Today we’d like to introduce you to Tommy Groth.
Tommy, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Growing up as an only child in Secaucus, NJ, the television was my best friend. From a very young age, I was always captivated by the entertainment Film & TV provided and badly wanted to be a part of it. Eventually, when I reached the age where I would start to explore career choices, acting wasn’t included because it seemed unreal and at the time, I assumed everyone shared the same fantasy as me and that’s all it was meant to be a fantasy.
Around the age of 25, on my birthday, I remember thinking, “well, another year has passed and you still have no idea what to do with your life.” The acting bug continued to pester its way deep into my brain and take root. It wasn’t until my early 30s that I took my first acting class at New York’s acclaimed H.B. Studios. I loved the class and felt great taking my first step towards the impossible. However, no success was achieved because by this time, I was in the grips of a very powerful drug addiction that started at the age of 14.
In 2003, I found myself just outside of Los Angeles in my 2nd drug & alcohol rehabilitation center. I was positive this was it. I was going to get sober and pursue acting in LA. The universe had conspired to put me in the right place at the right time. NOPE!
Two months after rehab, I was back in NJ and once again, trapped in a spiraling descent into madness fueled by drugs and booze. This continued for two more years and finally threw up the white flag and decided, without the help of a judge or family intervention, that it was time for another rehab.
St Patrick’s day, 2005, was my first day at yet another rehab. This time in Miami, FL. At the time, Miami was the 3rd largest market for FIlm & TV production. When I found this out, I thought “NY, LA, MIA. Okay God, I get it. You’re putting me in all the right places but I’m not doing the work. Thank you.” That was the moment I took my sobriety seriously.
You’d think that this is when I finally got into acting but it isn’t. Being the procrastinator extraordinaire that I was, I still managed to lag and tell myself, “Acting is only a fantasy.”
It wasn’t until 2010 that a very essential message was delivered to me via an unknown member of Alcoholics Anonymous. During a meeting, I complained about being unemployed and how hard it was trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with my life. After the meeting, a stranger walked up to me and asked me, “what exactly is it that you want to do?” “I have no idea.” I replied. “Bullshit!” she claim. “What do you want to do?” she demanded. Without thinking, I told her I wanted to be an actor. “Then that’s what you need to do!” was her bold reaction.
That was the exact moment that I actually took the first necessary step towards acting. I just acknowledged that acting was what I wanted to do and supposed to do. Then something amazing happened. Pieces started to fall into place. Sometimes without my effort. I started to meet the right people and go to the right places and before I knew it, I had my first set of headshots. I was in an acting class. I was actually getting paid to be an extra. These things may all seem small and insignificant to some but to me, they were huge accomplishments. It wasn’t long after that I had an agent and was booking speaking roles on major TV shows.
Once the industry started to dry up in Miami, I knew it was time to look elsewhere. L.A. for sure, I thought, but Atlanta kept presenting itself as another option. One I wasn’t interested in but it kept coming up. After a lot of inquiries and research, Atlanta becomes the logical destination.
Not too long after moving to Atlanta, I found an amazing agent, Jana VanDyke, and began auditioning steadily. Sometimes more than I thought I could handle but hard work and some luck began to pay off. I started to book gigs.
Since moving here, I’ve worked on TV shows such as The Resident, The Inspectors, Vampire Diaries, Swamp Murders, and other assorted indie projects.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has never been smooth and still isn’t. Pursuing a career as an actor is only for masochists. Auditions my come in steadily but there is a lot of very talented competition here. Gigs can sometimes be far and few in between. If I book a gig, I can’t rely on it opening the sparkling gates to success and financial freedom. I go in prepared and do my best and when its over, its over. Time to find the next one.
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I’ve been a member of the Screen Actors Guild for three years. I seem to be preferred to play the role of the bad guy or the not so good guy detective. I suspect that my NJ accent has something to do with that. Happy Dad or Southern Gentleman are two characters that I will never get booked for and I’m okay with that. They don’t sound like much fun to me anyway.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Persistence, luck, a callous attitude toward rejection or criticism and a little bit talent.
Contact Info:
- Address: The Jana VanDyke Agency
4461 Bretton Court
Suite 500
Acworth, GA 30101 - Website: http://www.tommygroth.com/
- Phone: Agent – 770.529.0655
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tommy.groth/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/actortommygroth/
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3912082/?ref_=rvi_nm
Image Credit:
Headshots by Bjoern Kommerell.
Black & Whites by Michael Morano of 973studio
All others are my property
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