Daily Inspiration: Meet Maurice Winsell

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maurice Winsell.

Hi Maurice, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Well, with acting, I started very young. I’m originally from New Orleans and grew up there until the third grade when my step-father, Keith Winsell, would move us to Mission, South Dakota, which was next door to the Rosebud Indian Reservation. He was the director of the Sinte Gleska University Library.

It was there that I got a taste for theatre when I was cast as Dog #2 in the Christmas production. I actually would have to pant like a dog before each line, and the audience ate that up. It was just like an immediate connection where, at first, I thought it was all performing, but as I grew, I understood the importance of storytelling.

From there, I just wanted to perform. My mother, Gloria Winsell, got me involved with piano lessons and singing competitions, and there were the occasional school plays, one in which a traveling theatre company helped us write our own play to perform. If my memory serves me correctly, it involved vampires and the Great London Fire.

We would eventually move to Athens, Georgia and later settle in Greensboro where I attended Nathaniel Greene Academy and performed in One Act Play competitions. I would go on to win Best Actor in Region and State Competitions.

We eventually relocated to Talladega, Alabama where my father took over Archives and also taught at Talladega College. I attended a semester at the Alabama School for Fine Arts but my poor studies got me the boot.

After graduating from Talladega High School, theatre was seldom. I attended Talladega College briefly and performed in the play, Blues, for Mister Charlie in the role of Lyle Britten.

Theatre and acting would take a backseat for a while as I entered the Army National Guard and was a combat medic for 5 years. I never got the chance to serve overseas as my deployment to Afghanistan was rescinded when my unit, the 127th Med Company had to pivot and support the BP oil spill crisis in the Gulf.

During this time, I was also dealing with the divorce of my first marriage and custody issues with our children.

But it was 2011 that really affirmed my return to acting. I had a small role in a short film and then a supporting role in the production of Broadway Bound at Jacksonville State University, and from there, I switched majors from Nursing to Communications and Drama.

I would go on to perform in several plays, direct and write a one act play, as well as serve as Associate Editor for our newspaper, The Chanticleer.

After graduating from JSU, I would go to Chicago where I studied at The Green Room Studio and Second City. I served as an understudy for productions at Teatro Vista and The Artistic Home as well as performed at the Den Theatre.

I wouldn’t last long in Chicago as Gray Talent would drop me from the roster, but I wasn’t alone for too long and was able to sign with Lora Vinson from Classic Talent Agency. Lora retired this year, but I found a home with the team at Vault Talent recently and am excited about our next steps there.

While being in Atlanta since 2018, I’ve had my ups and downs. I’ve integrated myself into the theatre community here, and it’s an amazing one! Loads of talented people here. I’ve also started writing and along with my creative partner, Dalon Huntington and the rest of the team at Hollow Point Pictures, we have some projects coming out soon to showcase the wide variety of genres we can cover.

I also was the victim of being shot multiple times by a convicted felon. It’s still a big blur of what all happened, but eyewitness accounts have been taken by the police and we look forward to the justice system doing its job and holding the person accountable. It’s been a tough journey to recovery, but I have an amazing family and a loving fiancée, Melissa Murner.

So, for me, the journey has really just started heating up.

I hope this encapsulates as much as my life as possible that is relevant to your question.

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?
Arrogance and Youth. It’s a bad mix. Especially, when you’re under the impression that you know it all. I don’t think anyone has a smooth road, if they do, I feel sorry for them because there is beauty in the rocky. There is something amazing about failing epically if it means you grow tremendously from it.

I’ve had my own run-ins with the law, my ego, and they all have landed me where I am now reflecting on the man I want to be and how to really be it instead of some false image. As I’ve grown as a person, I yearn for more truth in life. We can handle the BS more when we’re young but I think as we get older we want more action than pontificating.

Financial struggles, relationship struggles, it’s all real and it’s all common but our reactions to it are what makes us unique.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Currently, I am partnered with Hollow Point Pictures. We are currently seeking investors for some projects we would like to develop.

I am also the co-owner of Scatterfoot Creek Productions with Julian Seager, a British-based actor whose appeared in Marvel films and the Netflix show, Vikings. We currently are working with Trenton Sterling Morgan to bring a couple of horror projects to life.

I think what separates me is that I put the importance of the story over the technical wizardry. Don’t get me wrong, razzle and dazzle have their appeal but when you can strip the story and have grounded performances that shake the audiences core because of how relatable we all are, that’s powerful to me and I want that to leave a lasting impression and memory for the person watching.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I think streaming and platforms are showing us non-traditional avenues for producing your art is never going away and adaptability to it and AI is important in standing out from all the clutter. And there’s a lot of clutter and don’t get me wrong, they serve their purpose in the doom scrolling era, but people will get bored with that and when you desensitize people, they are just going to want to feel something more and I believe genuine stories will come back with a fury as a result.

Look at the silent movie era. It was all laughs and spectacles because we just visually saw and read. Then sound killed that era because people got to feel. All this VR shtick, sure it’s cool but it’s silent movie era time (if you believe in history repeating itself) and that means real acting is going to come back in a way that would make Uta Hagen so proud.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mauriceisabsurd?igsh=MXdvazdlOWh0M2ppdA== // https://www.instagram.com/hollowpointpictures?igsh=cm1lempjcDRyZm42 // https://www.instagram.com/scatterfootcreekproductions?igsh=ZjU0OWhydThqeXNi

 

Image Credits
Brooke Butterworth // Butterworth Media

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