Today we’d like to introduce you to Kyle Evaldson.
Hi Kyle, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Not sure where to start, but I’ll give it a go. I grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, played sports, video games and lived a generally normal life like any other kid. I always had hobbies like airsoft or the relentless pursuit of cross country and track, but among those things were always creative ventures. Throughout childhood I always made films with my brothers and their friends and even a few with myself and my friends. We did a film camp together and In 2011 we won the Santa Fe Youth Film Festival with a short, but that’s not where my desire to be a filmmaker and actor came to fruition. As a matter of fact, at that time filmmaking was actually more important to my brothers than myself. What really started my journey of discovering the arts was entirely different. Throughout middle and high school I ran call of duty clans on YouTube with daily uploads until graduation. Those were the years and creative adventures among the occasional skits I forced my friends to film with me where my true love for performing began. In college myself and a friend created a video podcast which sadly ended in my computer being fried rendering an episode that has still never released. Through the frustration, I took a break from my creative ventures and focused on business, my degrees and professional sales for a few years. During this time I was fully enveloped in skiing everyday and you could find me in the mountains primarily. I felt empty inside knowing I wasn’t fulfilling my creative side, but my love for skiing made me take 3ish years before I finally decided to pursue acting. The first year and a half was a complete disaster and when I say disaster I mean it. I did what anyone else would do that has no knowledge of the film industry and I signed up for what I now know as a “scammy program” (which I won’t mention who because that’s not the point) for $5,000 to take their acting and modeling classes to become the next “disney or Nickelodeon star” as they often advertised. I felt something was wrong, but kept at it for 14 classes. This part of my journey, I wouldn’t change as it allowed for a hard reset on the pursuit. Everything about my journey changed as I left Arizona and when I got to Texas. I planned to start new and do things the right way this time! I spent hours researching and eventually came across a working actor who taught private lessons. This seemed better than my last pathway to break into acting so I signed up and there’s where everything changed. Through my coach’s mentorship, I got an agent, learned how to properly act, be authentic to characters and most importantly how the industry actually operated. This truly opened my eyes to the journey ahead and how hard and difficult it would be, but as someone who never likes easy things, I got excited about “the hunt” a true pursuit of making things happen. Over the next year and some odd months, I went to work. My sales networking mixed with meeting directors, producers and industry folk blended perfectly for a storm that led to finding myself on set and building meaningful connections. I recruited some fellow actors and actresses for my first professional short film on a set and we went big for a short film. 30+ actors and 8 locations (none cheap), but failed to meet the unspoken requirements of film festivals very well. This was the best adversity I could go through as a filmmaker. Nonetheless, the snowball began, over the next months my roles in acting grew for commercial work, tv miniseries and even working crew and acting on sag aftra films and working with major brands. I’ve continued making my own films during this time and each month I grow closer to my big goals and check off small ones along the way of being a filmmaker and actor. The relationships and colleagues I’ve come to know through this journey has been the best part and it’s always a journey with them included. My knowledge and skill has grown tremendously this last year alone and I can’t wait for what the journey has in play for me and my friends as we all push to grow our careers in tv and film work.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Not by any means! The road that’s worth riding is never easy in life. If something is easy to obtain or get, it’s generally not worth it or fulfilling. My journey from figuring out and navigating my own path to enter the film industry with few industry contacts has all been a journey of growth, failure, adversity and mistakes. Even with the difficulty of the journey, I wouldn’t trade the grind for anything else and as I establish myself further in TV and film both on and off camera, I know there’ll always be hurdles with every level you continue to elevate to.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I wear multiple hats in the film industry, which a lot of my colleagues do as well. Primarily I’ve stuck to acting, producing, filmmaking, casting, production assistant, grip work as of now. I’d say I genuinely don’t complain and try to be the best at making my role fit the vision of the creative I’m working alongside. The directors vision is the one that matters and whether I’m a grip, actor or even production assistant, it’s my goal to bring no drama, being laughs, know when to speak up and when to not and most importantly respect the art to the best of my ability. I think I’m pretty good at this aspect of things, but even then there’s always more room to grow. My favorite set is hard to tell, because I have so many fun sets I’ve been a part of, but if I had to choose I’d probably say my first short film I made ‘Two Faced City’ just because of the learning lessons I went through as a filmmaker and the friendships I built during that production. My current favorite project is my latest short film ‘Growth’ that me and some friends made. Its currently awaiting festival responses and it’s definitely a project we’re all excited to share with everyone. All involved poured their hearts into that film and the story is riveting for audiences. For anyone who wants to follow along Growth you can find out more on our film on Instagram. @growthfilm and if you want to follow along my personal film journey you can find me at @thekyleevaldsonofficial.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I think luck comes from hard work. I wouldn’t say luck has played a factor as much as action behind your words and how you conduct and carry yourself in life. All of the good things that have happened to me I believe are through all the heartaches, headaches and adverse moments that aren’t seen behind closed doors. The hard work might not come out during those moments, but you never know when it will. The harder you work the luckier you get and hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work. Those two ideas have driven my mindset forward to just trust that good things happen when you put you head down and be about it, don’t just talk about it. One of my good friends always says all tides and ships rise or sink together, and this is very true. In this industry, there’s unspoken ways to stand out, but if all you remember is caring about others success as much as your own, you will find more success. Selflessness leads to more lucky situations and is what all good collaborators share in common.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Thekyleevaldsonofficial
- Facebook: Kyleevaldson
- Other: IMDb: Kyle Evaldson
