Today we’d like to introduce you to Themo Melikidze.
Hi Themo, 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?
Ever since a kid, I had been dreaming of becoming a performer. That idea only grew stronger after my parents fled my birth country of Georgia to Belgium for a better life for me and my kid brother.
As a young teen, I set out the goal that I’d move to the USA once I’d graduate and pursue my dream. In 2011, I graduated in Belgium and sent out an audition tape to the New York Film Academy in NYC. I was accepted with a partial scholarship. I booked a one-way ticket to NYC (FOR THE EDITOR – this part of the story has another traumatic event that took place leading up to my departure but perhaps that’d be a story for another time) and arrived in the urban jungle in 2012. After my first year at the school, an off-broadway director and owner of LiveInTheater scouted me after seeing my thesis work and offered me a job for three different shows for a full season. We won the Drama Desk award for the most unique theatrical experience in NYC.
On April 15th, 2013 I found myself on the couch eating a sandwich watching the news about the Boston Marathon Bombing. Seeing the photos of the two terrorists on TV. Another typical day in the crazy USA I thought.
In 2014 I was back in Belgium, frustratingly waiting for a renewal of my visa, which seemed to last forever. A painstaking year later I received my artist visa, and in mid-2015 I moved back to NYC.
Desperately I sought for representation, any work I could find as an actor, couch surfing around the tri-state area. No one ever responded.
At the end of 2015, I decided to move out to Los Angeles. I didn’t know a single soul in this city. I saw the seconds count down on New Year’s Eve of 2016, alone in an apartment somewhere near Pasadena. I had purchased a bicycle on Craigslist for $50, that was my means of transportation. I’d bike 3-4 hours a day from and to Hollywood for auditions or any work opportunity I could get.
On one morning I received an email from a talent scout representing an agency, showing interest in my profile after seeing a short film I filmed years prior in NYC. I figured it was a scam, but after doing some research I agreed to meet and got signed with Park Noack Agency. I got my first real audition for the show “The Americans” that week for which I got a callback. At that time I was couch surfing again, this time in the Los Angeles area, trying to create an opportunity day in & out.
Another week later, I received a possible audition for a movie called “Patriots Day”, After reading the submission details I couldn’t believe that I was actually receiving an email about a project that had Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg attached to it.
To cut the long story short after three audition callbacks, I booked the lead role of “Tamerlan Tsarnaev” in the movie Patriots Day.
The same photo that aired that on the evening of April 15th, 2013 was now being used on the wall at the production HQ in Boston, next to my headshot together with all the other members of the cast; Mark Wahlberg, Kevin Bacon, John Goodman, JK Simmons, Michelle Monaghan, Alex Wolff.
My life hasn’t been the same since then, thanks to my agents at Innovative Artist Agency, my management Robert Stein Management, my commercial agent at Park Noack Agency, and my voice agents at CESD, I continue to work for both film and TV, I’ve done commercials for major companies, I worked on triple A video games, that I used to play as a kid. And met my love Leron Semyonova, along the journey. I can honestly say I made my dream come true that I had as a kid.
But life has still so much to offer, and I have so much more to give. The journey is only getting started.
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?
– Time running out: every year I had to get enough work credits to continue my stay in the US. Always had an imaginary sand clock above my head trickling down.
– Financial struggle
– Loneliness
– Uncertainty
– Had to learn the language
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I graduated from a sports institute in Belgium, Me and my brother were both competing for the National Team of Taekwondo so I’ve always been in training, which has been a crucial part of my life and key to discipline and commitment. I’ve competed in 3-4 different sports; Taekwondo, soccer, swimming, track & field.
In my free time, I train people to achieve their goals as a personal trainer, I use my background as an athlete and my creativity as an artist to communicate with my clients and change their perspective on health & fitness.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
No matter what it is that you do when you do IT, you do it 10000000000000000000%.
Respect your own word to yourself and others.
Increase the chances of being lucky by increasing the effort you put in your work.
If you can’t deal/manage/overcome hard times, then you don’t want it enough.
Don’t complain – no one cares.
Your highest dreams are achieved by your daily goals.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6183987/
- Instagram: @themojn
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themojn/
