Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Tully
Hi Megan, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Hi! Of course. After a long and crazy upbringing and high school experience, I knew I wasn’t going to get a job. I knew I wanted to be an artist. Any kind. I started designing clothes in my mom’s basement at 18, because she had made a lot of clothes for my two sisters and I growing up. She was from Greece, and her mother also made clothes, and so did my dad’s mom, so I thought it was in my blood. I wasn’t so good at first, but I got better after several months of all nighters. Then I started wearing my clothes out, and just saying “yes.” This led me to getting scouted as a model while wearing one of my creations downtown. I made a small career out of modeling which put me through college, even though it was never my “thing” and actually quite destructive for my mental health. During my time as a model, my roommate offered to sell me her DSLR camera for $200 and I said “yes!” Then my best friend’s cousin asked me to shoot a documentary on her journey with Autoimmune diseases like Lupis, and I said “yes!!” I shot some bands that I hung out with at their shows, and enjoyed being behind the camera. Then one day, at one of my scheduled modeling shoots, a guy came with a RED cinema camera and asked to test his new toy on me, and I said “yes!!!” That guy then asked if I wanted to act in a short film and I said “yes!!!!” That film went to festivals and I saw our work on the big screen in LA, so I decided I would finish my stint as a college student studying film. Since I didn’t grow up with television in my house, I was fascinated when I finally learned how movies were actually made, and how much time was spent, and ho many people were involved, and I desperately needed to learn more. There was a Semester in LA program at Columbia College Chicago and I decided to finish my degree on that 3 month producers program, and stayed in LA. From there I began auditioning, and from there I was asked to star in and direct a web-series and I said “yes.” Then I was asked to co-write a pilot with a writer who had become a dear mentor of mine and I said “yes.” Then I was asked to become a yoga instructor during the pandemic and I said “yes.” Then I was asked to become a Reiki master by my aunt and I said “yes.” Then I was asked to help with one year of business development for Creators Capital Venture Studio and I said “yes.” We just completed launching a new scalable peer-to-peer mental health solution at Hollywood & Mind, the first mental health coalition in Hollywood, and we are excited to start shooting a documentary about our work to help teens and young adults thrive in our network of Creator Houses 🙂
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The only roads that are smooth are the ones that have been paved for us. I don’t know why, but I could never even see the “paved route.” My struggle has always been my blindspots, and distinguishing between my ego and the voice of God.
Here’s some things i’ve learned walking “blindly” down my own path and trying to follow my inner guidance:
We can sometimes be our biggest critics.
What we don’t know, we don’t know.
We can think we believe in ourselves, and have all the support in the world, and still sabotage good things due to long held belief systems.
Everyone is doing their best from their current state of consciousness, even your parents.
People and situations are sent to test our spiritual strength.
We are what we consume (we become who we’re around).
Despite everything we’ve been through, we are never victims.
We can start today, and we can change anytime, but only through a series of ongoing commitments.
Some things can only be learned through experience.
We are stronger in numbers.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am known as someone who is in a constant state of transformation; death and rebirth if you will. People look up to me because of my resilience and resolve in the face of obstacles. I am blessed to be a natural at most things involving physical expression, verbal expression, written expression, and so have been seen as an inspiration to many people in my hometown because of my versatility and courage to try new things, as well as someone who is always there to listen and offer a kaleidoscope of perspectives on what one may think is a singular problem. I am known as someone who will never take your side just to be your friend, but who will help you to see all sides to things, and have a deep look into your subconscious so that you can make the correct decision for you and you only. I am also known as someone who is up for any challenge!
I am an artist who expresses on different levels at different times, but my soul is in performance, especially in acting, and as I grow older, writing. I immerse myself deeply into life. Into relationships. Until I squeeze every single lesson out of them. I am deep, incapable of being shallow. I study psychology, philosophy, movement, prayer, meditation, manifestation. I am also a scientist with an analytical mind. I analyze data and tweak my approach continuously. I am great at connecting lots of different inputs and funneling them all into one output that is for the higher purpose of healing the collective. I am animated, a life force, who transforms depending on what the call is, ego aside, I am real. I have been known as many different things to many different people, because everything is in the eye of the beholder.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
Okay so I grew up Greek Orthodox, like, cover your ankles, and go to bible school and Greek school on weeknights Greek Orthodox. And Greek Easter is a thing. Like a big thing. We used to be put to work weeks before Pascha. Young, like child labor, cleaning the church, polishing every artifact until it “shined like the top of the Chrysler Building!”, creating beautiful flower arrangements in “the coffin of Christ.” The ceremony started around 9pm but we were always fashionably late. Hundreds of people filled the church pews until sunrise, holding lit candles the entire time and chanting in tongues. Sometimes my sisters and I would drift asleep and tip the candle into someones hair, or sweater, causing a small fire. Some people would faint because of the heat and the time fasting. My parents would bring a sleeping bag and my sisters and I would take shifts sleeping under the pew when we were small, because the ceremony went until sunrise, around 8 hours. Finally we would “break our fast” (breakfast) with Margiritza (lamb gut) soup. We’d be chased with eyeballs, and given lamb tongues, all the classic stuff you’ve seen in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. We’d smash dyed red easter eggs and cut into sweet bread to find coins, everything was a competition for a years worth of good luck. Then the kids would quick change into pilgrim cloths with head covers and sashes and Greek dance for dollar bills like we were in a night club that just never shut down.
Now, as a fully indoctrinated American it seems crazy that these rituals and the Greek Culture was such a big part of my childhood, because I’m so removed from it now. But I miss them. I miss my culture. Societal norms, bullying, and stigmas remove lots of ethnic people from their roots, and even their native language, and that’s a big squabble I have with the states. We call ourselves the melting pot, but sometimes America feels so dry… like a piece of toast!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dialoglifeskills.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/meganatully
