Today we’d like to introduce you to Thea Touchton.
Thea, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I got started doing Christian school plays in Texas. My family and community said I had this amazing stage presence and strong voice. Then my mom got married and we moved to Rochester, New York and I got into choir and musical theater. After my high school choir didn’t like me, I moved on to doing community theatre and improv and show choir. Then my home situation became too unsafe and I ended up dropping out of high school to get my GED and took acting classes in Amarillo, Texas. I decided to major in Theatre at the local community college while I saved up money and worked through being newly half-blind. There’s already an article out there about what led me to my next decision. I had an agent and we went to IMTA where I placed 7th out of 350 in the acting competition. I got two scholarships to two schools there but I ended up going to the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles.
There were a lot of things that caused me to leave that school, but I ended up getting a divorce that was so painful but also led me to being so creative and making YouTube videos. I modeled like crazy, auditioned frequently, took more skill-based classes, and created, created, created. Then when I was feeling too sad and like I would be unable to overcome my traumatic past to prove myself in this industry and was about to give up on all up, I landed a Burger King Commerical that got me SAG AFTRA. I joined, worked in a few more independent projects, wrote some screenplays and my first book in my poetry series while I’ve been working on growing my social media after I was hacked. Currently I’m working on gathering enough money to get a good press kit to submit to agents, casting directors, producers, and directors. I want to be super organized and ready so when I’m famous, it’s easy for my team.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have had so much hate and jealousy on my road. I am very sensitive and don’t know if I will ever truly have thick skin. I hate to hurt anyone and I can’t imagine caring hate around in my heart. Sometimes it still discourages me to post my projects because I don’t want to seem like I’m bragging or have my social media or creative projects be taken the wrong way. I’m definitely learning to care less about what other people think and trust my gut instincts more. I’ve had so many traumatic things happen to me (I expand more on dealing with that in my book) that I don’t really understand why anyone would be jealous because it’s definitely not easy to be in my shoes. I get blisters, baby. My feet hurt! However, I think the point of life is to enjoy it, so I try to find the fun and sense of humor in things. I remember I was so depressed and desolate in middle school but I ended up winning the best laugh award. That’s just who I am!
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I’m a poet and screenwriter and I specialize in character acting and improv. I can also sing pretty well and dance pretty okay. I’m constantly improving and working on my skill set. I love learning. I’ve been working on learning more fight choreography and gymnastics and circus tricks. Those things are little challenging to learn because I have super tight hamstrings I got from childhood neglect and because I have damaged peripheral vision, but I am tenacious and I push through. I am a kind individual and like to get a job done and have the most fun doing it. I like to be pleasant and I’m flexible. What sets me apart from others is I have my own personal flair. I am one of a kind. With a name like Thea, you kind of gotta be. I’m most proud of sticking up for the underdogs and speaking out about tough subjects. I don’t adhere to the stereotype that women should be silent or background players. I do know how to share the spotlight, regardless. I work hard to be a good, honest role model. I encourage others to be healthy, mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally healthy. It’s so important! Being creative is such a healing process.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
This is such a hard question for me because I am still working on believing that I am doing enough. I am the first full time performing artist in my family. I’ve learned everything I know out here by myself and have earned everything due to my own talent and business mindset. I guess I’m pretty proud of that. A lot of people didn’t think I would be able to survive Los Angeles because I am a very soft, sensitive soul, and that hasn’t really changed yet, here I am surviving in Los Angeles. I’m in the process of publishing my own book about rape culture and speaking out about subtle ingrained misogyny. That hasn’t been easy and has taken a lot of research and I’m proud of that. I have spoken up to some educational institutions and changed the way they treat the disabled and mentally ill, and while that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, I’m still proud that I did it. There’s so many more people out there that I know I can help and entertain so I don’t know if I’ve gotten to the proudest moment of my career yet but I do know, I’m working so hard to get to it!
Contact Info:
- Website: stage32.com/profile/647529
- Phone: 432-703-0750
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: Instagram.com/theatouchton
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theatouchtonactor/
- Twitter: Twitter.com/thea_touchton
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/user/xoxotheababi/
https://resumes.actorsaccess.com/theatouchton
https://www.lacasting.com/theatouchton
https://m.imdb.com/name/nm7059141/https://vimeo.com/295279519
Image Credit:
Karina Pines Photography, Enygma Photography, Shot By Flora, Joe Vasquez Photography, Runningaroundla, Headshot Truck
Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
