Today we’d like to introduce you to Tori Griffith.
Tori, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up in a family involved with the film and entertainment industry, and I found myself completely enamored with acting. It had me hooked!
Despite my passion for acting at a young age, my parents naturally did not want me anywhere near the industry given the unpredictability of success. When I was just 10 years old I visited the set of my favorite TV show VICTORIOUS which aired on Nickelodeon and I got the chance to speak with the leading actress Victoria Justice. I kept asking her tons of questions about acting and as soon as I learned that she started acting at the same age I was, I realized that if she could be an actor I could be an actor too and my journey into this brave new world began.
After that, acting became a complete obsession for me, going as far as to steal my mother’s laptop to Google local auditions and inadvertently signing my mother up for a bunch of scams. It makes me laugh now at my daring, but eventually, my mother accepted that acting wasn’t a passing fancy of mine and I was all in. She signed me up for acting classes and I started performing in theatre productions at my local theatre and by the time I was 13. I finally jumped into the world of television and film and started to audition professionally for various projects.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Other than the obvious obstacle that is the amount of competition an actor has to go up against, I initially dealt with a lot of self-doubts that came from constant rejection before learning to grow an alligator skin early on. I remember vividly when I first started, breaking down in tears on the floor every single time I didn’t book. My mother offered guidance to me in that this is how the industry is and you have to become immune to rejection in order to truly make it as an actor, that you need to shape up and appreciate the casting process. I took this advice to heart, toughening up and learning to take criticism constructively, viewing failure as a stepping stone in my career. By embracing this attitude, I flourished and grew in my craft, learning how to trust in my talents and drive. I realized that acting is my one true love and I just had to make it happen for myself.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am an actor in film and television. I started in theatre when I was just honing my craft but working on camera really has my heart.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
I was brought up on a small avocado ranch roughly an hour outside of Los Angeles with my mother taking 15 years out of her career to home-school me alongside my two siblings. Given that we were pretty far out of town and home-schooled, we would spend weeks at a time without ever leaving our ranch. I have warm memories of days spent climbing trees, picking flowers, and playing with our many pets. We had chickens, two dogs, two cats, and at one point 14 hamsters after my sister and I decided to put two of our hamsters in one of those plastic hamster balls together and let them “wrestle”. Growing up on a ranch with this lifestyle allowed me to have a very natural and in a sense, old-fashioned childhood that very few people my age get to have.
I also have incredibly fond memories of my mom driving me for hours to go to auditions. Each audition would turn into a little outing in the city with trips to Universal Studios and tours on one of the big movie lots where the auditions were sometimes held. These kinds of tours and trips made me fall in love even more with acting and the craft, if that were even possible as I was so steeped in it, to begin with.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/torigriffith/?hl=en
- Other: http://www.imdb.me/ToriGriffith
Image Credits
Personal Photo: John Anthony Sutton Behind the Scenes photos from the production Bao, Artist At War: Erica Kiara Other Headshots: Johnny Buzzerio
