Meet Shadow C. LaValley: Professional Storyteller

We had the good fortune of connecting with Shadow C. LaValley and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Shadow C., where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I am from small town in central New York. And by small, the population size of my hometown is less than a thousand. Which impacted my upbringing quite a bit. You see, living in the middle of nowhere CNY I wasn’t able to be socially active as a child growing up. I was very much isolated in my own little country bubble while growing up. Which wasn’t all bad. Looking back I am grateful to have experienced the quietness of country living along with having that peaceful easy feeling. It’s a feeling that I cannot explain into words, but one you would have to simply experience on your own. However, the fact that I was the only boy in a family with three kids (one older sister and one younger sister), I never had the experience of hanging around other boys my own age. In fact, my only male influence was my father, who was either at work or enjoying the “night life.” To make a long story short, I was positively surrounded by women throughout my life. Which I am truly thankful and grateful for!

However, because I was seeking that male influence as a child growing up, my Mom and my Mimay (aka Grandmother) could only teach me so much. When I was old enough (age of 12) I was able to go with my father to a “hunting camp” just up the road from our house in the country. Once there, I was surrounded by older men who had lived life and had their own life experiences to draw from. I was able to learn a lot, but what I learned wasn’t always for the best. I say this because I was conditioned through this experience with a lot of negative views of the world. Out of respect for all, I will not go into detail here, but I am sure you can imagine the male “country/backwoods” mindset that I was conditioned on. This conditioning all came to a head for me in 2008.

In 2008 at the ripe old age of 21, I was engaged to a woman who was 10yrs older than me with a little girl on the way. I was simply seeking the family life. In June of 2008, we had found out that our little girl had turner syndrome (missing the X chromosomes) which forced us to have an abortion. After that moment, our engagement fell a part and I rapidly fell into a depression that was helped along by excessive drinking. The combination of depression and alcoholism led to suicidal thoughts, tendencies, and a failed attempt one July afternoon. After surviving 2008, I moved back home in the beginning of 2009 to help my Mom take care of my Mimay during her final years of life.

It was during that time (2009-2015) that I was positively influenced to change my life. Of course that was influenced by my Mom and Mimay, but also by an actor on a popular television show that both Mom and Mimay were hooked on. That show was NCIS and the actor was none other than Mark Harmon (aka Gibbs). You see, although my experience and the experience of Gibbs’ character were different, both had experienced extreme loss and both battled depression, alcoholism, and suicidal thoughts/attempt. After making the connection to the character and becoming hooked on the show myself, I tore down my old thoughts, ideas, opinions, and values and rebuilt my life loosely around the Gibbs mindset. It was from that combination of being around Mom and Mimay and watching Mark Harmon’s work on NCIS that propelled me to who I am today.

Today, I am living in Los Angeles, making positive progress everyday to achieve my ultimate goal, which is to simply work on television to do what Mr. Harmon has done for me. To make a positive difference/impact in the lives of the viewers through my work as an actor. Nothing more, nothing less.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
This is probably a cliché answer to this question, but my art comes from my past. I have come to realize that I am not the only person in the world who has experienced certain aspects of life. And although each experience is different and unique from all other experiences, I am creating my work as a professional storyteller to highlight my own experiences so that the viewers will understand that they are not alone.

From my own struggles in the past, I felt a huge weight of loneliness and isolation. As if I was the only one who was experiencing what I was going through. And although that may be true to a certain degree, I have come to learn that there are thousands if not millions of others throughout the world who are experiencing similar things to what I have gone through. I look to provide comfort to those who are dealing with their struggles and hopefully, show them a “way out.”

Is it easy for me to tell these stories? Long story short, no. I do find myself struggling at times to share my experiences in my work. Because a lot of what I am trying to accomplish involves displaying my past ways of thinking, faults, insecurities, vulnerabilities, struggles, and the like. Don’t get me wrong, I am truly thankful and grateful to be where I am at today and I am always working at finding ways to influence the audience in positive ways, but to relive those past experiences can bring about relapse of those memories and feelings. The comfort I get in reliving the past is knowing that I will hopefully be influencing/impacting the audience to better their own life.

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.
My favorite spots in the city would have to involve the scenery. Definitely a far cry from my upbringing in the country of central New York, but Los Angeles has some fantastic views! The Hollywood sign and PCH have some of the most amazing views! I would highly recommend Santa Monica (the pier of course) along with the rest of the area. Such a lovely little spot!

There are a lot of little restaurants/clubs to check out in Hollywood that I would highly recommend! Definitely Off Vine Restaurant on Leland Way and Mission Cantina on Sunset Blvd. For the nightlife, I would highly recommend Good Times at Davey Wayne’s in Hollywood and Clifton’s Republic in DTLA. Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There is a combination of people who have helped me to where I am today. Too many to list here, so the people that I would love to highlight as the ones who positively put me “back on track” in my early years are my Mom, my Mimay (aka Grandmother), and Mr. Mark Harmon (NCIS). And to the ones who have helped me out in the most recent years would definitely be my talent manager Karen DeGennaro and everyone at Chris Roe Management! They all give me hope each and every day that I will be able to achieve my ultimate goal of making a positive difference in the lives of others through my work as an actor.

Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4553850/

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Image Credits
Joanna DeGeneres Michael D. Young Shanna Becker Bo Smith Paige Adlhoch Nick Macedo Himalay Kilaru