Today we’d like to introduce you to Anthony McRae.
Anthony, before we jump into specific questions about your work, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Well, I began acting when I was a baby. Angel McRae or my Mom literally had put me and my older brother into the entertainment industry starting at infancy. My first job was pampering commercials. My mother had continued to keep myself and my brother in the industry because she knew we had something to offer. My mom ended up bringing us to a company known as “John Robert Powers” where I continued to be trained, groomed, and improve my skills in acting. This allowed me to continue to do commercials into my adolescence. I went on to be an actor for commercials like Kit Kat, Got Milk, Skippy Peanut Butter, even the 7UP commercials that first introduced digital cartoon animations mixed with real people. The 7Up commercial was the one with the animated break-dancer with an Afro. This was all until I was casted to be a part of the Movie “Daddy Day Care”. Now I was more like a feature in this movie than a lead or a co-star because I had one line in the movie, however this was just the beginning for Something I didn’t even realize I was passionate about for myself.
As a kid, I wasn’t super focused on becoming a famous child celebrity, even though my mom was the reason I started in this industry to begin with. I’m also grateful that my mom wasn’t one of those “Stage Moms” where they force their children to improve and succeed, but not because they want to. You will hear about my mother quite a bit when it comes to my artistic career, mainly because my mom was an artist herself back in the day. You’ll also hear about her because she raised me on her own. I didn’t know my father. My mom had been around the entertainment industry her whole life. From being in the singing group New edition’s music video called “Cool it Now”, to being in boyz in the hood, white men can’t jump, soul train show, and on American Band Stand in the 80s. My Mom wanted for me and my brother to have a better life and make better choices and maybe we would find our place in the Arts. After Daddy Day care, I took years away from the business, only to find myself being scouted by an agency and being a top contender for a Verizon commercial. Although the agency was trying to convince my mom of something unpleasant, I stepped away again. I ended up focusing on School and Football.
However, I didn’t give up on acting at all. It was quite the contrary. I was coached and trained by Yvette Bishop who was a Broadway actress. Because of her, it led me to being a part of theater and I co-created my own show at the Bob Hope Theater. I was an Athletic Scholar at Chaminade College preparatory and I ended up going to Boise State University for Football. In the first year of School, the Head Coach and Scouting team was recruited by the University of Washington. My Scholarship became Void because of the new NCAA rules that didn’t allow students to have a guaranteed 4-year scholarship at the time. This was mainly because of the incidents with Reggie Bush. Once I received the news and was in debt, I set my mind back on Acting, Modeling, and this time I included dancing. I came back to LA with a mission. I Promised myself to be successful in the business no matter what. My goal was to start backwards this time, do all the athletic things so I couldn’t be limited when It came to films. Since I was already experienced in Martial arts, firearms training, weapons training, and Hand-to-Hand combat, I wanted to improve my dance ability for any other possible limitations Directors and Casting Directors could throw at me. I began to do freestyle videos, and I sent them to one agency which I managed to get signed from them after one attempt. Go 2 Talent Agency. They have been my first and only dance agency in LA, that took a chance on me. This is where I started my Career in dance. Within the first year of being signed, I booked My first Music Video Dancing with LunchMoney Lewis for the song “Whip it”. After this first video it led me to do many others as a Dancer. Including Para Enamorarte by CNCO, anyway by Chris Brown, Grass Ain’t Greener by Chris Brown, Baby by Pixie Lott, U Don’t Know by Justine Skye ft. Wiz Kid, Time to Party by Mr. Flavour ft Diamond Platinumz, DADDYO by Wiz Kid, and many more. After my dance career started taking off, and after a tour with Big Bang, I came back to la with my eyes set on preparing myself for acting and modeling.
After four years dancing and growing professionally, now was time to get signed to more agencies. I managed to get myself a meeting with LA Talent agency where I was signed to them for commercial acting. Within Two Months of being signed, I booked the Nike Connected Jersey Commercial as a lead and was Branded to Nike for the next Two years. After that, led me to be booked to Tiffany & Co. for the spring collection with Elle Fanning as a lead. I was then branded to their brand for two years. After this I was called in to a meeting with the company to talk about change in staff and who will be my new representative. This day was also the day I was signed to LA Models. continuing to grow my content, my following and my brand, I begin modeling and acting very close together. Modeling I was getting offers from Tom Ford, and YSL. I was doing runway shows for Otis Fashion college and other fashion shows. Life was getting better and my career was blossoming. Just when I thought it couldn’t get even better than that. I was booked as the lead for the Venom Music video by Eminem, and the digital and print for it. I was given the chance to be a part of Marvel’s brand, and Eminem. Eminem was the rapper that helped me whenever I was angry or needed a healthy outlet. I would always work out to his music, and I still continue to work out to his music whenever my emotions get the best of me in any situation. I entered this project with a subtle steadiness and preparedness. I was ready to give the attitude of Venom and Eminem. These two characters are the epitome of smooth anger, or fluid aggression. I executed this to the best of my ability and is by far one of my most proud projects.
After this, I continued modeling for many brands such as ZOZO, Converse, Primitive, Nike, etc. Which finally brings us to the last seven months. My modeling agency wasn’t working for me the way I wanted to so I had to let them go. Now I’m currently searching for someone who will take me into their agency for representation. Taxes and other expenses took a lot from me because of fraudulent activity from an employer I hired to do my taxes. It was very bad that I had to give up my apartment because I had no money left. I was fired from a video game company that I worked at after being sexually harassed by the female VP there. I was given no severance and no legitimate reason why I was fired. I was upset and filed for lawsuits which you know the justice system takes too much time which means it is still ongoing. However, I didn’t give up, I was given the opportunity to work in France and London to teach Dance for one month. I accepted this as a great and fresh start into 2020. Everything was great until I came back in March and all businesses were shut down. Currently during this Pandemic, I have spent much of my time posting monologues and dance videos and pictures.
Even through being home due to a virus, I was sponsored to a speaker company called BumpBoxx, and currently have opportunities coming for movies and other jobs after quarantine is over and the industry comes back. My story explains who I am and what I live by, although the philosophy can be convoluted in this message, I’ll directly say what I live by. “Without COMMITMENT, you’ll never START. But more importantly, without CONSISTENCY, you’ll NEVER FINISH. EASE is a GREATER THREAT to PROGRESS than HARDSHIP. So, Keep Moving, Keep Growin, Keep Learning…. See you at Work” – Denzel Washington My name is Anthony McRae and I want to just say nothing and no one is going to stop the level of success I want to reach. No one can stop Greatness. You can prohibit it temporarily, you can put obstacles in front of it, you can detour or deflect it. But you can never stop it. I will be a recognized and well-known actor for my quality of work and the hard work ethic I possess. People will remember my name. In my life I’ve been bullied when I was a kid, grew up with disadvantages for being a Mixed Black kid, had every limiting factor in life, obstacles put in my way, even came closed to death a few times. I’m still here and motivated and pushing, and I have my goals and my dreams that I will make my reality. I hope my story can inspire because we all have struggles, disadvantages, and things that set us apart. “But it’s not about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep Moving forward. That’s How Winning is done” – Rocky Balboa So I hope everyone that reads this finds it in them to pursue their dreams and their passions even through the struggles. All it takes is one good reason to keep going. I would love for all that read this to follow my story and my journey because it’s going to be big. I hope my journey is and will be inspirational and allow people to feel relatable to me. We can all achieve great things. So now it’s my turn, my time to go share my greatness. I can’t wait for my name to be on billboards for movies or in credits for great movies
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Never was a smooth road. I don’t think achieving great things can be smooth or easy. I grew up being bullied. I was considered the black sheep of both my family and people at school. I did things no one ever understood or tried to understand. People hated me and tried to make me feel less than them. I wore my pants backwards and I mixed Matched shoes since I was three years old. I thought differently than my family and friends. Which led to different actions than everyone i met. Most people also knew my aspirations for entertainment and would tease me about them growing up. rather than people taking time to see I was different, a lot of them just hated me, fought me, and tried to make me give up on everything. I didn’t enjoy fighting people when I was being trained in martial arts because I believed people only hurt others when they were hurt. I tried to make excuses for people. One day I couldn’t keep being bullied. I defended myself. I began to fight back. It was the moment I started fighting back that I realized people were afraid of my Potential, and what they couldn’t understand. Many people I learned were jealous of me, intimidated by me, or felt inferior to me and I never understood why until I started fighting back. It was because there was a star inside of me, they saw. Greatness inside of me that would lead me to be able to accomplish and do everything I ever wanted. Even in my career, I have lost jobs in dance because I was told I have too much star quality than the lead singer. I was told that I had too much of a “Stage Presence” to work with certain celebrities. This is why I set out to go back into my acting world even more. Because the goal since I was young was to be a celebrity Actor. An Actor who worked hard and Gave quality work always. However, Family also didn’t agree with my decision continuing the arts when I was 18 because they said it wasn’t stable. It was the first time I had to stand up against my mom for what I believed in. Even though she raised us to fight for what we believe in. My mom told me if I don’t start working in one year of starting and prove to her what I can do, then I would have to go back to school. Even now sometimes I still have to fight my family for my dreams, which is all the more reason that I will succeed no matter what
Please tell us about your work.
My Business is me. I specialize in Acting, Modeling, and Dancing. I am most known for my work with Marvel for Venom, Nike, Tiffany & Co., Converse, Jeep, and many more. I am proud to be young and doing this much in three fields of Entertainment. But it’s time for me to Distinguish Myself as an actor. The last question people always ask me…. “What sets you apart from other actors?” You know the most that I can say is watch my work and see what sets me apart. Look into my Eyes and find out why I have the extra “thing” that makes people see me. I know I have something great, raw, and unique inside and all people have to do is stay around to find out. See my work ethic and what I do on a job to find out. Who Anthony McRae is… he is the X variable in everything. Someone that surprises people in philosophy, work ethic, talent, and the quality of the work. Anthony McRae is the young man who will change things. My aspirations aren’t a dream, but a Reality that’s being manifested as we speak.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Well I’d like to first thank my Mom, Angel McRae, for everything she has done for me that allowed me to be the strange, unique, and crazy Artist I am today. Without my Mom, many things would’ve not been possible. She’s the reason I push hard, I never give up, and the reason of where my heart, mind, and philosophy are where they are. I would like to give credit for Mrs. Yvette Bishop for training me and being one of the reasons I have grown and improved in performance. She is also the one that walked up to my mom when I was 17, and told her I had a “Pure and Raw talent. Don’t let Anthony give up on this. He will go far” I would love to give credit to the Les Twins for mentoring me and teaching me a lot when it came to dance about my body and how to use it.
Especially since I am almost the same height as them I would love to give credit to Laure Courtellemont for helping me with Dancehall and Dancehall fusion that she created which transformed my body in many way. I would like to give credit to Kennis Marquis for Grooves classes and being a friend I needed for the time I needed it I have gotten every job I had through my hard work and dedication. My consistent commitment to my craft, through which I gained the tools from the people above. My life, and my experiences, and my training are everything I use in all of my artistic crafts.
Contact Info:
- Address: 335 E. Providencia Avenue apt. 201
Burbank, CA 91502 - Website: https://anthonymcrae.wordpress.com/
- Phone: 8186494567
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anthony_mcrae_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anthony.mcrae.925
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG2y_zRQg6GN-NyGpeuutXw?view_as=subscriber
Image Credit:
Bella+Canvas
Aris Jerome
Michael Dar
Otis Fashion Institute
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