Getting an agent, well it’s not easy. I had been doing classes for about 2 years now and I couldn’t afford to give up work for drama school so it was a bit of catch 22. Eventually Robert Kelly signed me after letting me audition for him, I am still grateful to this day he took a chance on me.
I remember getting the audition for EASTENDERS which I was SO excited about, the show had been such a huge part of our household growing up and now I was about to audition. After many call backs and months later I got a phone call from my agent when I was driving home (on handsfree of course), he told me to ring him when I got home and when I did he answered, “hello Tyler” which was the character’s name I had been auditioning for. I was in front of my mum when I found out about getting the part and we literally jumped up and down for about twenty minutes…. I had landed a lead role on EASTENDERS!!!
For two and half years EastEnders was like my drama school, I was chucked in at the deep end and learnt so much about acting. It was and will always be a huge part of my life and as with Billingsgate I always look back at Albert Square with a warm heart.
After leaving Eastenders finding acting work was difficult, personal appearances soon dried up and I was left in no man’s land, so I had to make a decision on which direction to take.
I was recommended a great acting course by ex co-star Kierston Wareing so flew to Vienna where the course was and stayed for a while honing my craft, I then made a career decision and went out to Los Angeles to give pilot season a go and ultimately ended up living with a good friend and actor Lucien Laviscount, we had a great time in the city of angels however work wise it didn’t work out for me and I had to return home after a few months.
This is when the financial reality of being in the entertainment industry hit me, it frustrated me just how quickly so many doors closed and work opportunities dried up and I knew this was the same for many other people in my shoes, not just actors but reality stars, ex sports stars etc.
A while later my frustrations were discussed and aired with Nick Coxon, owner of Mordens Wine Bar in Blackheath South East London, where I was doing events every so often called Demure Parties. I had explained the way in which I felt there needed to be a way of creating more work for people in the industry and for them not to be just left in the wilderness as I felt I was. During this conversation, we also discussed requests I had from a few local businesses to post on my social media for them, at this point we had a Eureka moment and we knew we HAD to create a platform where businesses could negotiate social media endorsements with celebrities and influencers directly through a site, thus giving talent extra work opportunities and businesses a one stop shop for celebrity endorsements on social media. It was a hard decision but I decided to give up acting and focus my attention on creating All So Pro.