We recently connected with Dominic L. Santana and have shared our conversation below.
Dominic L., we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I actually felt my purpose all the way back in childhood. I didn’t quite know what it was in detail or what was driving me but I knew it was there. I knew I wanted to be somebody and use that to help others. I would tell my mom “I want to be in movies when I grow up”. We laugh about it now because of course as most parents feel, she thought it was just the thing of the moment that a kid is saying. Probably next week I’ll say I want to be a fireman etc. over time I stayed the same course and had my plan early on. Even though she was big on fostering her children’s dreams, she started to believe me instead of just humoring me. She tried to find little commercial auditions etc. We were fairly poor most of my childhood even though she worked 2 and 3 jobs so there was only so much she could do. My dream from childhood to adulthood was to go to the NFL, make a name for myself, retire early and move to Hollywood to leverage my NFL fame into opportunities for film. Where I’d become a superstar. Sounds simple right? Of course you learn life isn’t that simple. My mother was a big film buff so that was some of our fondest memories, watching her VHS collections of classics and current films. Every once in a while she’d save enough to take us to the theater. That was Disneyland for us. Magical every time. That’s where I developed my love for film. In wanted to be the people on the screen. I wanted to give people the feeling I got when I went to the movies. It was an escape, a trip into a wondrous place. Far away from the poverty stricken neighborhood we’d have to go back to after. I wanted everyone to feel that magic. After I realized football wasn’t going to work out, I put all of my energy into acting. My journey into film and becoming an adult shaped me to care more and more about the world around me. I knew if I could become rich and famous from my talent, I could create programs that would help people like I wished someone had helped my family. Good people just in a bad situation. My purpose became more and more clear as I went along. The acting was my job but my purpose was and is to use the power and resources from fame to lift people up.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Professionally I started off solely focused on acting. It was all I desired to be at the beginning. Of course over time, life has many twists and turns that open your mind to more. As I broke into the film business I learned the “business” on the fly. I started working a lot with Swirl Films and the founder of Swirl, Eric Tomosunas befriended me and would let me sit in his office for hours. Where I would observe and sponge up all the info and wisdom I could obtain. He saw the talent early on and really encouraged me to push to the highest levels in this business. He gave me multiple opportunities in his films and that’s where my name started to grow. From there I was able to parlay that into retaining agents and getting opportunities with other film companies. I started doing day player roles on a few shows like One Tree Hill, The game and more. I kept trudging away for years just trying to stay active. Eventually landing my first Co-lead role as Suge Knight in the Tupac Shakur biopic “All Eyez On Me” in world wide theaters. That was a surreal experience and really put me on the map mainstream wise. I had never worked on a film that had so much buzz during and after filming. Along with the pressures of so much expectation! I was ready though. I brought my A game and I knew no matter what, I wanted to make my performance undeniable. Which it seems I did. I went from there to the critically acclaimed show “Unsolved: The Murder Investigation of Tupac and Biggie Smalls”. I turned it down at first not knowing who all was behind it and fear of being type cast. My good friend and talented writer Tash Grey actually called me herself. She was working on the show. She literally started off the call with “boy what the hell are you doing so big that you don’t have time for an NBC show?” I laughed and told her how I had no real info on it. I was also prepping to go to Kenya Africa with my team to shoot a documentary with Z.O.E. helps, a wonderful organization doing great work over there with empowering and educating young people so they can provide themselves with a better life. The trip ended up being postponed a year so I listened to Tash and went and shot the highly acclaimed show. After that my best friend and I Chaysen Beacham decided to use the moment of my new status and his as a budding film producer to start our own production company Polemarch Films. We both had walked this journey together for years and had always collaborated on writing scripts and ideas. Utilizing relationships, we started to pitch shows to show runners and networks. Also hunting for film investors. We made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot of lessons. I became great friends with David Robinson (President of Morgan Creek Ent) and aside from being a great friend he also became kind of a mentor. Helping me navigate the film production side on a mainstream level. I gained a lot of wisdom from him and utilized it in our business. From there I ended up heading back to Wilmington NC to start my first season on my current show “Hightown” on Starz. Wilmington is where I started my career so it was full circle. I had always wanted to give back to the film community there. So on my off time I began to tap back in with the Indy film community in Wilmington. I started meeting filmmakers and found a handful that were really talented but just needed more knowledge of the business and access to resources like distributors, known talent etc. At the same time I started a podcast with some good friends and partnered up in another company called Santana-Hall Productions. Originally we had only planned our show “Cuttin’ Up”. When that didn’t take off we paused to figure out what to do with the company. The more I familiarized myself with Wilmington film community the more I was able to vet the filmmakers to find those I felt could go the furthest with my help. That’s when I met Marquand Ragland of B.R. films. His passion for making great film regardless of the small budgets he was operating with really motivated me. It rekindled that raw love of film I had before entering the corporate side and agents, managers, lawyers etc. So I started collaborating with him and his team figuring out how we could help each other. I was introduced to Shondrella Avery of Glass Slipper Ent and we talked about doing some projects together and she could provide distribution. It was a chance to deviate from the big heavy productions we were pushing at Polemarch Ent and spend some time in the small Indy world creating quality African American lead films. That became the focus of Santana-Hall. We teamed with B.R. Films and shot a small horror film called “The Madness” for Tubi where I Directed, co-starred, co-wrote and executive produced under Shondrella, Bobby Brown, his wife Alicia and Christopher brown. It came out last month and has been doing really well. After that we brought on a few more filmmakers, made some deals with multiple distributors and I’ve been operating as an Executive producer over multiple projects, giving out filmmakers we’re collaborating with an opportunity to show what they’ve got and build a name for themselves.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
In my journey I learned the three of the skills I need the most was courage, consistency and the unwavering belief that I could achieve my goal. I’m anything you choose to do you have not only see your starting point but you have to envision your finish line. No one knows what all will happen on the journey there but once you’ve convinced yourself that there is a finish line and you know what that looks like for you, everything else is just steps to it. That takes courage to embark on a journey you know is too hard for most or that you’re stepping into it blindly. It’s faith. Faith in yourself, faith in your gifts, faith in your purpose and faith that whomever you pray to will guide you along the way. Consistency is what keeps you from quitting. To say no matter what happens, I will get up everyday and pick up where I left off and push a little more. Some days it’s not fun or you want to quit but once you convince yourself you will be consistent no matter what, you start to see the needle move eventually. Also whatever field you go on, you just be a constant student. You have to learn your business not just your talent side. Talent is great but to make a living you must understand how people make money off of you and how you can make it a good situation for yourself. Also how to move in your business. It’s a marathon not a sprint. It’s chess not checkers. There are no easy ways. The hard ways is where you learn all the lessons to create a blueprint. Once you have a blueprint you can always. Bounce back if you fall.
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
Honestly my mother. From the very beginning to even now, she has been my biggest cheerleader and motivator. Even before she realized I was very serious about being in film she would constantly pour into my mind. Constant affirmations of who I could be and that I was someone special. Repeatedly fortifying my mind so that no one could tell me I couldn’t achieve something. That helped me tremendously once I ran into all the naysayers and those who would laugh when I told them my dreams. She taught me to be strong and to always hold my head high. I was kid and she was doing these things. Most of it didn’t understand until I was older and the seeds she had planted had blossomed. As a parent now I do the same with mine. When I was 19 and football was no longer a reality, I began my push to break into film. I knew no one or nothing about the business. My mom knew that. She literally would research film events in Wilmington. I remember her singing us up to go to a film symposium. I asked what in the world is that? She said “I don’t know either but we’re going to find out”. That’s where I first met Sam Art Williams an Executive Producer of The Martin show and Fresh Prince of Bel Air. He was from Burgaw which is 20 minutes from wilmington. Mind blowing to me. We literally did not miss the Martin show every Sunday. My mom cooked a Sunday dinner and we bunkered down for the Sunday line up which started with Martin. He had some great words of encouragement etc. Ironically my mom would sign us up to be extras on the film “Black Knight” starring Martin Lawrence. She and I we’re there together freezing. It was February but supposed to be summer in the movie. I got to meet and befriend one of my heroes (Martin) because of that. I learned one of my biggest lessons about acting from watching Martin that I still use to this day. Like many I thought I had to spend 30 minutes dramatically taking my mind to some magical place that would prepare me to do my scenes. You know all the whacky acting methods we’re taught early on. Martin can’t on to set quietly and clearly I’m his thoughts, the director said “we’re ready when you are Mr. Lawrence” he took a minute and said he was ready and when the director said action he exploded, running around crazy and over the top excited. That was the first time I saw an actor just flip a switch. So now I use that method. I come to set fully prepared so when it’s go time I just flip the switch and I’m in it. I dabbled in businesses outside of acting to stay afloat and some succeeded, I’d call my mom to tell her how good my business was doing and she’d applaud me but always go back to “but how’s acting going?” “That’s great but don’t forget about your acting career.” Even now she calls me to see what I’m doing next or just to encourage me to continue to the top. I’ve had many great people along the way help me in various ways but that lady right there literally has been doing it a lifetime. I made my name known and made it mean something in the world and she is where it all started.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @Officialdomsantana
- Facebook: Dominic L Santana
- Twitter: @DominicSantana
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@reeltalkwithdominicsantana2844?si=MJaXLs5UaZFHcR6k
