Meet Thaddeus Newman

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

Hi Thaddeus , thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

I believe I get my work ethic from my mom and my dad! Growing up they always made it very clear that you can’t achieve anything great or worthwhile without prayer and hard work. A little backstory, my mom is originally from Manila and immigrated to the US when she was a young adult. From the jump, she had to deal with a language barrier, the change of pace and lifestyle of the US, along with the stereotypes of being an immigrant in America. She had to work very hard to get established here in the US, so whenever I feel like giving up, I remember that my mom came here with little to nothing and
was able to make it work even when the odds were not all in her favor. My dad, on the other hand is originally from Philly, and he grew up in Philly during a very rough time. He would always tell me stories about him as a kid growing up in poverty and in a racially divided time. Even when he was established and working at McDonnell Douglas as an engineer, he had to deal with racism and an unsafe work environment as one of the few black men in a predominantly white male dominated field. In spite of this, he kept on and won multiple awards one of them being the first ever African American to win the Spirit Award at the Hill Air Force Base. Both my mom and dad had to work extremely hard to get to where they are today and they never allowed the circumstances surrounding them change what it is that they set out to do. Seeing this firsthand, as a kid has really wired me in a way that I’m very grateful for, so whenever I feel discouraged I remember what my parents had to go through in order to give my sister and I the life we have now and it makes me want to go 10x harder. That being said, I’m forever grateful to God for blessing me with my parents, love you mom and dad!

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?

I’m a half black, half filipino creative currently living in Los Angeles. I feel like my focus is always shifting, as we are human beings and we are never the same person tomorrow as we were today and I’m constantly reminding myself of that and learning to be open to change in that regard. I originally moved to LA in 2021 to pursue acting. I packed all of my belongings into my 2011 Toyota Camry, and I drove out here with my best friend Alpha, shout out to Alpha haha. When I first got to LA I had no idea at all what I was doing, I just knew I was sent here for a reason and I just had to trust God and my intuition in that regard and it’s safe to say I think I’m on the right track haha. The thing I quickly learned about the craft of acting is that it really is something that you have to be 100% honest and truthful in or else it won’t come out authentic. With acting I had to learn to bring my entire self to the work no matter how I was feeling that day, I just had to bring it in with me into the work and I believe it’s been a very enlightening and fulfilling experience thus far. I believe as humans we are conditioned to put up a wall in order to protect ourself and the things that matter to us, which is rightfully so because the world can be a harsh place. But we start doing this every day and we start to lose that sense of individuality because you’re always so guarded so you’re never really truly yourself. And I had been doing this for so long, it just wasn’t working for me, especially in my craft. My work wasn’t coming across as authentic, and that’s the whole reason why I started this journey! It was because acting was the one space where I felt most like my whole myself and where I could express my whole self. So, once I figured that out, I feel like I hit another level in my life and in my craft and haven’t really looked back since.

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?

Looking back, I believe the three most necessary qualities that have had the most impact thus far is 1. Being open to change! For the longest I was sort of a control freak and I felt the need to have my hand in everything or else I thought it wouldn’t work out and that led to a lot of stress and anxiety that wasn’t really helping me or the other parties involved. Especially in this industry and just in this life in general, you gotta be okay with things going any other way but the direction you thought it was going to go. Once you learn to let go, is the moment when things start to come to you. Number 2, is being patient. When I first got to LA I wanted to do it all and have it all by tomorrow haha. I was putting a timer on everything and it didn’t allow me to see things clearly because I thought if I didn’t have it by a certain time then that window would close and let me tell you, that could not be further from the truth! There are things that I thought I needed in that exact moment but didn’t get that eventually came back months later, when I was ready and they were greater and much more fulfilling than I could have ever imagined. Just learn to be patient, trust yourself and trust that God’s got ya no matter what. Last but not least, number 3 is hard work! It might sound cliche but it’s so so true. I was once talking to a friend of mine and he said this to me, “Sure, thousands of actors move to LA every year, but thousands also leave LA every year. If you stick around long enough and work hard then your time will come, it always does.” And that moment has stuck with me since. I have yet to do everything that I want to do, but I do believe my time is coming and as long as I keep my head down and work hard, I’ll know that I really worked for it. Advice I have for folks early on in their journey, is to love yourself the best you can, when you have a sense of security and love for yourself, no amount of adversity will ever be able to derail you from what it is that you’re destined to do. You might take a brief detour but you’ll always find your way back because you know how great you are and once you figure that out, I believe you have all you need to succeed at anything you put your mind to.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

The most impactful thing my parents did for me was give me room to fail when growing up. They always encouraged my sister and I to try things whether we succeeded or fell short and if we did fall short they would help us up, remind us that tomorrow is a new day and you can always try again, instead of coming down on us or diminishing us. I think this helped me to have a healthy relationship with failure and realize that you can’t really do anything great without failing a few times, just as long as you continue to get up and keep on swimming. Proverbs 24:16 says, “For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again.” I remind myself that no matter how down bad I might be, just to keep going and I’ll let God do the rest.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @tophatthad

Image Credits

Erica Allen, Zade Akaad, Peter Konerko, Paul Smith