Meet Michael Sullivan | Actor

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

Hi Michael, why did you pursue a creative career?
The short answer is that I didn’t, at least not for a long time. I’ve had about a dozen careers, ranging from a noncommissioned officer in the US Army to the owner/operator of a packing/shipping store to a private tutor to just about every title one can hold in the administrative and accounting fields. I even have a master’s degree in education, not that I’ve done anything with it to justify the time and expense of grad school.

By my early 40s, I was pretty ensconced in corporate life. I was working for a company I thought I’d retire with, and I was financially stable in a director-level position. While I’d always been interested in the entertainment industry, it never occurred to me that I should take a chance and join the field.

But then, like approximately 166,000 other Americans working in the tech sector in the first quarter of 2023, I got laid off. And I was deeply, foolishly, downright disastrously unprepared for such a layoff. I was shotgunning resumes all across Indeed, bugging my LinkedIn contacts for “endorsements” (whatever the hell that means), and getting absolutely nowhere. So I started to make my bucket list for things I wanted to do before I left Los Angeles, just in case I got priced out of my modest apartment (which of course costs more per month than the mortgage on a McMansion in most of the Lesser States). And #1 on my bucket list with a bullet was signing up for Central Casting and working background on a major television show or movie. I wasn’t even necessarily interested in showing up onscreen; I just wanted to see what the production process looked like from the inside.

Then… I got a bit lucky. I was picked very quickly to work background on Grey’s Anatomy and 9-1-1: Lone Star, and I totally fell in love with being on set. The creativity, the skill, the ambition — so many talented artists working to bring a single project to fruition. And now I can’t imagine going back to a vanilla job.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I can tell you about how I got to where I am professionally, though of course it’s not a place that any actor should necessarily aspire to be. I’m doing the acting version of subsistence farming, moving from set to set, from paycheck to paycheck, taking on any roles that become available.

But I’ve long admired the actor Michael Keaton. He’s been a favorite of mine since a very early age, in both comedy roles and in those that require more gravity. And even before I thought about becoming an actor, I used to watch his interviews and late-night talk show appearances wherein he discussed his own approach to the profession. And the lesson I remember him saying, over and over, was that he didn’t look at an audition as just an audition. He looked at the audition as the job. So he never placed special emphasis on the outcome of the audition. From his perspective, scoring an audition meant he’d already gotten the job, and that was his time to go to work.

Now obviously I would never compare my talent level to Michael Keaton, but I love that philosophy. And because I’m at an early stage in my career, and I’m self-representing, I go back even one step further. The submission process? That’s the job. The pre-tape request is the job. I’m putting in my work there, and I’m diligent. I’m looking at the job posts on all three of the major hubs every night. I’m submitting batches of self-tapes every day that I’m not on set. And whatever happens after that, in terms of auditions or roles? That’s not getting a job. That’s just a natural result of me doing my job earlier in the process.

So, you know, go through the new listings on Backstage, even if you don’t want to. Film and edit that self-tape, even when you’d prefer to watch It’s Always Sunny. Edit the self-tape and slap title cards on there, even though it’s only marginally better than sending it in raw. Update your acting resume. List your credits on Actors Access. Do a new voiceover reel and add it on Casting Networks. Because sometimes that tiny little extra you add to your presentation is what’s going to be the tiebreaker that gets you an audition.

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?
My favorite restaurant in Los Angeles is Jitlada, in Thai Town. But I don’t actually need all of you knowing about that place, so I won’t wax eloquently.

I don’t feel qualified to take you on a week-long trip through the greater Los Angeles area, but let me tell you about a couple of spots in my neighborhood of Chinatown that don’t draw nearly enough attention.

First, there’s Long’s Family Pastry on Spring Street. It’s not the easiest place to find. The only exterior sign is painted on the wall, is partially in Chinese, and doesn’t even face the street. But the line is out the door most mornings, and they offer my favorite pastries in town. The portion sizes are huge, and the prices are inversely proportional — my regular order is two pastries the size of my hands for about $3.50. They also offer dim sum (I like the shrimp dumplings personally).

And then there’s My Dung Sandwich Shop on Ord Street. If you can get past the name, they make the best banh mi sandwiches I’ve found anywhere near downtown LA. Again, a super affordable place. You can get two full sandwiches for $15, including tip. They also have fresh produce and a variety of Asian chips. This is another tough place to find; it looks more like a newsstand from the outside than a working restaurant. But they’re for sure worth the trip.

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?
I have been blessed over the past 3 years to have had the opportunity to work with a number of incredible talents. But I have only met a few people over the course of my life who have impressed me as much as a young filmmaker named Ariel K. Harris.

I find it rare to meet someone who is not only blessed with artistic talent, but who is also so incredibly diligent and dedicated. I worked with Ariel on her vampire series set in a historically black college/university; it was called Pledge: Change Is Good, and she completed this while still a student at LA Film School. Wait, “completed” isn’t a big enough word to describe what Ariel accomplished. She wrote and directed a prequel series, did a successful round of fundraising, wrote the four-part Pledge: Change Is Good series (it’s approximately the length of two feature films); gathered a cast and crew that must have numbered over 100 people; directed and DP’d the series; led the team that edited 40+ hours of footage in less than 2 months; and ushered it through the festival circuit, where it’s winning so many awards that she’s going to have to be selective about which laurels go on the DVD cover.

It’s the most ambitious American student film ever. I know that sounds like hyperbole, but I actually researched this a bit, and I’ve yet to find a student film ever filmed in the United States that was larger in scope.

The other thing about Ariel is that I’m confident she’s going to stay on the cutting edge of the industry. She recently became interested in immersive media, and she just (as of 5/19/2025) released a new film on YouTube, a 360-degree all-female pirate movie called “Salt & Blood.”

I’ve already started mentally preparing anecdotes for when Ariel wins an Emmy or Academy Award, and people ask me what it was like to work with her. She’s also near the top of the list of people I’d call if I found myself COMPLETELY over my head with something. Like… I know she doesn’t have any experience in government, but I’d trust Ariel to restore and improve the Department of Education.

Hopefully that never happens, because I’d prefer that she keep making films and shows. If you want to follow her journey, her Instagram is https://www.instagram.com/directorakh/, and her website is https://arielkharris.com/.

Instagram: https://instagram.com/chiaone

Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/micsullivan

Facebook: https://facebook.com/misullivan

Other: IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7004863/

Image Credits
Matt Kallish