Meet Trae Whyte | Screenwriter & Filmmaker

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

Hi Trae, is there something you believe many others might not?
I believe it was Confucius who said, “choose a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” I don’t buy it – at least if we’re being overliteral. Now don’t get me wrong, I write to communicate my emotions to myself. It’s when I’m at my most vulnerable and where, plainly and against my therapist’s recommendation, I draw most of my value as a person. There’s no doubt in my mind that cultivating my life and career as a screenwriter and filmmaker is the only form of employment I’ll ever love, but to be fully transparent, sometimes I hate it! Sometimes I’m high off inspiration and creativity and can write all day. Other times it’s difficult, seemingly-insurmountable work, which gets my mind wandering a subconscious dimension where I followed through with the whole “become a doctor” thing my father has always demanded of me. But ultimately, the difference between me becoming a doctor and being an artist is surely not the absence of work. It’s rather a question of capacity: being able to accept the inevitable struggles and failures and disappointments that come along with the job: to completely despise those consecutive 20-hour workdays that are commonplace in both fields and still show up every day, ready to do the work all over again. Trae Whyte, the screenwriter and filmmaker, has the capacity to show up consistently; Trae Whyte M.D. undoubtedly does not. So while loving what I do is crucial to an enjoyable life, even more important, I think, is being able to hate it (sometimes) and still surrender my entire self to it regardless.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My art is both selfishly personal and self-reflective. As an emerging screenwriter, I’m fully committed to being a great storyteller and it isn’t lost on me the sheer magnitude of this aspiration. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve hardly scratched the surface of study and practice necessary to get there but I’m confident that I’m on my way. For now, my work centers my particular experiences of growing up in Jamaica and spending the second half of my life in Los Angeles, and more specifically how these experiences have shaped how I see the world: as a dark, grim, unforgiving place, yet still with so much beauty and love and compassion (if there weren’t, I would have had no chance at making it this far). My intention is to train, as a surgeon or an Olympic athlete would, to be the best I possibly can be at transposing those complexities I’ve experienced personally and vicariously in the form I know best: film. No other medium captures those sensibilities quite the same way.

For these reasons, among others, I’m a drama writer and a thriller writer, but I’m also a stickler for the coexistence of humor and satire in my work, which plays heavily into my unique style and voice. Think films like “After Hours”, “King of Comedy”, “American Gangster”, “Black Swan”, “Eve’s Bayou”, “Moonlight”, and “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” to start. All beautiful and complex stories that indict the worst parts of being human without sacrificing the undeniable joys that come with being an active participant in our lives: music, dance, family, nature, home, love, redemption, self-discovery, and self-acceptance. I practice my craft with the explicit intention to achieve the same.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love eating out – or perhaps I’m just a lazy cook who appreciates variety? Regardless, it should come as no surprise that I have a running list of all the restaurants and other eateries I’ve visited over the past several years, organized by city. One of my favourites is Birria Esquivel in South Gate, which admittedly is a bit out of the way but has some of the best birria tacos I’ve tried. Palermo’s off North Vermont is a no-brainer for Italian, Wi Jammin off Pico has some of the best Jamaican food in LA, and if they want a quick bite (and because it’s LA), we’d have to make a stop off Sunset to grab some Al Pastor from Leo’s Taco Truck! When we’re not spending far too much money eating out, we’d probably catch a few movies (all hail AMC stubs), a ballet show, maybe a comedy show in WEHO. I’d surely take a moment to contemplate how much writing I could/ should/ would be doing before reminding myself that to be a great artist, I have to live an equally expansive life outside my craft (per my therapist). I’d want to take them to one of my poker nights with my friends from college, grab some cheap drinks at All Season Brewing off La Brea, and who knows what else! That’s just off the top of my head!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Whenever I’m asked this question, I usually take the opportunity to mention my family, friends, and mentors who have all been fundamental to my professional and personal growth. Today, however, I’d like to dedicate this occasion to the two often unrecognised entities that also helped shape the foundation for who I am: the local Cheswick branch library back in Jamaica where I caught the reading bug and the bootleg DVD guys in our little rural community who gave this kid without many of modern life’s luxuries a peek into the world of visual and sonic imagination. Without them, I would have been an even more confused 6-year-old.

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

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

Other: https://vimeo.com/traewhyte

Image Credits
Kenji Bennett Nalani Tran