Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeff Locker.
Jeff, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I remember when I was maybe five and watching the Oscars, I turned to my mom and said, “I want to do that.” I’m not sure I knew exactly what that meant – whether I already knew I wanted to be an actor, or I was drawn to the spectacle, or I just really, really wanted to get out of my small city in Ohio – but that dream has lived in and sustained me ever since. And though I got my start doing community theater in my hometown, my path to Hollywood could not have been further from what I expected.
When I was fifteen, I got a full scholarship to Phillips Exeter Academy, a fancy prep school in New Hampshire. I continued to do theater, but it was really the environment, and the exposure to students from all walks of life and around the world, that made me realize there were a million different ways to achieve the dream – and live. I spent my junior year studying in Rennes, France and left fluent in French and hungry to see the world. I got a full scholarship to Yale University where I studied Mandarin Chinese and spent another junior year abroad split between Taipei, Taiwan and Beijing, China. My first week in Taiwan, I got spotted by a TV producer, and suddenly I was on the set of their #1 TV variety show performing in this ridiculous sketch. One of the producers suggested I move to Taiwan permanently to pursue a career in entertainment – crazy, right? Well, two years later, freshly graduated and ready to take on the world, I did exactly that. Within a year, I was starring on a TV soap opera.
A year later, I was co-host of one of those big variety shows myself. And a couple of years after that, I was the co-host of the #1 radio show in the country, and another radio show of mine won Taiwan’s top radio award. This led to a long and wild career in Taiwan and China, where I did everything from TV, radio, and film and writing eight bestselling books with goofy covers to interviewing some of the biggest stars in the world and even playing a US president on an SNL-type show that won their Emmy for Best Variety Program. It was amazing and full of so many is-this-my-life moments, but not always easy as pretty much the only foreigner in the Taiwanese entertainment industry, or the “token white guy”, as I jokingly referred to myself. More than anything, though, it was empowering and life-changing.
Eventually, I hit a plateau, and life as an ex-pat started to get to me. And I was desperate to finally make it to Hollywood. So I moved here, confident that my success in Asia would mean something, and the road to career glory would be smooth and well worth the wait. Ha. I was so, so naive! I spent my first couple of years getting the necessary actor training, graduating from Second City and iO West, then took the plunge into getting agents, auditioning, and hustling. At first, I was told to take all my credits in Asia off my resume – one casting director said it was “cheesy”, and “no one cares about anything outside of Hollywood, let alone Asia.” That, of course, broke my heart, but I did just that. And just like that, I was starting from scratch. Interestingly, it has been my ties to Asia that’s given me more career opportunities – and paychecks – than anything 100% local. Once I reconnected with that part of my life and owned it as a unique skill, I’ve booked a ton of work as a host, actor, screenwriter, and consultant for US China coproductions, and most of it in Los Angeles.
I have certainly had some great gigs outside of that community – a role on Marvel’s Agent Carter, a few appearances on Jimmy Kimmel, a feature film, a short film for which I won Best Actor in a film festival – but some of my most exciting career moments since leaving Asia have been because of my background in Asia: I hosted on my own stage at the Golden Globes for STX and China’s Tencent, I starred as Mandarin-speaking Peter Timms in Chinglish at East West Players, I was the main host for the Terminator: Genisys premiere outside the Dolby Theater on Hollywood Blvd, with an almost unprecedented live broadcast to China, and most recently I was a judge on one of China’s biggest reality competition shows. And currently, I’m working as a writer on a huge US China coproduction, and, fingers crossed, will get to head back to Taiwan to film a TV show I wrote based on my life there – aptly titled “Token White Guy” ha.
In the meantime, I haven’t given up on my Hollywood dream, and I continue to hustle, study, and learn. Fortunately, I’ve made some significant progress as a writer, which has been very unexpected and quite lovely. I started off as a playwright – a couple of years ago, I won the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival and got published by Samuel French, in addition to winning a handful of other playwright awards – and that’s lead to some great opportunities as a screenwriter too. I recently adapted that play, called The Forgotten Place, into a short film which is about to start a festival run, and my creative partner and I adapted that into a TV series which we’re shopping around. Again, not at all the path I imagined for myself as a young lad with Hollywood dreams ha, but I’ve come to accept that my path will always seem to be one of the less obvious if not least expected, and I’m pretty ok with that!
Has it been a smooth road?
In Taiwan and China, my biggest obstacle was actually not the language, even when my Mandarin was not close to fluent. For me, it was convincing people to give me a shot and take me seriously. There had previously been an occasional foreigner on TV, but for the most part, none had really crossed over into the type of career I wanted, which included hosting TV and radio (and everything from entertainment shows to talk and even politics), acting, live events, writing, and creating content. So, there was a lot of new ground to cover and several layers of what would be the equivalent of glass ceilings for non-natives. I can’t tell you how many goofy variety shows I had to do – where I found myself on a show clearly in the role of the foreign clown, and sometimes with literal pie on my face! – before I slowly got to work my way towards talk shows where I could actually have a voice and show there was more to me than my dorky foreign face. Don’t get me wrong – some of those shows were a BLAST and more fun than I ever deserved to be having – but ultimately not what I wanted to be doing. Even with all my career success, and having proved myself time and time again, I don’t think there was ever a time where at least someone didn’t tell me what I wanted to do was “impossible for a foreigner.” For a long time, that only fueled me and made me work harder, but towards the end, admittedly, I was burnt out and not as excited by the fight.
In Hollywood – ugh, the struggles are never-ending. Starting from zero – or at least what felt like zero, though now I recognize that my previous experience did indeed have immense value – was a huge blow, both to my career and of course my ego. And we all know that Hollywood is notorious for not being kind to anyone who isn’t young and pretty and can make some agent or manager a couple of decades of commission ha. But the greatest lesson I’ve learned is that EVERYONE in this town is always struggling, always hustling for their next gig because that’s the nature of this job which has so little job security. “Making it” is so relative, as is success. I have friends who are series regulars or running TV shows and are in a constant state of anxiety their show will end and their career will be over, and others who’ve only booked small roles in student films but are just thrilled they’re actually here, and chasing the dream. Because so many never even get this far. So I try to remind myself that I’ve actually made it because I made it here, and I’m still here!
What else should our readers know?
My company is called Good Dog, which is focused on content creation, mainly TV and film. I have a few short films under that banner, and hopefully I’ll have my first TV show with Good Dog somewhere in the credits soon enough 🙂
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love Los Angeles. Obviously, the weather is a huge draw – I’m from Ohio and let’s just say cold temps and I do not get long lol – but there’s a chill to the city I really enjoy. Taipei is densely packed and the kinetic energy in the air – while exciting – can sometimes be overwhelming, so moving here from that was a welcome change. I also love the diversity of the city, which very much represents the America I want to live in. I also sing in LA-based group Top Shelf Vocal, which has been a great source of joy and community.
Part of the charm of LA is that it draws people from around the US and the world with big dreams, and it’s always fun to hear their stories and find inspiration in their dreams. One major drawback is that can lead to an air of “constantly hustling”, and sometimes it feels like folks aren’t able to slow down and ground themselves in the city and their community. And when those dreams don’t happen, some people pack up and leave, lending to a major transient vibe. I actually experienced that a lot in the ex-pat community in Asia, so as much as I’m used to it, it can be a huge bummer. It took me a long time to get here, so I’m desperate for LA to finally feel like home.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jefflocker.com
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/jefflocker
- Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jefflocker
Image Credit:
Cite Publishing, East West Players, Grayson Villanueva
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