Life & Work with George Steeves of Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to George Steeves.

Hi George, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I moved here from Pennsylvania 18 years ago this month. August of 2026 marks my 18 year anniversary of living in Southern California. I moved out here in 2008 to attend college at California Lutheran University and while I was at California Lutheran University, I joined an acting class and began self submitting for any project I could self submit for on Actors Access, LA Casting and Now Casting.

Trying to be a working actor in Los Angeles with no industry was tough in the beginning. The acting class I joined while I was in college, turned out to be a toxic cult that was run by a malignant narcissistic abuser and I was trapped in that environment for five years. The mistakes we all make in our 20’s right?

After escaping from that acting class, I recovered through taking improv classes at The Groundlings and it felt good to go to class and laugh again, it felt good to go to class again and have fun, after five years of a rollercoaster trauma at the prior acting conservatory.

From my time at the Groundlings, I wrote and developed a one-man show called “Magic 8 Ball, My Life with Asperger’s” and the show had its world premiere at the 2017 Hollywood Fringe Festival. Directed by Penni and Crystal Wilson, the one-man premiered to rave reviews and won 2 sponsored awards at the 2017 Hollywood Fringe Awards and went on to receive an Encore award as well. “Magic 8 Ball, My Life with in Asperger’s” won its fourth award for “Best One Person Show – Comedy” at the 2017 North Hollywood Fringe Festival the following Fall.

By, 2018, “Magic 8 Ball” made it’s international debut at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe Festival as well as its east coast debut in Callao, Virginia at the Westmoreland Players Theatre, before heading to New York City by 2019. Throughout this entire time, I charted the entire process of creating and performing my one-man show around the country and the world and I collaborated with Julianna Brudek to make a documentary feature film called “My Life with Asperger’s” which made it’s film festival debut in 2024 and is now available to stream for free on RevryTY, an LGBTQ+ streaming platform.

Alright, 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?
Pursuing showbusiness as an Actor certainly has the highest of highs and the lowest of lows at times. While I was in college, I was attending my acting classes and hustling with my self submissions on Actors Access, LA Casting and Now Casting. However, I was having a hard time finding a good agent or a good manager to help me gain more traction in the industry. I hustled with the self submissions however and after a year of doing extra work on TV shows and not having any luck with landing a SAG voucher, I stumbled upon a SAG New Media project through an LA Casting submission, and from that audition and callback, I got Taft Hartley’d into the union and I became eligible to join Screen Actors Guild by the Fall of 2011, before I even graduated from college with my B.A. degree.

However, despite being SAG eligible and having an actor’s reel filled with scenes I did from multiple short films, I signed with several different agents and managers over the years, and despite auditions for major projects here and there, I wasn’t able to gain traction and find professional work as an Actor.

My luck finally started to change in 2017. After I created my one-man show, I signed with a new agency and I started auditioning for even more major film and television projects, and by the summer of 2019, after nearly two years with my agency, I finally broke the glass ceiling and became a working actor. I booked my first job which was the third lead in an independent feature film. When I was last interviewed by you all, the film’s working title was “Pencil Town,” it was later re-named “Saving Paradise” and it was eventually released two years later in the Fall of 2021. It’s now available to stream for free on YouTube and Tubi. I had the honor of working opposite William Moseley, who was Peter in “The Chronicles of Narnia” movies and legendary character actor Paul Dooley played my grandfather in the movie. My momentum continued on into the Fall of 2019, and shortly after I wrapped on “Saving Paradise,” I booked my first television job, which was a guest starring role on “NCIS: Los Angeles,” where I worked opposite Eric Christian Olsen and Daniela Ruah. I thought for sure that after booking two back to back jobs in the Fall of 2019, that my momentum was carry through and that I was going to work even more the following year. Sadly, the following year turned out to be 2020. Enough said.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Well, after 2020 happened, I was still getting auditions, I was getting auditions for major projects and I was getting a lot of voiceover auditions as well by 2022. However, by 2025, it was five straight years of one self tape audition after the other, and sadly I didn’t book anything. It wasn’t for a lack of trying, i got close a couple of times, I was on availability check for a guest starring role on another prime time show, however, they went a different direction with the character. In five years, I had nothing but self tape auditions and only one in person audition. I tried changing agents and managers, but once again, didn’t have the best luck.

However, despite the constant rejection, I found ways to be myself active and creatively busy, I made and or participated in a total of six short films the Easterseals Disability Film Challenges, where I either made or participated in six different films with different filmmakers and directors.

I even wrote a second one-man show called “Love & Sex on the Spectrum,” which had its world premiere at the 2021 Hollywood Fringe Festival. Directed by Megan Ford Miller, the show opened to good reviews and got two nominations at the 2021 Hollywood Fringe Awards, and the show went on to play at the 2022 Frigid Fringe Festival in New York City as well as the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where the show found new life as a stand-up comedy show and was also awarded four stars by Broadway Baby, the same rating “Magic 8 Ball” got four years prior.

When my union SAG-AFTRA went on strike in the summer of 2023, I went to the picket lines every single day when I wasn’t working my “actor survival job,” as an Uber Driver, I was serving my heart out as a Strike Captain for my union that summer. I loved having the opportunity to go to 20th Century Fox Studios everyday and bond with my fellow actors in the union, as well as the writers who were striking with at WGA, and as a Strike Captain, I got to meet many known actors in my union and even managed to get pictures with some of them. I met so many different people including Jennifer Garner, Jack Black, Jamie Lee Curtis… the list goes on.

By 2024, after the strikes were over, I did my third one-man show, a cabaret show called “Songs in the Key of A… for Autism,” which was directed by Matthew Robinson. I was still getting on auditions on occasion but to keep myself occupied, I ended up pivoting to music. I joined a theatre company called Epic Players LA, which is a theatre company for people on the autism spectrum, however we are very neuroinclusive and our theatre company welcomes all different types of neurological members as well. Since joining Epic Players LA, I have sung in five cabaret shows with Epic Players and I acted in the company’s debut production of “Peter and the Starcatcher,” where I played the role of Mrs. Bumbrake. After more than a decade of working as a Driver for Uber or different Papa John’s or Domino’s locations, I got a job working as a Tour Guide for Hollywood Bus Tours in 2024. Yes, the job is very demanding and it’s a full time work load. However, I’m thankful because this job got me out of the weekly pitons I was making as a Driver and it got me into a much more comfortable living. I also feel lucky to have an Actor survival job where I can use all of my talents with not just acting, but with singing and my comedy experience as well doing both improv and stand up comedy from time to time. When I wasn’t giving tours of Los Angeles, I joined forces with my college friend Chris Scott and I formed a band with him, a musical duo named COAST II COAST. Chris and I have been writing, performing, and recording music for the past 2 years and we recently had our debut concert at The Cat’s Crawl in the summer of 2026.

I’ve also been a part of a theatrical production for the past year and half. South Coast Repertory was looking for an Actor on the autism spectrum to portray this role of Paul in a staged reading of a play called “Ten Grand,” written by Kate Cortesi. I was invited back to perform in the staged reading of “Ten Grand” again at South Coast Repertory for the second time, and I went on to do the staged reading again at the Lincoln Center in New York City for the third time. I’m thrilled to announce here that “Ten Grand” will be making its world debut as a stage production at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington D.C. in the Winter of 2027, and they made me an official offer. I get to be a part of the debut after performing in the staged reading three times. I love playing the character of Paul, the character is another character on the autism spectrum, the joys of Hollywood type-casting, however this character has so much more depth and nuance than the other autistic characters I have portrayed in previous projects. I truly do love Kate’s writing and it’s an honor to have the chance to breathe even more life into the character of Paul this coming Winter while I’m working as an Actor again in DC. My primary background before I moved to Los Angeles was in theatre, and mainly Musical Theatre through years of school and church productions. My first love was the stage and I’m thrilled to have this full circle moment, especially so close to the Northern Neck of Virginia, where I grew up as a child, I certainly hope that some of my Virginia friends will come up and see me in the show this coming February.

The thing I would say that I’m the most proud of is that despite all the rejection and limited opportunities that Hollywood was had for me post strikes, I always find a way to stay active, to stay busy and most importantly to stay creative as an Artist. A lot of people in my situation would’ve given up and pursed other career ventures, but I’m still here and I still want to create.

What makes you happy?
What makes the most happy is quality time with my friends, whenever I have that time. I love to kick back with my friends and watch a good movie or TV show, I love to go out to the movies, I love going to live theatre, concerts, baseball games, I love a good hike and getting in touch with nature here and there. I don’t mind doing all of these things by myself, but the older I get, the more I love making moments that I share with my friends.

A lot of people my age are either getting married and having kids now at this stage, or they’ve already done that. However, I took a different approach, I moved out here from cross country from Pennsylvania to chase a dream, and I became so focused on that pursuit that I neglected having a personal life that was my own. I’ve been blessed however in the past several years to develop close relationships with several people who I’m proud to call my friends and they’re like family to me at this point. A lot of my own family is back east and I try to fly back and visit as many times as possible, but in between my pursuit of showbiz and my full time actor survival job as a Tour Guide, I don’t get to see them as much as I would like to. I’m hoping that can eventually change. However, I’m glad to have my close personal friends right here in LA with me. I know friendships are harder to develop as we all get older as adults, but I feel blessed to have my friendships.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @georgefsteeves
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4564192/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_1_nm_7_in_0_q_george%20steeves