Today, we’d like to introduce you to Terence Rosemore.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was 25 years old when I first set foot on a stage on a dare from a girlfriend. I had always wanted to act, and in my heart knew that I could do it, but I was scared. Scared of success more than failure. Scared of the unknown and the stress of change that success brings. I grew up in the ’70s and ’80s playing sports, so I was also afraid of peer pressure of my jock friends making fun of me for wanting to do theatre.
So after much urging from my uncle Julian Dalcour, I made up my mind to try theatre, but it wasn’t until I attended a play with my then girlfriend that I said “I can do that” to which she replied, “Then do it”. That following Monday I was on my way to class at the local college I was attending in New Orleans and there was a flyer on the door of the building announcing auditions for a play. I decided it was my time to put up or shut up. The last thing I wanted to do was twenty-five years later to be saying “Woulda, coulda, shoulda”.
So I auditioned for Dr. Ted Gilliam, the man who ironically ran Dashiki Theatre, the company that my uncle started. I got the part of a lawyer. I was always the class clown and extroverted, so I was confident and cocky at my first rehearsal. I sucked. I must have broken every rule of stagecraft that first day. It humbled me, but I made up my mind that I would give it my best try and not be defeated. I was determined to make the best of the opportunity given to me.
I’ve since worked as an Actor and Filmmaker whose Producing/Directing credits include the feature film Different Worlds, a joint American/Nigerian production streaming on Tubi and Amazon Prime, I’ve directed or produced content for Fox Television, Cox Cable, and ABC television. I created one of the first web series (Refugees) in 2005 which was broadcast on my streaming network Refugeefilms TV. Refugees have been featured on NBC/Universal’s website DotComedy.com, ChannelMe.TV and picked as an editor’s choice on ColumbiaSony’sCrackle.com.
I’ve written and directed second unit footage for the feature film The Yellow Handkerchief starring William Hurt, Eddie Redmayne, and Kristen Stewart, and served as a Showrunner/Producer for television pilots for Comedy Central and The Halogen Network. I’ve also worked as a producer’s assistant (Pride), a director’s assistant (The Yellow Handkerchief), and as a casting assistant for actors John Hurt, Chazz Palminteri, Melanie Griffiths, and Laurence Fishburne. I was Halle Berry’s assistant in the film Monster’s Ball for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2002.
As an Actor, I have appeared in over a hundred feature films, television series, and movies including Disney’s Haunted Mansion, Marvel’s Guardians of The Galaxy Vols 2 & 3, The Nice Guys, The Suicide Squad, The Apostle, HBO’s True Detective, Treme, and Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, FX’s Atlanta and Netflix’s Outer Banks. I’m playing Otis in James Gunn’s upcoming Superman film which will be to be released in the summer of 2025. I have also appeared on stage in various theatrical productions in New York, Europe, Asia, and all over the United States.
I am also a visual artist my documentary MY PEOPLE, which reveals the impact of Hurricane Katrina on his family and friends, was premiered at the Museum of The African Diaspora in San Francisco as part of its I’VE KNOWN RIVERS project. I was the first Artist in Residence at the Papillion Institute of Art in Los Angeles, where I made my debut in the HELLO show in 2010. Don Cheadle, Halle Berry, Rob Reiner, James Gunn, Shane Black, and Cicely Tyson are amongst the many collectors of his art.
In addition to my creative endeavors, I teach Filmmaking and Screenwriting to at-risk teens in New Orleans, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. My ultimate goal is to “Significantly increase minority and female involvement in all aspects of the Entertainment industry”. Born in Great Falls, Montana, I was raised in New Orleans. After a decade of working in Los Angeles, I now reside in Georgia.
Can you talk to us 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’ve worked at Shell Oil, Chevron, BP, Xerox, and Pan American Insurance company as well as the graveyard shift as a Security Guard at Qualcomm, sold Gumbo and Peach Cobbler on the streets of New Orleans, have worked as an Actor, Writer, Director, Producer, Casting Director, and Personal Assistant in the movie industry, thrown newspapers, performed in a touring children’s Play as “The Big Old Mean Green Drug Bug”, performed Theatre from NY to Abbeville, La., co-founded a sketch comedy troupe, and several bands, lectured at Xavier, Dillard, Tulane and Syracuse Universities, dropped out of my last semester of college to tour France. Worked at Paramount Studios for the Dr. Phil and Doctors shows.
I’ve played drums with a Mardi Gras Indian tribe in Southeast Asia and France, fixed copy machines, promoted concerts, sold fresh squeezed orange juice, sold shoes, took directions from Oliver Stone, Brandon Tartikoff, Joel Schumacher, Bill Condon, and Robert Duvall, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Tim Robbins, played basketball with Don Cheadle, shared spider rolls with Halle Berry, eaten great sushi with Bobby Lee, Eaten Thanksgiving leftovers at Laurence Fishburne’s, stayed up until 6 am talking politics with Charlize Theron and John Hurt, had a four-hour lunch with William Hurt and a man who served 27 years in Angola Prison for a crime he didn’t commit, have had a gun pointed at me twice, almost drowned in a flash flood in Maryland (of all places), got hit by a car while walking, and cleaned the toilets in the offices of Cash Money Records before becoming their Casting Director for 1999-2001. I’ve also taught Acting, Screenwriting, and Filmmaking to kids all over the U.S.
When I first got into the entertainment business, I wanted to be rich, and famous and meet women. As of yet, I have accomplished only one of those. The other two I realized weren’t as appealing as I originally thought. I am rich with life experiences, and great friends, and have traveled to great places and seen and done great things that I can remember only dreaming about as a big-headed boy running around in the Hollygrove neighborhood of New Orleans. This has added to the richness of my experience as a human being. Through it all I’ve never complained because it is what I signed up for. I wouldn’t change a thing about my journey. it’s uniquely mine and is what defines me.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
The two most important days in a person’s life are the day you were born and the day you realize why. I’m a storyteller. The thing that has kept me struggling and hustling and working and twerking it more than anything, is my commitment to significantly increase minority and female participation in all aspects of the entertainment industry, which translates into opportunities for the often overlooked and disenfranchised.
For a lot of people, dreams are the only thing that they can look forward to each day. I was blessed by the creator with certain skills. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what those skills are, to be honest with you. Whatever they are, I feel a personal obligation to use those skills to make the world a better place. To help someone toward their dreams is one of the most powerful things you can do as a human being.
Are any books, apps, podcasts, or blogs that help you do your best?
Books/Audiobooks- Tell it Like it Is by Aaron Neville (Audiobook) The Kid Stays in the Picture by Robert Evans (Audiobook), Tinderbox by Andrew Miller, The Mother of Black Hollywood by Jennifer Lewis (Audiobook), My Life with Earth Wind and Fire by Maurice White, Respect for Acting by Uta Hagan, Acting in Film by Michael Caine, What just Happened – Art Linson, Produce Your Own Damn Movie – Lloyd Kaufman, Conversations with My Agent –Rob Long, Making Movies -Sidney Lumet, I’ll Be in my Trailer – John Badham, Spike lee’s Gotta Have it: Inside Guerrilla Filmmaking, A Killer Life: How an Independent Film Producer Survives Deals and Disasters in Hollywood.
Podcasts – The Treatment with Elvis Mitchell, Quest Love Supreme, Team Deakins.
Documentaries- The Black Godfather (The Clarence Avant Story), 13th by Ava DuVerrnay, WattsStaxx, The Fog of War, The Kid Stays in the Picture.
Contact Info:
- Website: TerenceRosemore.com
- Instagram: @trosemore
- Facebook: @Terence Rosemore
- Twitter: @TRoseActor1
- Youtube: @trosemore
