Meet Kyle Trueblood

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kyle Trueblood a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kyle , we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

From failure. I think it’s rare to fail at the same thing in the same way twice. To me, that means you’re going to become inevitably better at whatever your craft is once going through failure or trial and error. Being honest about what I wanted to do with my life came easy but actually executing that plan was a rollercoaster. What do you do when an expert in the field you’re interested in, tells you that you can’t do it. How do you respond when an idol of yours or a teacher or an expert sees your work and tells you that your caliber will not support the result you want? This happened to me and oddly, a wave of relief came over me after this experience, which came very early in my career. I was curious about the feeling myself, it certainly felt unexpected and illogical to feel relief because I definitely still wanted to pursue what I set out to do. I found after some time, that relief was a subconscious reaction to the fact that I somehow knew I got through an obstacle and at least now I knew where I stood in the industry and what I honestly had to do to improve. I finally had some truth about myself to build a plan of action off of. Failure seemed to be a toy to me. Something to not be afraid of, but to play with. Because I knew what it was like to fail. Like I knew what was at the bottom of the lake so I had no trouble or apprehension of jumping in at any time. That attitude brought me to where I am today. Multiple roles in movies on HBO, Amazon and I just won my first festival award for Best Action Film that I wrote, directed and acted in. In summary I don’t think what I gain will make me feel any sort of accomplishment. How I conduct myself during the process is what brings me peace.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I come from three years of acting in New York City in Off Broadway across the street from Madison Square Garden at the Abington Theatre. By 2013 I headed out to LA to begin a film career. Randomly moved in with a student from American Film Institute. Acting took off as I continued to portray different roles in AFI films. An alien, a slave, a sports agent, a best friend etc. I then became featured in music videos with Mary J Blige, B.o.B. and won a country music award with Zach Brown Band for best ensemble cast in a music video. Principle roles in feature films such as The Best People on Amazon, Single Mother by Choice on HBO and a few episodes on General Hospital. Roger G Smith blessed me with his presence in a beautiful scene we did together in a film called Thoughts are Things. I was fortunate enough to do a play in LA as well from the Pulitzer prized winning writer _ Theresa Rebeck’s – The Understudy, which played for a month at the Comedy Central Theatre on Santa Monica Blvd. I also wrote and directed a short film that won Best Action Short at the La Live Festival in 2023 which brought me to where I am now. Currently directing a feature film is all I can divulge at the moment given NDA’s and privacy for the production, but I promise you will see it next year.

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?

Curiosity, love and delusion. I say delusion because that’s what it felt like to me in the beginning and I was perfectly fine with that. Yes it was delusional to say all that I will accomplish when there isn’t an iota of assurance or physical evidence I could even come close to the goals. I was a division 1 college football player with the option to play in the arena league after college. It’s like the minors for football. I also acquired a bachelor of science in international business while I was there. I pivoted immediately into the film industry the day after graduation. I have a psychologist and a lawyer for parents each with their own practice or firm and published. Needless to say they called me delusional as well, but what was interesting is that they believed in my delusion as well. We all agreed it was a crazy move in life. They understood that my curiosity and love brought me to this point and joined me on the journey. I think when you come from a genuine place, it’s because you’re being true to yourself and people will resonate with that. If not your parents, find your tribe. Stay away from the naysayers. Their time will come when they see what you accomplish from the outside. Keep your circle small and tight with people that interact with you out of love, not for love. Whatever you want to do, that is your prerogative and no one else’s.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

I do believe you go all in on your strengths. I know that may not be a popular opinion but I do believe life is for living. If you have a strength, I would call that a gift. I see it as your duty to develop that strength and cultivate it for the betterment of society. I believe there will always be weaknesses to work on. Always. So spend time on your gifts. See how far you can go, how great, how powerful you can develop your strengths. Now you might say well what about the weakness, that can bring it all toppling down. I don’t believe so. I believe the way the world works, there can be no strength without weakness. They inform each other. You will always have a weakness. I find myself right in the middle having a relationship with both strength and weakness. A story I would reference is the great Michael Jordan transitioning to baseball. He viewed the sport of baseball as something he wanted to improve in. But not until he had conquered basketball. He didn’t go back and forth or try round himself out. He knew his strengths and was vicious about cultivating them. He had fun with his weaknesses and was never afraid to live with it or even just try them out. What I am saying is don’t put down your strengths in fear of not focusing on other avenues. I think that’s just fear of the future obstacles. You have a gift, a strength, in this regard of what to pay attention to, its the strength to go have fun with. In my opinion it will inform you on how to treat and accept your weaknesses.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: kyle_.t

Image Credits

Selina Ringel and I at the premier of the HBO Movie: Single Mother By Choice. Kurt Sinclair and I on the set of the hit short film The Hideout. over 50k views on amazon in 2018