Today we’d like to introduce you to Dean West.
Hi Dean, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in a small town in Louisiana and really enjoyed entertaining people. I saw how it got people away from their daily worry or stress and I liked seeing people smile. I started modeling and doing commercials out of Houston Tx when I was in my early teens. My first big job was a national commercial for Chef Boy R Dee when I was 17. Right after I graduated from Highschool I moved to Los Angeles and began training with a well-known acting coach named Aaron Speiser and the rest was history.
What I got out of acting was the realization that our world is not filled with strangers but one big human family that the only main difference being was where they grew up and what types of beliefs surrounded them. The more I dove into acting the more it allowed me to question the beliefs I grew up with. It pushed me to learn more about religions and that turned into wanting to understand religions from a scientific perspective that then turned into an obsession with spirituality and human behavior.
Acting is truthfully a great self-exploration. The craft gives you the ability to not only understand our world but if you use it correctly, you can also understand how to shift who you are and become what or who you would like to be. Your beliefs shape your actions, your actions become habits, and your habits ultimately become you.
I own Dean West Acting Studio which is mostly online classes/workshops and some in-person workshops. I am still acting when I choose to and just recently have a movie called A Savannah Haunting hit theaters and Video on-demand platforms so please go check it out! While you are watching, I would also recommend End Trip. I am the lead in both and I produced End Trip as well. As an actor, I have over 50+ credits in major film and tv and as an acting coach, I have been helping actors and humans for almost 20 years.
I also have some courses coming out for both actors and humans in the next few months which you can keep up with at www.ThedeanWest.com
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I feel like when you choose to go down the artist’s path, you tend to have to face your own demons and beliefs. The closer you get to yourself the more you let down your own personal protective walls and that allows you to face fears in your life or allow fears into your life that most careers don’t force you to do. To be a great artist you have to get in touch and be able to allow your vulnerability to be free in any given moment.
I remember myself and some of my buddies had the “cheap food pyramid” figured out. It was probably the worst diet you could ever eat but it was cheap. Monday madness at Little Caesars. We would each get two pizzas. Then taco Tuesdays at Del Taco, Wednesday we would eat that extra pizza we got on Monday, Dollar Chinese, that was the name of the place and you can only imagine that was Thursday. Friday probably consisted of a can of tuna from the 99 cent store 😂
I remember at one point 4 of my friends got booted from their apartment and I let them come crash with me and my girlfriend at the time in a 600 sqft Studio apartment! One of the guys used to play for the NFL and the other was a 6’2 stunt guy. Needless to say, it was a bit cramped and then another friend of ours was with a guy that was not the best of humans, so she left him and had to come to stay with us for a few days as well. If you are counting, this is 7 people in a 1 bath studio apartment!
Life isn’t supposed to be easy, you are supposed to have challenges to cause you to grow and expand. I had plenty of expansion opportunities!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I have been an actor since I was 12 years old but I have been a creator since birth. We are all co-creating this reality we share, we are all parts of the same consciousness we may refer to as spirit. Our art is an extension of us and our creativity, it allows us to affect the world around us on a greater level.
I offer this small notion to actors looking to bring their work to the next level. Stop thinking of it as “acting”, realize the power of being able to alter your beliefs so as to live truthfully in the moment as a human being that didn’t grow up the way you did. Now allow yourself to use that realization and understanding as how you can reshape your own life to better your outcome and shape humanity in a way that you walk away being fulfilled instead of empty. Find peace and appreciation in the process of becoming because we never stop evolving. Even success can have you flying high from one project to the next but if you don’t have a level of appreciation of being present in the moment, then you will also be falling when each project is over.
But above all, you are a Creator. Own that.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
I would say that the most important lesson I have learned through this journey of life is the realization that my past doesn’t have to affect my now or my future unless I allow it and that my future doesn’t have to be something I worry about because we can only ever truly exist in the present. I say that weird esoteric BS to say this, you are not your success, you are not your looks, you are not even your thoughts because all of those things will change and some might even disappear over the years. Be true to yourself, be kindest to yourself and be the most supportive person in your own corner. Allow for mistakes as they are the hand that pulls the bow and arrow string backward so that once you let go you are able to soar.
Pricing:
- Private zoom sessions- $100-150/hour
- Workshops from $100-300
- Subscribing to DWASTV – Free
- Subscribing to TheDeanWest.com – Free
Contact Info:
- Website: www.TheDeanWest.com
- Instagram: @TheDeanWest @DWActingStudio
- Twitter: @TheDeanwest
- Youtube: @DeanWestnow
