Today we’d like to introduce you to Carl Walton.
Hi Carl, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
My journey started off as a Dancer when I was about nine years old and I joined a dance group called Cav kids, dancing on the Cavaliers court. Soon after that I auditioned and got into doing musicals with the All – City Arts program at Playhouse Square. Soon after that, I started my high school career at Cleveland School Of Arts (Majoring in Theatre), which changed my entire life! I switched my focus from being a dancer to being an Actor. I’ve Done Many plays, doing lead roles, comedy, drama, and while also still doing musicals at Playhouse Square. Fast forward to my senior year and I did my first play which I wrote, Directed, and Acted in and it was a huge success.
After that, I had received nearly a Full ride to attend Hussian College (Studio School) in Los Angeles to also major in Acting. It was amazing, I got signed by my first manager (Discover management) and BOOKED my first audition! I am currently on season 4 of insecure on HBO MAX with ISSA RAE herself. I had lines, was on set, and met the whole cast and crew and it was a great experience. I got signed by an Agency (KMR talent) and was doing short films here and there while in school for acting.
Soon after that, Covid happened… Which took me back home to Cleveland and I kinda got lost on what to do. So, I started writing for a series that I always wanted to do, it’s called “Figure It Out” my biggest accomplishment yet…I am the Producer, Director, Writer, cinematographer, Editor, and Acting in this series. This series has been a long 2 year journey of hard work, persistence and drive. In 2021, I premiered the first three episodes of this series at SliverSpot cinema and sold out over 100+ seats in 24 hours, won best director of the year for OEA, and was featured on Channel Three News for our success so far. In this series there are 10 Episodes, so even with premiering the first three I wasn’t quite done with everything yet. Later on that year I finished filming the rest of the season and started post production. In between that CSA Theatre department hired me to film a play they were doing called “Say his name” and I was also hired to teach Acting for Film at Collinwood Highschool. Start of 2022 I was juggling doing a whole feature length Film of a play (Direct, Film and Edit), teaching acting with students, and finishing editing the entire season of Figure It Out.
In May of 2022, We premiered the film “Say his name” at the Capitol Theatre and over 2,000 students across CMSD (Cleveland metro school district) saw this film and were impacted(Which is also featured on Channel three News). August comes around the corner and I held another premier for Figure It out at an ionic Cleveland Venue: The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. Once again sold out and left an amazing impact on everyone who was there(Featured on Channel Three again for the Third Time). Amazing opportunities were offered during that and afterwards and now I am working on a few other great projects coming up in Cleveland and Los Angeles, been nominated for more awards and also working with CSA again teaching acting and Filming. Figure It Out will be streaming on Tubi this upcoming winter or beginning of 2023. Through all of these accomplishments… I learned a lot, grew a lot, and most importantly impacted a lot. I will continue to chase my dreams and go for bigger and better things.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Not at All! For my Series “Figure It Out” I came from nothing. No camera, no people to help, no huge budget, or anyone backing us up. But I had discipline, persistence, and drive. Me and my closes friends are all in the project and we are very well-trained actors and very trained in the artform. Also (Huge shoutout to my parents) My dad help me with finances with buying equipment or helping me find locations to film in. It was hard getting my huge cast together in terms of scheduling and getting them on the same page and see the vision. so many Errors and rewrites and reshoots but we adapted and at the end of the day… we Figured it Out.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a Producer, Director, Writer, Actor, Editor, and cinematographer. overall, a great artist. The crazy thing is that I very much so specialize in each one of those arts forms and known for doing all of those things. That automatically sets me apart from a lot of people in the world just for the simple facts of how good and skilled I am at all of those things at once. I think also what sets me apart and what I’m most proud of is my personality and leadership. ‘Figure it Out” series is based on genuine love and well figuring out life…The reason I put my friends in this show because I saw that we are all going through the same thing and wanted to created something that was bigger than myself and also speak to so many others. The community, my friends, and anyone else that was involved felt that from me and followed me on this journey and that’s what I appreciate the most.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I think Starting off my biggest and best network of artist was Cleveland School of Arts. I found my family and also many mentors and artists who are just as passionate about the craft as I am. Which just lead me to all sorts of organizations and Different artist in and out of the city
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/yeahh.carl?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCVq7z1zdgMxwxUEnY4t-7yA
Image Credits
Neje Chou
Teej
