Meet Megan Tully | Actor, Filmmaker

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

Hi Megan, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
My tendency toward risk got a really bad rep when I was growing up because I had no where to put it. Partying, sneaking out, driving too fast, skipping school, you know, classic teenage behaviour. But I realized later after reading my friend Sophie Morrison’s book, Brain Judo, that that same tendency toward risk could be a great thing when used constructively.

My first creative passion was clothing design. One night when I was at a hookah bar in St. Louis wearing a vest that I sewed earlier that day, I was scouted by an independent fashion designer who asked me to model for him. I said yes to something I’d never done, and that first photoshoot we did blew up in Complex magazine and launched me into modeling all over the US.

After a year of going to runway shows, hair shows, and doing fashion and beauty print stuff, I moved to LA (too early) and ended up in Orange County in a 1 bedroom apartment with 3 people and 2 cats… and no car. Within 3 weeks I bought a plane ticket home and went back to college. I kept modeling to pay my bills, and at a commercial test shoot one time I met a director who put me in my first short film. That’s when my love of film was activated and I decided to find a way to finish my education in Filmmaking at Columbia College Chicago.

My first semester in Chicago I had to face the truth that modeling was literally killing me (I was nearly 2 years into an eating disorder by this time) and had to go to the ER for a blood transfusion where doctors said I should’ve been dead a month ago. So I quit modeling, started eating steak, got serious about my yoga and mindfulness practice, transitioned into acting, and put way more focus on my insides rather than my outsides.

When I moved back to LA the next year I had a film degree and a great acting reel under my belt, was healthy, and that gave me the confidence I needed to start auditioning and winning roles and eventually making my own films!

That first risk of saying yes that night at the hookah bar is the catalyst that got me all the way to where I am today, working with some of the greatest movers and shakers out here. Otherwise I’d still be working at the dry cleaners in St. Louis Missouri.

That was many years ago, but in my more matured state, I’ve learned there’s a big advantage to be willing to take risks with your words. In calling out the truth, even calling out your own mistakes out in front of people. It garners respect. And when people respect you, and you respect yourself, you can do anything.

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.
In the past 10 years, I’ve modeled, graduated film school in Chicago, been a working actor in Los Angeles, made several short films and a music video, co-created amazing streaming and web-series pilots with some of the most innovative minds in entertainment, and been a private and big studio yoga instructor and Reiki healer. This year I worked with Creators Capital in opening the first Creator House in Dallas where we worked on a presidential campaign, created a scripted reality show, and learned a lot about business while forming relationships with conscious business leaders.

I enjoy the art of helping people feel like they can be themselves. My art can be weird and provocative. My art gives people permission to be different, to have an opinion and walk their own path. My art helps people feel deeply about life. My figure drawing teacher, Yingxue Zuo, once told me that if you have to explain it, it’s not art, it’s literature. He was a brilliant man, so I’ll leave it at that.

As for getting where I am today, I can thank my restrictive and tough upbringing for making me so desperate to escape. My dad is a salesman, my mom a stay at home mom, my two sisters are nurses. We grew going to the Greek Orthodox Church in St. Louis County. I want to live an interesting life and inspire people to realize they can do whatever they want to do. So, I lead by example.

Diagnosed with bi-polar and borderline personality disorder in more recent years, I’ve struggled with my mental health my entire life, I just didn’t know there was titles for it. My mission has always been to get closer to people, and myself. That’s why I decided to be an actor. With the work I’ve been doing this year learning Dialog Life Skills, I now know more than ever that it’s not about ME. We are in relation to other people. So my emotional world isn’t real for anyone else, and it’s not about self knowledge, or self help. It’s about us, how we can all understand each other better, and see that we are living completely separate lives with our own inner worlds. With Dialog, now I choose to consciously uncover my own traumas as well as people in my circle so we can all work in a harmonious environment, in relation to each other, and turn our pain into purpose.

All this gumbo has led me to a great place where I’m getting to co-create a genre and structure bending production company along with our team at Creators Capital. We launch at the Hollywood & Mind conference May 9th, 2024. I’d love to connect with anyone else who’s passionate about our effort to leverage the power of storytelling to de-stigmatize mental health issues, and help teens and young adults thrive 🙂

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m not a huge fan of this question because… stalkers. But,

Saturday: Manhattan Beach for a yoga class and then jump in the waves. After sun tanning all day, climb to the top level of The Strand House to watch the sun set and then walk to Salt and Straw to get ice cream we can’t pronounce.

Sunday: Peace Cafe truck on Abbot Kinney for coffee and hang. Then the theater.

Monday: Pracillas coffee to work and write, hike at Fryman Canyon during lunchtime, and then Sweetgreen or Pho Noho. Maybe a movie after.

Tuesday: Hidden Larchmont to make some improv Tiktok videos with whoever’s around. Laurel Hardware for a bougie Happy Hour, then Weho cuz crowd pleaser, then The Comedy Store hopefully to see Erik Griffin, then whatever club is still open.

Wednesday: We got lit last night so we’re making bad decisions for the rest of the week. Lets’ drive to Palm Springs because our friends cousin’s brother from acting class is having an anti-fascism party.

Thursday: Leave before anyone wakes up because I got an audition and my friend accidentally slept with someone. Peace Cafe truck on Abbot Kinney to rectify our sins. Watch 300 and order Pacific Rim Thai.

Friday: Leave me alone.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My success as a creative person has 1000% been because of people who have believed in me and helped me along the way. On a creative path you have to… you know, get creative. There’s no blueprint. My personal go-to method was to throw stuff at the wall till it sticks, but I learned through the years that without a recipe, there’s just a lot of pasta on the floor. I thrive in connection and collaboration.

Most recently, I became a Creator at Creators Capital. Creators Capital is the world’s venture studio focused on developing creators, their projects and companies. Shout Out Jaxon J. Huffman, the CEO and a Creator Economy expert. He’s constantly connecting me with other co-creators, professionals, and business leaders as mentors and investors. I’m thriving in his network of Creator Houses (cuz collaboration) and he’s helping me become a creative business woman with a slate of productions in development.

One of the most important things that Jaxon taught me is that if I’m going to get anywhere in life, I need to learn how to build and maintain healthy relationships. He taught me a life skill called Dialog that has changed all of my relationships and mental health for the better, and I’m excited to start sharing it with the world through the stories we tell.

Shout Out J. Michael Straczysnki, the brightest and most versatile writer I know, for just being himself! But also for asking me to co-write a pilot with him and then fighting for my equal pay and points as a writer and creator of the series, getting me a writing agent, and believing in me through all of my imposter syndromes.

One of the early writing lessons that Joe taught me is that my main characters need an emotional through line, and they need to be driving the story. Instead of things happening to them, they are making things happen. This was a huge ah-ha moment for me not only in storytelling but in LIFE. As an actor we are taught that acting is reacting. So I’ve spent the past 6 or 7 years really living in that mentality which is completely bogus when it comes to anything but acting. This was the “first hint of awareness” that made me realize I wasn’t really writing my own movie, and I think about this every day to make sure I stay in the frequency of a co-creator of my reality. Joe would always say, creating a strong character means creating someone who’s living life, rather than their life living them. That totally changed the game for me and continues to every single day.

Shout Out Sal Romeo, the most impactful, knowledgeable, and genuine acting coach I’ve ever had. Sal guided me through my traumas and triggers, developing my mind and toolkit as a method actor. His teachings gave me a deep connection with my mind, body, and essence.

Sal is all about taking RISKS and I love him as a coach because he pushes me to explore my boundaries, really pushing my range. I remember one time during acting class I was working on a character who was always coked out and so I had to “get high on cocaine”. As a method actor, that means you pretend to cut the stuff up up and snort it and that triggers your brain to believe you actually just snorted cocaine. So he had me do that in class, and I never had to get high again. Just kidding. Bur really, if anyone’s looking for a placebo effect for anything, try method acting. Sal rocks.

Finally, I’d like to thank Zach Xanders, a talented writer and director who I met in my hometown and who activated my love for filmmaking and interest in going to film school. I might not have ever found my passion or left St. Louis if it wasn’t for him. He gave me my first acting role in a short film that made it in film festivals, and I got to see our work on the big screen in LA which gave me hope that I could “be somebody” at a time when I needed it the most. Zach, a film writer and director who graduated with a masters in screenwriting from New York Film Academy, encouraged me to start writing and taught me the ropes, still giving me feedback and inspiration today.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meganatully

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganatully/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@meganatully