Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Gaver.
Hi Scott, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up in a very small town called Brunswick Maryland, about 50 minutes from Baltimore and Washington DC. I started performing in community plays in elementary school and church. It wasn’t until I was in 5th grade and took part in the local high school musical theater production of The Wizard of Oz. I played one of the lead Lollipop guild munchkins. One of my childhood friends Tony Privette was starring in the play as the Scarecrow. During months of 3-hour rehearsals every day after school and observing Tony perform at such a high level, and bringing his own character to life immediately embraced my love and passion for the performing arts.
Of course, living in such a small town where nobody came or had a clue about show business, the idea of going to Hollywood and making movies was not part of reality. So over the next few years going through school, I stayed toward playing sports to be with my friends. When I was a freshman I saw the movie The Guardian with Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Costner and was so inspired by the story and the courage’s acts of the United States Coast Guard. After seeing that film I decided I was going to join the United States Coast Guard in pursuit as a rescue swimmer. During my high school career, I joined the swim team and began training in the gym to get prepared for after graduation. In February of 2011 just a few months before graduation I went with my father to see a recruiter. During this process, we were informed that there was a waiting list of over two years to get into the academy. With the discouraging news I had to take a couple of weeks to reflect and do some soul searching and after a little bit of time, I realized that deep down it wasn’t the Coast Guard I wanted to be but actually be in the movie telling their story. After two weeks I went to my mom and said “I know what I want to do with my life, I wanna be an actor”. I auditioned for our school’s spring and final theater production “Harvey”, and got the role of Dr. Sanderson.
A year after graduation I was contacted by my good friend Kevin Hunt about a Christmas movie being filmed in Frederick Maryland called “Elf-Man”. Kevin had a role in the movie and was able to get me in as a featured background role-playing alongside Sean Astin. After feeling like I got my foot in the door I began taking acting classes at the Maryland Ensemble Theater learning and training with wonderful teachers for two years. I have to personally thank Julie Herber for her confidence in me and ability to push into a performance I thought beyond possible. She gave me so many tools to use Ill continue to use when preparing for a character to this day. Her class will always be what I look back on and call “The Beginning”. I got into working as an extra whenever I could and started working on student films. When I was 19 years old I moved to Los Angeles CA. I lived in a 1 bedroom apartment with six people total. After realizing I had no idea what to do to break into the business and was consistently broke I moved back to Maryland after three months. Over the next couple of years and tried to get as much experience as I could, continuing to work on student films and extra work as much as I could. My first speaking role in a major production was on a TV series called Making Of The Mob which aired on AMC Network. I was booked as always for extra work but when I got to the location they bumped me up to play a prisoner in a scene with the shows leading character Lucky Luciano.
In July of 2015, I moved back to Los Angeles in hopes that I was prepared enough to pursue a professional acting career. I spent two years there renting random rooms from strangers, sleeping under a bridge in downtown LA for a couple of days to living on a couch in my buddy Tony Privettes apartment in Hollywood. We call it living the actor’s life. I continued to work on a student film or be an extra, the cycle continued and I was not moving up to the next level. In 2017, I moved back to Maryland and started working on low-budget independent films and writing, producing and starring in my own short films. I was done with extra work, at this point I was only pursuing projects where I could solely work on my craft. In 2019, I started working with Professional actor and acting coach William Mark McCullough. This changed the game completely for me. Mark showed me the true nature of this business and that’s really all it is……..a business. He taught me how to effectively market myself as an actor, how to deliver a powerful audition that shines the light on my brand, and most importantly the benefits of goal setting in life. Writing goals down and taking action steps every single day for the rest of my life to moving me closer to my dreams.
As Mark says “Theirs just something magic about writing your goals down”. In continuing to follow Mark’s philosophy I was able to sign with one of the top agencies in Atlanta who I still am represented by to this day. In 2021, I played a role in the feature film PAINKILLER directed by Mark Savage now available on PRIME Video. In 2022, I play a supporting role in the upcoming TV Movie BLUE LIGHTNING directed by Aaron L. Williams. I recently just wrapped on the upcoming series for Paramount Plus GEORGE AND TAMMY directed by John Hillcoat and working with Oscar-winning actors Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon. Today I continue to run my business as an actor every single day. Setting daily, monthly, and yearly goals for myself to move me closer to my dream which is to one day be a movie star. I’m working with my friend Sarah Dionna to open ARC Studios, a place for actors and performing artists can come to work, learn and expand their craft. I’m 29 years old now and recently a father to an almost 1-year-old baby girl. There have been so many moments in my life where I have been ready to give up and throw in the towel because either thing weren’t going my way or just simply not happening at all. I’ve had many dark times that have set me back in life which pushed my goals and dream even further from reality.
But I was able to find it in my heart to fight back, get back up and push forward and change my strategy. I’ve been lucky enough to have had family, friends, and a community who have supported me since the beginning. My parents and my brother Dylan have always had my back and I love them very much. My love and the wonderful mother to our daughter Brittany has been pushing me and shown incredible belief in me since the day we met. I’m nowhere close to where I want to be but I’m so blessed with the opportunities and steps I’ve been able to make in recent years, even with a pandemic trying to stand in our way. But now when I look at my daughter I’ve been given a whole new level of motivation. I want her to always remember that her Dad never gave up on his dream, no matter what challenges you face in life and how hopeless things may seem, it’s only temporary and those are the defining moments in our life. There is always a way back to your pursuit of happiness and even beyond that, you just have to be willing to take on the fight and never stop fighting. You can do whatever you want to do in life and any point. Set goals and hold yourself accountable, be willing to learn, change your approach, and most importantly be willing to fail. To fail is to grow. After all this time I realized it was all for London.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I faced a lot of adversity through the years. Living on the streets of LA and on a couch while trying to navigate my career. Travelling from Baltimore, DC, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Charleston, and Atlanta looking to expand my career as an actor and getting absolutely nowhere. I knew nothing about how this business works. Didn’t know how to get auditions for professional acting jobs, getting an agent or anything really. It took me seven years of not knowing what to do.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
It wasn’t until I learned about branding when I actually understood how to sell my product as an actor. How I come across to people. What my characteristics were just from the way I looked. Once I learned to embrace my brand things started to fall in place. I knew who I was, I knew what I was trying to sell. This made marketing much easier. Which allows me to run my business more effectively. My agents and I agree, that I have a darker and intense look about myself that can really help sell without even saying a word. This gives us the opportunity to present my talent for some very exciting roles.
What were you like growing up?
I grew up in a small town full of back roads and countryside. I struggled in school and only did well in the fun subjects such as gym, art, and drama. I could be shy at times but still had this need to be accepted. I wanted to be with my friends which entailed playing sports like Football, Basketball, and baseball early on. I spent a lot of time in my head, daydreaming, and telling stories. I never took things too seriously which included my future. I lived day by day you could say. The only things I really looked forward to was the weekends and summer break from school. I wanted to play and have fun, not sit in a classroom all day. Movies were my escape, anytime I was feeling sad or even happy putting on the right movie always took me out of my feelings and took me on a journey. I would be inspired by watching then when all the kids on the block wanted to play in the woods Id always find myself directing everybody on what to say and do. To them, they were just looking for an excuse to get dirty and run around screaming, but to me there was a bigger story to tell in my head, I couldn’t help myself but to take control.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6478236/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottgaverg14/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scott.gaver
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH-tRZp46XoD4rjC3DdU_zg/videos
Image Credits:
Headshot Photo by Joshua Stringer
