Today we’d like to introduce you to Grayson Berry.
Hi Grayson, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My mom was an actor in 1960’s Hollywood, doing stints on The Green Hornet, Donna Reed, Ozzie & Harriet, etc, and later ruined her career by having me, and letting my Dad drag her back to Houston, because he wasn’t fond of the LA-lottery system around his burgeoning screenwriting career. I’m half-kidding, but you get the picture. Dad became an attorney, Mom found a great community theatre group (Town & Country Theatre) and I was raised in a Green Room, listening to vocal exercises.
Other than serving as a reader, I wasn’t really involved or interested in following in her footsteps, choosing sports, and later, exploring my overly adventurous adolescence, that included 5 different high schools, and getting pulled over naked after a Pink Floyd Concert.
Somehow, I squeaked into Southwest Texas State (the older peoples Texas State), spent my first two and a half years there, before transferring to University of San Diego (USD), and staying in California for the next 16-ish years, with a brief 2-year move back to TX, sandwiched in.
While in SD, I fell in love with broadcasting, and worked for CNN Local Edition in Carlsbad as a Sports & News Reporter, while simultaneously doing Play-by-Play for Prep Football, Basketball, and Volleyball, and soon after, took a two-year contract with FOX & CBS in Santa Maria, CA as the weekend Sports Anchor-Reporter.
I excelled, after a quick and hellacious learning curve (I lied and said I could shoot and edit-I could not), got good representation, and was primed to climb the ladder to ESPN, when I started watching AFI’s top 100 classic films (David Lean Films, etc).
It wasn’t too long after, that I decided to try my luck as an Actor in Los Angeles, despite my Program Director, Parents, and fellow cohorts, wondering what the hell I was thinking?
Only a few months after moving from the Central Coast to LA, I booked my first play (I didn’t tell them that) Picasso At The Lapin Agile by Steve Martin at Stages Theatre in Fullerton, played Picasso, with a bad dye job and accent, heard the applause, felt the butterflies, and that was it.
Seven years of very limited success later, that included a few Horror Films, hosting jobs, and a national commercial I was cut from, I came back to Texas to care for my Dad, who had gotten a very aggressive form of cancer, and he passed shortly thereafter.
I thought that was the end of the dream, but then I met Deke Anderson, a former LA acting coach, now working out of Houston. Deke explained that many episodics had left LA, and that working as a regional local hire was an option. Immediately, I began booking more than I ever had, securing Co-Stars on Drop Dead Diva, The Good Guys, and a national microsoft commercial out of Austin. I always thought that was a gift from Dad, to give me a little hope in a dark place.
Likewise, I was impressed by the level of talent in Texas, on both sides of the camera, and decided to Write and Produce my first TV Pilot in 2010. This really opened my eyes to DIY indie-film-making, and I averaged a few projects a year, thereafter, to help balance out the waiting for the phone to ring, that went along with the acting.
After a brief return to LA, I realized that the roots I had begin planting elsewhere were starting to grow, and I think I spent more time traveling than actually living in LA, and moved back. Around 2017, I decided to give the East Coast a shot (I had one more “chase the dream” left in me), and absolutely adored it.
I remember thinking “had I known how much I would love the East Coast, I would’ve moved out here so much sooner.”
The food, the four seasons, the people, the energy (it’s real), the greater appreciation for what we do, even the mass transit,
I loved it all. I lived in West New York, NJ, right across the Hudson from Chelsea Piers, and a 20 minute ride to Port Authority, with the best view of the City (Gotham meets Metropolis) you could imagine. Don’t get me wrong, I love LA “when I’m working,” and my mom’s relatives made it a second home, but the East Coast is my favorite. I was fortunate enough to work on many of the New York Episodics (Law & Order, SVU, FBI, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Jessica Jones, New Amsterdam, Hello Tomorrow, and a few others.)
Ironically, even though the Big Apple was the goal, I made a great connection with a couple of Film-Makers in NJ, including Thomas Ryan Ward, and Raffaele Marchetta, and we collaborated on a few different Features, and Documentaries, including Vortex: A Horror Anthology (available on the usual platforms), and most recently Carlton Taylor Has: Major Problems, releasing October 9th nation-wide. Ward, in addition to being a vital cog in the creation of Grayson Berry Productions, and our weekly acting class (The Working Actors Zoom), also helped me launch the We Regret To Inform You Film Festival, playing on the bigger festivals lack of meritocracy, and personal touch. Most recently, GBP released the Hallmark-genre film “Where Fireflies Dance,” through Freestyle Digital Media, now available on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Dish, Sling, Hoopla, Swank, and Direct TV. So there ya have it. Way more than you wanted. As usual, I’m always looking for my next job, have gig, will travel.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
What is the polar opposite of smooth? I looked it up: Jagged, bumpy, uneven. Ya, that’s accurate.
How “we” feel about what we’re going though, and how we’re perceived, are two very different things.
The main obstacle, in Acting “and” Directing-Producing, is a lack of personal control.
Whether someone sees you in the role, or trusts you with their money, often has little to do with you, oddly enough.
And when you’re raised to believe that the best man or women wins, the cream rises, and to never give up, this business (and many others) can be the ultimate mind boggler.
There have been countless dark days, dark nights of the soul, real physical injuries, let downs, near misses, break downs, and flat out, ball breaking despair, along the way.
What keeps “me” going? Well, I’ve had countless “come to Jesus” discussions with myself, and the conclusion I always come to, after the prolonged and deafening silence is: well, I guess I’m right where I’m supposed to be.
There’s an ongoing steep learning curve that comes with collaboration, and how to navigate friendships with work-relationships, but that’s whole different article.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Grayson Berry Productions – Grayson Berry?
We believe that everyone deserves to have their music heard. Most people have one. One story they want to adapt, tell, or present. The truth is most first-time film-makers or creatives get one of two results:
1) They overpay for a company/group that doesn’t understand their vision, and despite sometimes having high production value, have an end result that is soul-less, and they are left wondering where to go for Distribution.
Or
2) They hire their brother-in-law or Uncle who used to work in the “picture business,” to save money, and well, I don’t have to tell you how that ends.
Our promise is to honor your original vision, with a Production & Performance Value that far exceeds the price. Pretty Simple. Depending on where you are in your process, we can take your vision from Script to Production to Screen, be it TV Sizzle Reel, Pilot, Documentary, Short, or Feature Film.
We just Distributed two Narrative Features for less than 150K total, and while we’d love to play with bigger budgets, we can offer investors a return on their investment, due to our over 30 years of seeing it done wrong.
Relationships are our business, and we pride ourselves on keeping up with our clients, long after their projects hit platforms.
What matters most to you? Why?
To know I did everything in my power to fulfill my potential as a human, creative, and servant.
Finishing seems to be what separates everyone and everything, and after watching my Dad battle cancer for a year, it’s crystal- clear to me that “how you finish,” matters more than we know, whatever your faith.
The other side of that equation, thats’s equally important, is to enjoy the journey and not take yourself, or others too seriously.
I suck at this part sometimes, and am continually reminded that this earthly realm is but an illusion, and we can’t take any of it with us.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.graysonberryproductions.com/
- Instagram: @graysonberryproductions
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/graysonberry1/
- Youtube: @graysonberryproductions512
- Other: https://weregretfest.com/
