Meet Dorian Burks | Actor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dorian Burks and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dorian, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Although it’s now pretty prominently listed on my website (cat’s out of the bag?), many of my friends here in LA had little idea I attended MIT, a predominantly technical school, for undergrad. And often, when people find that out, the next question is “how on earth did you end up acting”?

Acting has always been a part of me, a dream from an early age. I remember as a young kid, watching the special features behind the scenes footage from the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie over and over to get a glimpse of what the four child actors experienced filming that movie, and wishing more than anything that I was one of them. A couple years ago, my parents moved out of the house I grew up in in Buffalo, New York, and as I was helping pack up I came across so many items from my childhood, art work, stories, play scripts. I was reminded of how at the age of eight or nine, a friend and I spent hours writing a play script over the phone – and boy, did I have dreams of us making it into a film and co-starring in it, although I had absolutely no idea how the film industry worked at that time.

Then came high school, and the crushing weight of perfectionism. Anything technical, math, science was much easier because it felt objective, and straightforward to know how to improve and succeed. And since it seemed that I was objectively good at STEM, I figured it was practical to follow that direction and give up any creative ambitions. I also wasn’t surrounded by many people with creative careers, so that path never seemed realistic.

While I have been blessed to have an amazing opportunity to study science and public health, and pursue a career in improving health care systems with a focus on racial justice and health equity, during 2020 I started feeling incredibly burned out and discouraged, seeing the vast inequities and challenges in the health care field. While I’d been doing community theater on the side, participating in three or four musicals or plays a year, I took a step back during that contemplative time during the pandemic shelter-in-place and realized that if I could choose to pursue whatever I wanted to, it would be to return to my dream of acting. I remembered how important stories were for me growing up, and how during 2020, I felt connected to so many through the stories I watched in TV shows. I wanted to be a part of telling these stories that make people feel seen and understood, and perhaps understand another person’s experience in a new way.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
What drives me in my art and craft is my personal mission statement of sharing stories that aren’t often shared so that others might see themselves represented and that others who don’t share that experience might gain a deeper empathy of it in some way.

I remember as I was considering taking the leap into pursuing screen acting, I’d just watched Sound of Metal. That movie, and Riz Ahmed’s performance, wrecked me, as I saw his portrayal of someone coping with losing his hearing, and with it, his ability to play music, while managing through addiction and recovery. I still think about how that movie changed my perspective.

I am particularly drawn to stories about people at the intersection of cultural and ethnic identities. As a mixed race person, I’ve navigated through my life at the boundary of various communities, never fully feeling a part of these communities, but also getting to be a bridge between communities. I have gotten to learn from and share my mom’s Swedish immigrant experience and the navigation between Swedish and American culture; as well as my dad’s small-town Louisiana Black American experience. One of my goals is to bring the experience and awareness of what it means to live in that tension and marginalization of being “in-between” into my acting roles, even if the story isn’t explicitly or primarily about that.

In addition to screen acting, this year, I have been training in and pursuing audiobook narration as an additional creative expression, and see narration as another opportunity to fulfill my mission statement, voicing stories that I can bring unique perspective to through my experiences, and hopefully help others feel more understood and connected.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Funnily enough, as I’m writing this, my old roommate and good friend is visiting LA this weekend – and this is a great opportunity for me to do some planning for what we’ll do this weekend.

One of the things I love most about LA is how truly endless the options are here, so this list could be endless as well if I’m not careful – it will likely be a very packed weekend regardless.

LA has such a great music scene since nearly every major artist comes through LA on their tours. My friend and I are already planning to go to Maggie Rogers this weekend, so that item is checked off. If we have another extra night for a concert, Sofar Sounds is a great option on the completely other end of things – a great way to see up and coming artists in a very intimate “house”-type venue and acoustic set.

Having trained at UCB and the Groundlings, I always try to bring guests to shows at one or both theaters, there’s so many excellent, hilarious fun options; and there’s also countless other fun improv spots. Hollywood Improv is another favorite, and you never know if there might be a special guest – last time I was there with some of my relatives visiting from Sweden, and we were blown away when Jerry Seinfeld was the surprise guest.

We’ll have to make our way to the beaches, of course, but which one? I love taking family and friends to the Malibu Farm Cafe, perfect views over the water and excellent food, and each beach has something different and fun to offer, whether it’s the skate park in Venice, Manhattan Beach’s great restaurants or making the way farther south to slightly less crowded, but gorgeous beaches as well.

LA is full of great coffee shops – and I am a bit of a coffee fiend. One spot in particular that I love for its ambiance, and also because I’m a big fan of the owners, is Cafe Nido. Excellent coffee in a really unique venue, gorgeous trees overhanging, a library and very fun ambiance.

The list is already getting too long, but brunch at Destroyer is another favorite of mine, I can’t tell whether I love the Scandinavian-inspired cuisine or the perfect tableware everything is served on more.

I’m going to have to stop there, both because my list for this weekend is getting too long and I’m probably running out of space for this interview as well!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are so many people that I can and could shoutout, but perhaps primarily and most importantly would be my parents.

My mom homeschooled me all the way through high school, she spent hours, days, weeks, years challenging me, and encouraging me to be my best in so many fields and love learning, whether it was in some of my early creative music pursuits, sitting with me as a six year old just learning the piano and struggling to have the attention span to keep practicing, or encouraging me to submit my stories to our homeschool magazine, helping get my first publishing opportunities, or even learning Latin and Spanish alongside me to try to stay ahead of my learning.

My dad instilled in me a deep moral compass and love of people. As a pastor, I saw him go out of his way daily to listen to people, encourage them, pray with them, and take a genuine interest in everyone he meets. His heart has always been evident in being kind, supportive and helpful – filling more jobs than I could count as not only the pastor of a small inner city church, but the van driver, the janitor, the landscaper, the counselor, the teacher, the chaplain and the handyman.

As an only child, I was truly blessed to get a front row seat to learn from both of my parents, and their values, work ethic and drive has fully shaped who I am today.

Website: https://www.dorianburks.com

Instagram: @thepictureofdorianb

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorian-burks/

Image Credits
Ren Scott, Glass Darkly; Jimee S Photos