Meet Ben Hermann

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben Hermann.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Ben. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’ve always had a love for the performing arts, participating in school plays, drama clubs, and community theatre. As a teenager picking my future path, I had a meeting with a career advisor. At the time, I was convinced I wanted to practice law as an attorney, but the advisor told me that the decision I made now, for better or for worse, would impact the rest of my life, so I should be sure of what I want. That sat with me for a long time, and after wrestling with what I wanted, I realized that I didn’t want to go into Law; I wanted to perform, which was one of the hardest conversations I have ever had to have with my parents. But, to their credit, they supported me and they believed in me. To this day, they remain my biggest fans! They put me through college, and I got a degree in Theatre Performance from Baylor University. My time there, had its bright spots, but the culture of a deep south Texas town, was not always incredibly hospitable to me. I wasn’t the most popular pick for castings, but I don’t hold grudges. That environment was difficult to navigate, but it made me a harder worker, more disciplined. I didn’t just become a better performer, I became tougher, more grounded, and ready to enter the jungle of “Show Business”.

After graduating, I moved to Dallas, TX where I started working at Six Flags in one of their stage shows while washing dishes at a local chain restaurant. It doesn’t get more classic than that. I lived in a dump of a house that reeked of weed, I worked 7-8 days a week washing dishes and performing a 20-minute musical for a crowd of 10-25 people, and I loved every second of it. I was out in the world; I was working; I was paying my bills; I was performing; I was doing it. After three months in Dallas, I left to pursue an opportunity with the Missoula Children’s Theatre, as one of their Tour Actor/Directors. With them, I traveled from one end of the country to the other, just me, my partner, and a little red truck. We traveled to a new town every week, directing and acting in shows with the local kids. Performance was my full-time job, I got to see the country and I got to spread the joy of theatre with hundreds of kids, I couldn’t have asked for a more fulfilling occupation.

Unfortunately, the touring life is incredibly difficult, and ultimately, it was a job for teachers, and I am first and foremost an actor. After my year with Missoula had ended, I packed up everything I owned and moved out to Los Angeles to try my hand at the market. That was two years ago. In that time, I’ve worked on incredible projects and many that keep me up at night. I’ve had good weeks, amazing days, and terrible months. I’m hoping that my journey still has a lot more chapters to it, but through my darkest moments, the passion for my art has never left me. It always finds a way to come out. When the acting slowed down, I started performing Stand Up, which has become one of my favorite things to do. When that slowed down, due to Covid-19, I started writing sketches on Tik Tok. I can’t be stopped, and I won’t be stopped; and even though this is the weirdest, craziest thing I can think to do, I wouldn’t trade this job for any in the world.

Has it been a smooth road?
No road is smooth, if it is, you haven’t truly lived. My biggest struggle in life is with my mental illness. My depression makes me reclusive, isolated, and unmotivated. My anxiety makes interacting with people an absolute nightmare. It’s kind of the worst possible hand for a performer who relies on being memorable and good at networking. However, you can win at poker with any hand. You just have to be a good enough player.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
My greatest strength as a performer is my comedy. I have a witty and incredibly dry sense of humor, but I’ve managed to make it work in my favor fairly well. You can see this in my Stand Up, and in my writing. However, comedy is not my only avenue. I’m a classically trained actor, and this surprises some people, was mainly a musical theatre person for a very long time. I was known in college for my strong voice, and my unmatched physical control, as a trained dancer and experienced martial artist, my sense of balance and tempo is very good.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
There’s a reason that every other person in this city is either a performer or in the film industry in some form, and a reason that new people move here every day. There’s an incredible amount of opportunity here. There could stand to be a little more for POC’s and LGBTQ, but we’re moving in the right direction. The biggest, and perhaps only inhibitor of LA is the cost of living. I was very lucky that I had a job where I worked on the road, and so I could save enough money to move out here, but even more than that I was lucky that I didn’t have any debt from college, I was/am lucky to have parents who could financially help me out if I got into too much trouble. Not everyone has that, and LA is not the only market. I would only recommend starting out here if you have the savings or the connections to comfortably afford it, otherwise there are plenty of cities with great performance scenes that don’t have LA prices: Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Portland, Minneapolis, to name a few.

Contact Info:

• Website: Benhermann.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/benhermann27/
• Other: Tik Tok – @Koreanbeef27

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