Meet Mike Kimmel | Actor and Author

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

Hi Mike, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I’m a longtime actor and writer from the Bronx, New York. I knew from a very early age––about five years old––that I wanted to pursue a career in show business. I also knew somehow, even at that age, that I wanted to write books. I didn’t know at the time that the books I would someday write would be related to the acting work I was interested in performing.

However, both of those goals seemed very distant and unattainable to me at that time. I definitely didn’t have any local role models from my area to follow. The Bronx is one of the rougher areas of New York City. At that time, there were no after-school programs or arts classes in our area. My family didn’t know anyone in the entertainment field. Both goals seemed very far-away and I couldn’t find any guidance or clear direction towards either of them through the public schools I attended or the local library. Unfortunately, many of the teachers I had were very mean-spirited and were not at all encouraging to any of the students’ goals. They certainly did not encourage any of the kids in my community to think bigger or to think outside the box. Somehow, I knew at an early age that I would have to figure out my own path.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m a longtime actor and writer. I spent the first ten years of my career in New York City, where I developed my craft by working on many, many theater productions. Theater is a fantastic training ground for actors. There’s simply no substitute for working in front of a live audience. I was also able to shoot many commercials and print media campaigns in New York, as the city is home to many of the country’s largest ad agencies. Ultimately, though, I knew that there were greater opportunities available in Los Angeles.

When I finally made the move west, I was able to book supporting roles in network television and feature film projects, as well. I also received a terrific opportunity to work alongside Jay Leno as a sketch comedy player on “The Tonight Show.” This was a breakthrough role for me, as it provided steady work in Hollywood for over eleven years––and also allowed me to keep my improv muscles constantly tuned. Jay Leno is a comedic genius and he also loves to go off script when working in front of a live studio audience. I believe he liked the fact that I could keep up with him–– without becoming flustered or star-struck––whenever he would go off script to improvise. I owe a great deal to Jay Leno and the opportunity he gave me to work regularly on television when I landed in Los Angeles.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would have to suggest a trip to visit Francis Ford Coppola’s vineyard and American Zoetrope film studio in Northern California. I was blessed to work with the legendary eight-time Academy Award winning writer-director-producer on a personal passion project of his, Distant Vision, in 2016. Mr. Coppola had been planning this project, a loosely autobiographical film-theater hybrid production, encompassing three generations of his own family for more than thirty years. I was cast as Vincenzo Corrado, the family patriarch, and a character based upon the grandfather Mr. Coppola remembered from when he was a ten year old child in New York City.

This was definitely a career highlight, and an opportunity to work with one of the greatest directors in the history of film. Mr. Coppola is a very humble man and was extremely gracious to all the cast and crew. He invited many of us to visit
him at home in San Francisco and tour both the film studio and vineyards. You can’t help but grow as an artist when working with someone at that level.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I had the great good fortune to study acting under a truly gifted teacher named Michael Shurtleff, who wrote “Audition,” which was a landmark book for actors. It is still considered a classic in the field. I had several other very good teachers when I finally started to pursue the industry in earnest as an adult in New York, but Michael Shurtleff really helped me to develop a personal technique that I could truly rely upon in every different type of audition scenario that might present itself. Three decades later, as an actor and writer myself, I now try my best to provide some of these same insights to my own acting students––and in the scene and monologue books I write. There’s no point in learning, growing and evolving in your life and in your work unless you’re willing to pass along the fruits of your experience to the next generation coming along behind you. I’m a firm believer that we don’t have the right to keep our gifts and talents to ourselves.

Website: https://www.mikekimmelauthor.com/

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

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-kimmel-27b41a12/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MikeKimmelActor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Scenes.for.Teens

Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mikekimmelauthor/