We recently connected with Caleb Swindell and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Caleb , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
My resilience comes from watching my mother growing up. She was no stranger to struggle and she always told me I could do whatever I put my mind to regardless of my circumstances. I watched how she navigated the challenges of being a young mother and that taught me how to navigate my life. I’m so proud of how far she has come despite the curveballs that have been thrown her way in life. I saw that if I do good work and keep doing good work eventually I will get where I want to be. I also take care of myself physically, mentally, and emotionally so that I’m able to persevere no matter what challenge I am facing.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am an actor, but I also like to think that part of my purpose is to bring light to others in a world that is very dark. I felt different growing up as a gay, black, mixed race kid in the south. As you probably guessed, I didn’t fit in one box. I used to hate it as a kid because it would leave me feeling like I wasn’t enough. But In a way it was a challenge to help me find my true authentic self. I embrace every part of myself and try to help others do the same. It’s taken my entire life, but through each phase of life I’ve grown as a human. I found and am finding myself more and more.
I come from a family that is so giving. They taught me kindness and compassion. We look out for each other and the people that care for us. My grandpa used tell me that I never knew what people were going through so it was better to be kind than not. This way of looking at people is how I think I became interested in acting. Putting myself in someone’s shoes and telling their story was so interesting.
I had my first performance when I was 9 and played Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol at my elementary school. We were rehearsing with the high schoolers and I remember after the performance one of the high school kids said I was a little actor and since then I’ve been pursuing it. I was begging my mom for an agent at 11, but she opted for getting me into community theatre at 12. I’m grateful for that because my passion for acting came during my middle school and high school years.
As a kid you get asked what you want to be when you grow up and every time I said actor people told me how hard it was and that I should pick a different career. I knew I wanted to go to college so when I got accepted to university I decided I’d go for kinesiology and minor in theatre. But I knew pursuing acting was my path because the summer before I felt this burning sensation in my chest a few weeks before move in day. I was finishing up my last community theatre show, RENT, and I couldn’t shake the feeling of how much I would miss doing it. I wanted to be doing it all the time. So right before college I switched my major to acting and then auditioned for my school’s BFA program and got in.
College was the start of my true acting training. I learned so much. It laid the foundation for the training I would continue doing after college. It also taught me so much more than how to act. It taught me discipline, time management, money management, an even greater sense of empathy, belief in myself and my abilities, greater work ethic, organization, the list goes on. I was learning how to be an adult and take ownership of my life/work.
Graduating college in 2019 and getting out into the real world was the biggest shift in my life. I decided that I would not go home. I would live in DC with my boyfriend at the time, work two jobs so that I had the money to move to NYC, and pursue my dreams. After that summer I moved to New York and really felt the struggle that people so often told me I would face. I realized I wanted to pursue a Film/TV career as well, which was a shift from my theatre background. I worked a number of jobs, retail, catering, and brand promotion. I did not have time to pursue what I wanted to because I was trying to stay afloat, but I was not going to give up.
March of 2020 happened and covid struck NYC. I was only in the city 6 months and after a few moths of trying to “wait out” covid. I moved back home to NC. I was devastated because I thought my journey ended there. But I chose to move home and apply to every agency that I could self-submit to in the southeast and ended up signing with an agency. From there I started auditioning over the course of 2020-2021 for projects in Atlanta. I realized that I wanted to get back into acting classes because I missed acting consistently and I wanted to learn more about film/tv acting.
This was also a time for personal growth where I got into health and wellness. I was seeking like minded individuals. I really began taking care of my body, mind, spirit, and craft as an actor. I began therapy, meditation, and self care. They became crucial for me and helped me develop a greater sense of inner happiness. Since I started to feel better inside I was able to support those around me that were being discouraged by a society that told them they couldn’t. I decided at that time that if I was going to be anything it was going to be a good energy for people to feel safe with.
I had a best friend that moved to Los Angeles. I knew I wanted to move out there and get closer to the bigger projects, but had no clue how I was going to get there until she called me in the fall of 2021 and offered me a job with her company. And right after I accepted the job, I booked my first SAG-AFTRA gig, The Other Zoey. It was a wonderful experience! I left set feeling so fulfilled. It felt like things were lining up.
Moving to Los Angeles in 2022 was a HUGE shift for me. I missed my family, I was starting a job with a content creator, and I felt like I was starting from square one in terms of my acting career. I wanted to waste no time. After a few months of getting settled I applied to agencies and signed with a new one. I started at a new acting studio, Zak Barnett Studios. I also began to gain a group of friends that have been a wonderful support system.
There were ups and downs all throughout 2022 and 2023, the dual strike with the Writer’s Guild and SAG-AFTRA being a big one. This was a time that I feel like I and my fellow actors in the industry felt low. But this period also helped me discover that I am more than one thing. I learned new skills and knowledge that I never saw myself knowing. I could put together content productions and I owe this to my friend who took a chance on me.
I’m still new to Hollywood. I’m getting my face out there with the help of some phenomenal people. However, I’ve faced a lot of people telling me what I should be doing or what’s right. But I’m learning everyone is on their own individual journey. What works for some won’t work for others. Figure out what works best for you. There is no timeline so please give yourself a break, take time to connect with yourself and your needs.
This past year, I had to address issues and come into a new phase of my life. I’m choosing to be my BIGGEST advocate and believe in myself no matter what others say or do. I believe that only YOU know your true potential. You need to be surrounding yourself with people who also believe in you and make you feel light. All of my experiences have led me to this point and I am excited to see where it leads.
Professionally I choose to focus on bettering myself through self-care (meditation, working out, therapy), attending class, self-submitting, telling myself I’m worthy, being consistent/persistent, being kind, and being eager to learn. I also keep reminding myself that it has worked out time and time again in the face of a new challenge. I just have to show up, do the work, and keep being me!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Gratitude, Resilience, and Listening to your Intuition.
Gratitude is so important because I think a lot of us like to think we will be happy when we reach that goal we are going for. Then we reach it and still aren’t satisfied because now there is another level to reach. Practicing gratitude has helped me to stay present and realize I have so much in what I may, at times, consider little. I usually talk to God and thank him for the little things or an opportunity. But you can also just wake up and say 5 to 10 things you are grateful for in general. It puts things into perspective.
Resilience is a quality that has gotten me through so much. You need to keep telling yourself that it is going to work out in the face of any challenge big or small. You’ve figured it out before and you will again. Please don’t give up on yourself or your dreams. What you do in the present is directly affecting your future, so help out future you! 🙂
Listening to your Intuition. I say this because there were so many times that I had an inkling about something and either went through with it or did the opposite. I might not have known exactly why but I always found out later. There were also times that I would blatantly ignore my intuition and learned a lesson. Listen to your body. If you have a feeling about a situation or when someone says something to you that is your intuition telling you something. You are probably going to grow as a person!
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
Right now, I’m currently trying to focus on my needs, feelings, and establishing boundaries in my personal/professional life. It’s a challenge for me because I’m someone who, in the past, constantly thought about how my decisions would affect others to the point that it was detrimental to my mental health. A lot of people that I would do that for would not do the same for me, but still the urge to people please was SO real. Lately I’ve been tuning in to what I need and standing up for myself in situations I may not have in the past because “it was no big deal” or “I’m sure they meant well”. Intent does not equal impact.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12435540/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/calebswindell/
