Life & Work with Skyler Bible

Today we’d like to introduce you to Skyler Bible.

Hi Skyler, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Doing my best to sing and dance unsuccessfully throughout junior high and high school was definitely the catalyst for the passion to perform. I was always cast as a knife, villager number five, or a one liner here or there, but just being in front of an audience, that feeling before you go on stage, the lights, the applause…I was hooked. To compound that passion even more, I watched Gladiator for the first time and was instantly set on a path towards on the industry. Rewatching it again and again, I HAD to be an actor. There was no other choice. I did one more play in high school that I was cast as the lead, solidifying my choice even further. Towards the end of my senior year, I had the option to go to school on a full-ride but turned that down for a move out to LA, alone, 17, and living with roommates met through craigslist, I was “living the dream.” After months of extra work and odd jobs, learning about how this crazy industry worked, I booked a small role in show on Nickelodeon “Victorious” as a band member. I was addicted. I had to be in set, all the time, everyday, it’s just that spark that made itself clear…this was my sanctuary.

I got myself an agent, and a few years of countless amounts of failed auditions, trial and error, working every job you can imagine to pay rent and stay afloat, from bagging groceries to an EMT to telemarketer, but I was never satisfied with anything else. I was always, for lack of a better term, “directed,” back to the tv/film industry.

I booked a few short films but nothing to really elevate my career at all, and I was struggling bad. I had everyone telling me to get a backup job, maybe this won’t work, it’s not stable enough, go back to school, etc…I was, at this point living out of my car and bouncing from couch to couch working every job I could.

About a year of living in that headache eventually led me to a short film that I booked through a production company I would later go on to call family.

During around the same time, I was able to get an audition for a film directed by Damien Chazelle, I got the callback, but the callback was in Atlanta. I had the option of either flying out there for the callback or sending in another tape. I decided to go there in person.

Some excruciating months later, I found out I booked it, my first big film with an actual credit.

After I had shot that film(First Man), I started meeting more and more people, And more and more doors started opening.

Now around the same time, I also heard that Amazon was starting production on their version of Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings TV series that would shoot in New Zealand. I had an idea and instead of questioning all the ways it wouldn’t work, I just did it. I proceeded to send an excess of 40+ emails to every agent and manager I could find in New Zealand and Australia, hoping and praying that I would get some sort of meeting. I did…just 2.

They decided to sign me based on what I sent them and I immediately booked a trip to NZ to meet them in person to show that I was serious, and of course, because I’m a huge nerd, to do the Lord of the Rings movie tours.

About a month after this, I was able to audition for a film, with the same the production company that I had previously worked with, on an MGM/Orion film(The Wolf of Snow Hollow)they were going to be shooting in Utah for a month and wanted me as a mustached police officer. I booked the role, lived in Utah with the production, cast, and crew. And in turn made a new family.

Wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Throughout the various shorts/films/and tv shows I had been working on, I was also being asked about doing my own stunts. I started performing stunts, training and booking more and more stunt-related projects.

I have currently two shows that will air later this year that I can’t reveal just yet but will hopefully be a huge step towards more roles that remind me why I’m in this industry.

I am so extremely blessed to have worked with people I now call family, have had once in a lifetime interactions, traveled to places I wouldn’t have even thought of, and all doing what I love most.

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?
Struggles included but not limited to homelessness, living out of my car, turning my back on what I love, trying to do other jobs that didn’t make me happy, the backlash of others telling me and pushing me to abandon what I love doing despite the drawbacks and uncertainty…to name a few.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I do my own stunts, I am a filmmaker as well, writing and shooting my own films. My greatest achievement thus far, I would have to say is the community I have become a part of. The people I work with, make movies with, bounce ideas off of are invaluable and will forever be that.

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Do the thing that makes you get up at 4am to drive through traffic to do it, the thing that you could talk about until the sun comes up, the thing that makes your stomach jump, despite the voices, regardless of the people that say it won’t work, do it for YOU. And it will work itself out…every time…

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: Instagram.com/skylerbible
• Twitter: Twitter.com/skylerbible
• Other: IMDb.me/skylerbible