Meet Taylor Eden

Today we’d like to introduce you to Taylor Eden.

Taylor, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
There was never a start to my acting career or a definitive moment when I knew I would be an actor, it’s ingrained in my DNA. I’ve always been performing, been playing as someone else, pushing the boundaries between my selfhood and what it’s like to be another. My earliest memories are climbing on any elevated surface and demanding anyone who was in the room pay attention to me. I was always in some kind of costume, doing some kind of impression. My earliest professional stage performance was at the age of 6. I would take my dad’s camcorder and just tape myself talking about my toys or Britney CD’s (I was influencing before it was cool).

In high school, I was in every theater production I could possibly be in and sported roles in friend’s film projects, but I was never cast as a lead. I was always the comedic relief, which somehow made me think that I wasn’t a “serious actor” and didn’t deserve to pursue it full time. I took this as a sign that maybe I wasn’t as good as I thought I was and that my career should be in something more lucrative, like fine art. The irony! It wasn’t until the spring semester of my senior year after I had already been accepted into the Maryland Institute College of Art that my stage “rival’s” mother took me aside and said, “you are really good and you should consider this seriously.” My first semester at MICA, I was cast as Stevie in Edward Albee’s “The Goat or Who is Sylvia” and standing on stage with the adrenaline rush of fake killing a goat, I made plans to transfer. I graduated from Emerson College with a BA in theatre and a prestigious EVVY Award under my belt and moved out to Los Angeles.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road to acting hasn’t always been smooth or clear. I had the immense privilege of being able to attend a private college and had coaches and teachers and mentors throughout my life, I always had someone to tell me what and how to do it. When I graduated Emerson, all of that disappeared and only my own will to succeed was left. Some unresolved mental health issues were finally coming to a head and without the voice of a mentor, all sense of confidence quickly evaporated into the smog. Acting had always been my anchor into my identity, but suddenly I was starting to ask myself, “what if”. I spent so much time comparing myself to my peers that I ended up in a sort of paralysis, I couldn’t move forward because nothing was “right” so I ended up just staying where I was. Without the resources to confront my mental health, I instead took a break from acting, trying to do anything creative BUT act.

I was styling, illustrating, and set decorating for years trying to make money filling the void that acting left. I was afraid to look at my deepest desire for fear that I would regret how much time I had wasted not pursuing it. But about two years ago, I started therapy again and was able to accept that acting is who I am, it’s who I’ve always been, and fear is just my body’s way of telling me how important it is to me. I was able to finally make a return to acting with a healthy mindset and I realized how important it is to have a solid emotional foundation in order to pursue this business. I needed to find my own self-worth and validation outside of what I was doing in order to have the inner strength and resolution needed to market myself and face inevitable rejections. Getting the help I needed to strengthen my inner resolve has propelled my career much farther than any acting class or expensive headshot.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I pride myself in being a multi-hyphenate. While I am first and foremost an actor, I also write, produce and direct. In the wake of the 2016 election, I co-produced, wrote and co-hosted a satirical political webseries, The Weekly What, and we had the immense honor of interviewing attendees of the first annual Teen Vogue Summit. I started a Youtube Channel which I’m really proud of because it totally pushed me outside of my comfort zone and allowed me to strengthen my voice and confidence. I am currently the face of a national pharmaceutical commercial that is airing on all major networks and has aired over 5,000 times in the past six months. A silly idea I had about poking fun at spiritual influencers grew and grew until it became “Out of Body” a three part series I wrote, produced and star in.

“Out of Body” has been such a joy to work on. Especially during the time of covid, I realized how much the old adage “hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard” really rings true. “Out of Body” allowed me to put all of my creative talents, all of my interests into one outlet. Writing and staring in a project like this really feels like I manifested part of my soul into a tangible piece of content, which also makes it really scary to put out into the world, but working with an almost entirely female crew has made it such an empowering and inspiring experience and I can’t wait to release the second and third episodes.

What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I was always very shy and quiet. With people I knew I was goofy and always performing, but I had very little confidence and was always afraid of judgment by my peers. In high school, I was definitely different, I didn’t wear what everyone else did in our super small town, I was really into fashion and would always have really avantgarde outfits on, which made me the subject of a lot of relentless bullying. I felt like every time I tried to be my most authentic self, I would get shut down, which I think lead to a lot of why I had such a hard time marketing myself when I moved to LA; that judgment and ridicule at being myself was downloaded into my DNA and made me feel like the safe route was to just not be myself or be quiet and conform. It’s taken a lot of work and self-love to allow me to start to open up again and I’m really proud of where it’s taken me.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://taylorlynneden.com
• Email: tayloreden93@gmail.com
• Instagram: @taylorlynneden
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJwnUyvbAJM&t=29s

Image Credit:
Dana Patrick, Zack Arch, Rachel Bickert

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