Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Nguyen.
Hi Daniel, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
As a 1st generation product of two parents who came here from Vietnam during the Vietnam War, It was very difficult to convince my parents to want to get inter entertainment. As a young child, I always wanted to act, but with my father who was a furniture store owner and my mother who was a Nail Shop owner, they wanted me to go to college, become a doctor or a lawyer and keep my head down and make a consistent flow of money with a 401k, benefits, etc. Fast forward to college at UC Irvine, I studied business economics. I had no idea what I actually wanted to do, but somehow entertainment crept its head in my path, as much as I tried to avoid it since it didn’t seem possible or lucrative for an Asian American in 2007. One day when I came back to LA to visit my parents, I was at the Sunday Melrose trading post, and I ran into Tori Spelling who thought I was funny and asked me to be on her reality show — random. I knew her from Saved by the bell, but 90210 was definitely before my time, but I was like. Sure, why not — make a little money to buy things while I was in college and make a fool of myself on TV, why not haha — I didn’t see entertainment career going further than this — and I also didn’t know how I’d be portrayed etc but money was money and exposure was exposure sure.
So I ended up doing a few episodes each season coming in and out saying funny things and then getting a good laugh out of it and would sometimes get recognized and that was that. Well sorta — during that era reality tv was a big thing — so somehow I would get emails and get invited to all of these parties — and mind you, I was BARELY on this show but I guess I stuck out — and from that, I ended up meeting a manager at one of these parties and she represented me out of college. So it was a huge shock to my parents when I told them I wanted to act and use my degree as a backup — and to prove them, I would jump in headfirst. I got my first commercial agent through my manager and then from there booked my First National commercial on my first audition — wow that was easy! And back then, national commercials made bank — let’s just say from residuals, I could’ve definitely bought myself a luxury car in cash. So this was amazing to my parents — and well, to me. But little did I know that this was just the beginning of many ups and downs of the entertainment industry that Brought be to booking more commercials, co-stars, guest stars, indie films, a pilot (that didn’t get picked up) seeing a lot of people I worked with on these other projects hit stardom, and still to this day as I love my craft of acting and still pushing hard to catch that big break- with the pandemic and all that happening at the same time.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely was a smoother road starting in the beginning. I just sort of jumped in and everything fell into place. Got signed to a great manager, had a great commercial agent. At the time in like 2011 — when I first actually started to try acting outside of the reality tv show stint I did, I lived breathed and ate the Hollywood world, I knew who everyone was repped by, I knew what agency I wanted to be at and what I had to do to work there. But luckily within my first year of acting, I was able to book some national commercial work, then booked a co-star under my belt on The Golbergs, and then a movie called ME HIM HER, which five years down the line after editing, I would be cut out of lol — But from those accolades alone I had signed with my dream agency — it was the only agency at the time that was pretty high tiered that repped all the people I loved and young Hollywood and was the place I was going to stay at — boy was I wrong… within that year of signing with them, I ended up leaving my manager for someone my agents thought were a better fit — and coincidentally, that manager was retiring anyways so I didn’t feel so bad. But the next couple years would have been countless auditions, trying to make ends meet, getting bells palsy, being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Losing 100 lbs from changing my diet and exercise so I could reverse type 2 diabetes. Booking a pilot with NBC as a recurring character — and then having the show not get picked up and at the time the four years I had put in I was much heavier on tape — and with losing weight I was now in a different category so, my reel looked nothing like me. And from there, I ended up getting dropped by my dream agency. Having to struggle to get auditions as I wasn’t the funny fat kid anymore, I was in a realm of avg sized funny men and let me tell you — Hollywood has a BIG pool of them and it was even hard to get an audition.
I ended up switching managers and agents and then switching managers again — then switching managers again with a couple of fun bookings in between but man, it’s been a roller coaster. With my last bookings, I was on a show’s season finale — and the showrunner had alluded that we were to be back for 3 season as I was established as a main character’s friend — but as it would go — the Pandemic hit — and all these productions stopped and ultimately the show got canceled. So with the many years I had put ahead thinking this was going to be my break and form their work would get work right? WRONG — the universe very funny as it now put a hold on everyone’s career with Covid 19 hitting. But still some people were working — it was people like me in the position of Hollywood hopefuls who had put in the work and was hoping again that ” this would be my year’ — but from my observation, it really didn’t become anyone’s year. Most of the people working that I’ve seen have already been working and known — or it would be very specific. But this challenge really put things into perspective for me. I had to struggle with the realization of — do I love this- or do I love money more? Or is there a balance? Because literally EVERYONE was/ is unemployed still and you had to think on your feet and that I did. I started to utilize the small following I had on Instagram and I tried to monetize from there — which I surprisingly was able to do so — I also learned to invest my money and learned how to save and the pressures of having to solely depend on acting and any side hustle jobs I had was eased with being self-sufficient and not putting so much pressure on myself to book the job for the sake of money — but more so because I loved it. And I love this process now.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I think it’s been such a journey to finally get where I am as an actor and creative. I have tried for about ten years and put in so much work and effort and on days that I compare myself to other people who are succeeding or booking roles, I have to remind myself that comparison is the thief of joy — I actually heard that from an influencer I follow – her name is TINX. And I have to remind myself that we are all on our own journey. Currently, I am still self-taping and auditioning, Still social media influencing, brokering my own social media deals and not putting so much pressure on myself to be this one dimensional actor. I believe the everything happens for a reason and on the days I get bummed out about my acting career — I am always happy to look at my resume on IMDB and think DAMN! I have done a lot and I’ve set out to do what I wanted to do without anyone’s financial help and I’m still alive! And that — I am proud of. And What sets me apart — I mean, hey if I can beat type 2 diabetes, Make money off of my Instagram at 50K followers and not be self-sufficient while having multiple things spinning while I wait for the next thing to happening — and stayed alive during the pandemic — and haven’t embarrassed my immigrant parents -I’d say I’m doing great hahaha
What do you like and dislike about the city?
I love that Los Angeles is a town for dreamers and a place for people to thrive and reinvent themselves. I actually grew up here in Culver City – one of the few original Angelenos so I’ve definitely seeing it change as I grew up. What do I like least — LOL that It Is a town for dreamers and a play for people to thrive and reinvent themselves — as I have encountered a lot of transplants who have come and duped me or taken advantage of my kindness, haha! Sometimes I’m like damn — there are a lot of good-looking people here coming from every small town around the world to “make it” and there are many snakes along the way — just don’t get bit! As long as you have your good sense of self and trust your better judgment, those frauds who you’ll encounter won’t last very long. How did I get on this tangent?
Contact Info:
- Email: kevin@frhpr.com
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4157232/
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/mrdanielnguyen
