Meet Derek Goh | Actor

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

Hi Derek, how do you think about risk?

I believe that taking a risk on yourself, for yourself, helps you do what you do and defines the vision you have for where you are going. If you don’t stick your neck out and try for something you don’t have the answers to right away, you spend your time doing what other people say and letting someone else steer your career. There is a difference between receiving advice and basing all of your decisions on what someone else thinks. This was a huge growth moment for me, discovering that my ability to risk was my liberation.

When I first began as an actor I was quickly hurried into the professional world. I had a manager who was interested in me before graduating college. After a showcase, I signed with a large agency. I felt like I was on top of the world and had just been given a golden ticket. I didn’t want to mess it up. So for the next 5 years I simply did what I was told, went where I was told, and tried to make every person in every room I walked into happy. I was afraid to do anything that would rock the boat. I think somewhere along the line, eventually, I lost a little piece of me that gave me my edge. I was putting out bland work that I wasn’t connected to and felt myself straying further and further from projects that would revive that side of me. I never took the risk. Never put my foot down to say hey, I know this audition might mean I will be out of town for months while other bookable tv shows are casting but I don’t think I’m a good actor anymore, this is what I need. But I didn’t want to get dropped. It wasn’t until a confluence of things had me audition for a limited HBO series where I would be playing the identical twin of a fellow actor, just off screen. My manager asked me what I wanted to do, did I want to be a glorified stand in or move on to another project. They would rather I didn’t. The script was so good, the director was sensational; I had a geyser of excitement inside of me. A chance to act and explore and be part of an incredible creative team; the answer was a yes for me. I lost that manager. The project would go on to win an Emmy and my love for what I was pursuing was renewed. Finally sticking up for what I wanted and what I believed broke through and for the first time I felt like I was in charge of my creative pursuits, standing up for what excited me. I am signed with a new team and we work together in a way that is much more healthy and beneficial for both parties.

This is not to say my old team wasn’t trying to help me get my career going. They did. They wanted it as bad as I did. They just had their way for doing it and the clout of many other success stories. But each of us is different. In these creative endeavors there is no one size fits all. No one path to success. The individuality of each of us is what makes us. So standing up for your kind of creative process is the most important thing you can do. Take the risk that it is worth it. It is what defines you.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?

I think I may have spent my answer too soon. But what keeps me busy is making sure my inspiration stays fresh.

I am an actor. I have wanted to be one since I was little. But, the idea of being one professionally wasn’t a thing where I’m from. I grew up in Canandaigua, New York and went through the public school system there, K-12. My Dad is a retired doctor of Family Medicine and my mother studied law. They raised me and my two siblings. My older sister Katherine and younger brother Seth.

I’ve always had an interest in interacting with the world as another person. I’d do that when I was little. I remember going to the grocery store as a kid and pretending to be a Hobbit from the Lord of the Rings and other stuff like that. I’d get lost in daydreams and then, within moments, become a hyper little psychopath. A little weirdo. I think I still carry that contrast with me. Not in overt ways, but in ways that hopefully interest and excite and surprise. A grind against assumptions. Living with duality. That, and some help from my teachers, gave me my first insights into some critical thinking: what if the opposite were true? It played out. I played football in the fall, then did the school musical in the winter in highschool. That cross pollination hadn’t been done where I grew up. And – I couldn’t have been happier to make it work. Make it a part of who I was. You can do whatever you want, actually. I wasn’t really bullied because I had my foot down firmly in both. I was a football player and someone who liked to act and sing and dance (not a dancer).

Professionally, however, I wish I had taken a page out of my own book. The strength in character to stand so firmly for who you are and what you like was exactly what I lacked entering the professional world. My lack of confidence made me believe that others knew what was best – always. So I let myself be guided by others who, I thought, knew what they were doing, without a say or a push for my input at all. It resulted in a slow drying of my creative well. That was a great challenge I finally overcame by taking a risk on myself.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?

Well, Having just moved here a year ago I have been a great student on the opposite side of this! Good friends showing me around.

Most of my experience has been on the eastside of L.A. so forgive me if I leave out nearly everything out there on the west side of the 405.

Currently, my first favorite thing to do is take my friends for a quick hour hike up into and around Griffith park. There is an entrance near the Vermont tennis courts that connects you right up into a beautiful vista of the city that circles back to your parking spot without having to retrace your steps, which is nice. I’d then take them to my local taco stand, shout out “Three Leaf Clover Tacos” on the corner of Los Feliz and Central, after working up a bit of an appetite. We’d then probably pop up to Paperback Brewing and Glendale Tap where there’s beers and games for free with virtually nobody there. If they’re not beer drinkers then we make our way down to Vermont street in Los Feliz and try to get into Mirate for their exceptional mezcal and consciously sourced agave spirit cocktails. Or maybe the Dresden for a craft cocktail and some late night music.

The next morning we’d probably try and hit the beach, depending. Get a coffee and breakfast someplace, Cafe Los Feliz or Alcove/Big Bar, then head west to Hermosa beach. Get a big fat Italian sandwich from Mickey’s Italian Deli, then chill on the beach with it (be mindful of seagulls). Head slowly back east. Stop by Bar Henry to say hello to my friend Eli. A fun dinner for me is Korean BBQ so I’d shout out Manna KBBQ in downtown, all you can eat, not busy, above average. That’s a good couple days

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

I’d shout out my Mom for taking me to silly improv camps when I was tiny. I’d shout out Scott Schauman and Amy Story from Highschool for fostering my creativity and treating it seriously before anyone did, giving me courage to maybe, possibly, pursue it. I’d shout out my time at Syracuse University’s BFA acting program for keeping my dreams alive, to refine what I came in with and support my introduction into the professional world. I’d shout out my old roommate David Siciliano for his patience and time. For all the self tapes he helped with while getting his own production company off the ground: Savvy Studios. I’d shout out to all my friends I’ve met in the service industry, whose support is the unwritten gem behind so many who do this.

The special one to me, personally, is Philip Seymore-Hoffman. He grew up 20 minutes away from where I am from in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York. Silly, kind of, but the first thing I ever saw him in was Mission Impossible 3. I thought it was the weirdest depiction of a villain I had ever seen. His strange voice. His nonchalant demeanor. I couldn’t quite understand it. So, of course I went looking for him in other things. Eventually I saw Boogie Nights and he broke my heart, kind of blindsided me. This was one of the most honest, brutal, humiliating, and sorrowful performances I’d ever seen. I was fascinated. All while I was in high school. When I found out he grew up in Fairport, NY I kind of lost it. He was right around the way. He saw the same things I did. The farmlands of Upstate New York. Not many bastions of creative jobs. It isn’t something that’s a reality for most. It wasn’t for me. That was until I found out the PSH grew up almost next door. Then the world opened to me. It’s one of my greatest regrets never getting to meet him. He died in February the year I was graduating college. But I want to shout out him for his work in the theater as well as on screen. He helped me dream.

Instagram: @dbgoh