Life & Work with Brendan Berndt of North Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brendan Berndt

Hi Brendan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My pursuit of acting began when I was in middle school and studied Shakespeare. I loved movies as it were, and our English teacher let us act out the scenes, and we filmed them.
I auditioned for all of the plays in high school, but really decided to pursue aciting after performing in a one act titled “And” written by Alan Haehnel. The play showed me that the arts could have an impact further than what happened onstage after my grandmother saw it and shared how much it had touched her heart. It was also the last play she saw me perform in before she passed away.
I studied and got a BFA in acting at Penn State University, and furthered my studies there in Directing and writing, as well as acting. Penn State helped foster my ability to create my own work.
Since moving to LA, I’ve had amazing luck in being able to find a community of creatives and artists who are experts in creating their own work as well. And together, we are building a production company to help like-minded artists do the same.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
When you’ve been able to find an incredible community like the one I’ve fallen into, even the roughest roads feel smooth. Financial challenges are always a burden, and sometimes the state of the world has weighs a little too heavy on our shoulders, but overall, things have been generally positive. The actors and writers strike gave everyone a scare about the future of the industry, but we’ve all done a great job at leaning on each other and still finding ways to overcome those challenges.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am an actor and writer. I’ve been lucky enough to work on some really dramatic projects, and also been able to stir up my comedic chops. My writing journey really began after I moved here and found a community of writers who wanted to share their work on a weekly basis. So we put together a group that we call “Tuesday Meeting.” If it wasn’t clear, we meet on Tuesdays.

Recently I’m most proud of a project we wrote and created in less than two weeks titled “WTF INTERN KILLED BY GHOST!! REAL!!.” It’s a comedic horror about a YouTube Ghost hunter who doesn’t believe in ghosts, but comes across one on one of his shoots. It was a finalist for several awards and won an award at the San Luis Obispo horror film festival in 2024.

What are your plans for the future?
I have a few projects that I’m really excited about that are currently in the works, but much of my effort is going towards creating a production company with the Tuesday Meeting Writers Group.

I’m also currently training to run my first marathon! I’m running for the American Cancer Society, and I am accepting donations on their behalf through a link that you can find on my instagram!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @BrendanBerndt
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@brendanberndt?si=6BRmV5NfI0Mwsqgh

Image Credits
Trent Barboza
Robin Nyström
Jodi Norton
Michael Tari