good taste.

The power of saying no: You cannot take things that do not excite you.

You have to say no in order to open up the possibility of...