Meet Nick Coleman of Mid-City

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Coleman.

Hi Nick, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was born in Kentucky, but because of my dad’s work I moved around a lot early on – New York, then the Washington, D.C. area, and eventually back to Kentucky. Growing up, though, I really only cared about sports. Basketball became my thing, and for a long time I assumed that would be the path I followed somehow.

Around the time I graduated high school in 2017, I was trying to decide whether I wanted to keep pursuing basketball in college or start figuring out what my actual career might be. The only other thing I loved as much as sports was movies. I watched The Place Beyond the Pines, then started going through Derek Cianfrance’s work, especially Blue Valentine. Not long after that I saw Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea and became obsessed with acting as a craft, and filmmaking as a whole.

I basically decided to trade one craft for another. I had spent years studying basketball, and suddenly I wanted to study acting and movies with that same intensity.

Pretty quickly I realized Kentucky didn’t have much of an infrastructure for the kind of career I wanted, so in 2019, instead of starting another semester of college, I packed up my Jeep Wrangler and drove roughly 30 hours to Los Angeles. I was young, extremely naive and probably a little delusional. I ended up sleeping on a bench in West Hollywood and living out of my car for a week or two before, through a lot of luck, I found a job and eventually an apartment.

From there I just started saying yes to everything I could. Student films, Backstage auditions, tiny projects – anything that helped me build a reel and get experience. I was writing and making my own little shorts just to get footage. My first real acting job was an indie film called Amatory, cast by Mina Rhodes. She became one of my closest friends and mentors in the industry, and to this day she’s one of the first people I go to when I’m writing or making something and need an honest opinion. She was probably the first person who made me feel like maybe I actually belonged in this world.

The path since then has definitely not been linear. COVID hit, I lost my job in Los Angeles, and I had to drive back to Kentucky and start over. I returned to LA in the summer of 2022, but after some personal setbacks, the strikes, and running out of money again, I ended up back in Kentucky once more. I worked on cars for about two years and genuinely started to think that maybe acting and filmmaking just weren’t in the cards for me.

Then another opportunity came up to return to Los Angeles. I initially said no. But I started losing sleep for weeks because I couldn’t stop thinking about the dream and whether I was going to regret giving up on it. Eventually I decided I had to give it one more real shot.

I came back in May of 2024, and the third time has been the charm. It has still been difficult, but I finally found the right people, the right side job, and enough stability to stay in one place and keep building. I started creating even more of my own work instead of waiting for permission – writing, directing, producing and acting in projects like Mechanics and Vacancy – while continuing to audition professionally.

Commercial work also started becoming an important part of that momentum. Booking campaigns for major brands, including Chipotle, gave me some financial breathing room, put more professional set experience under my belt, and helped me build confidence and feel like the years of work were finally beginning to convert into something tangible.

Over the last year, that momentum has started carrying into television and film as well. I became SAG-Eligible, began getting seen for larger scripted opportunities, and recently booked and shot my first network television co-star on NBC’s Chicago P.D.

I still don’t feel like I’ve “made it” at all. I feel more like I’ve just now finally gotten the ball moving. But after leaving Kentucky three separate times, going broke more than once, sleeping in my car, working on cars, and seriously considering walking away from the dream altogether, just being here and still building feels meaningful to me. This is just what I’m meant to do!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. I’ve lived out of my car and “showered” in gas station sinks and had to start over more than once – losing work during COVID, leaving Los Angeles, coming back, then getting hit by personal setbacks and the strikes and eventually running out of money again. At one point I spent nearly two years back in Kentucky working on cars and genuinely wondered if acting and filmmaking were still realistic for me.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I work primarily as an actor, writer and director, and I’m most drawn to grounded, character-driven stories about flawed people trying to hold themselves together. As an actor, I think my strength is vulnerability and realism – I’m usually less interested in “showing” emotion than in finding the behavior underneath it and making the character feel lived-in.

As a filmmaker, I’ve been increasingly focused on creating my own work rather than waiting for the right opportunity to come along. I’m especially proud of Mechanics, a short film I directed and acted in, and Vacancy, a micro-series I created around small, intimate interactions and uncomfortable human behavior. Both taught me a lot about how I want to tell stories: simple setups, strong performances, and characters who feel messy and recognizable.

I’ve also been fortunate to start building more momentum professionally through commercial work with major brands and, more recently, television, including my first network co-star on Chicago P.D.

What I think sets me apart is that I don’t really separate acting from filmmaking. Directing has made me a better actor, acting has made me a better writer, and writing has made me more thoughtful about directing. I’m trying to build a career where all three continue feeding each other rather than choosing only one lane.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Setting goals for myself and working until I achieve them makes me happy. Creating with others. Laughing with other actors on set. My 1 year old Chihuahua Loretta brings me the most joy. The idea of taking care of my family and honestly anyone around me fills me up and pushes me forward. Becoming a person who can easily create safety and comfort for others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://imdb.me/nmc
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nickco1eman?stkn=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@nickcolemanfilm?si=sTjV-YB8xO1MmiD7

Image Credits
Matt Marcheski (Headshot)
Nicole Rich (Film Photography)