Hi, my name is DeAndre’ Dowell and I am an aspiring young actor from the vastly growing yet overlooked state of Denver, Colorado.

With music being my primary skill of expertise since grade school, I am a fish out of water sort of speak given that I am rather new to this whole acting thing. A late bloomer you might say, I just recently took up acting toward the end of last year in 2007. I’ve always admired the greats such as Denzel Washington and Robert De Niro who take their craft and elevate it to levels unimaginable. You’d almost forget that you were sitting in a theater watching these fine artists perform because you became so immersed in the moment. Seeing guys like them make it to the big screen often made me shake my head and ponder in amazement, “How does someone become that good? How can he or she ‘act’ so great?”

The answer to those questions would soon come to me through an interview with Denzel Washington. When asked if he had any piece of advice for those pursuing a career in acting, in true clever and sharp like fashion that he often portrays in one of his classic characters on screen, he said simply, “Don’t act. Just be.” That for me was the moment that it had all clicked in my head.

With acting you are naturally trying to become a character different from your normal self, but no matter how different the character may be, they will always have similarities to you because your body is the vehicle from which your character comes. So with that being said, it was nearly simultaneous when I asked myself, “Can I act?” Traditionally, musicians who’ve attempted to make the transition from the music business to the film industry have had lack luster careers to say the least with only a handful of exceptions i.e. Will Smith and Ice Cube. So why not save myself the embarrassment and just forget about it all right? Wrong. This brought me to yet another one of my favorite quotes. “Nothing is impossible…Just usually the untried.”

My curiosity would eventually get the best of me as I began applying to several different online profiles and auditions. Within literally less than 3 months, I’ve auditioned for the motion picture entitled “The Gauntlet”, made the Top 16 videos in the first round audition on the Gauntlet’s profile page, nearly made the Top 25 in less than ten days with over a hundred auditioning for the part of Josh in “The Gauntlet” and most recently shot my very first TV Commercial which will appear on major network channels such as ESPN and Comedy Central. 

The experience at the commercial shoot was incredible! Just being able to network and socialize with all of the talent on set made it all the more worthwhile. It actually reminded me of how excited I was when I went to the studio to record my very first song. It’s something new and stimulating.

As far as just acting in general, the response has been tremendous. Admit tingly hesitant at first due to my lack of knowledge in theater and my empty resume, my inexperience has now become my determination in proving all the doubters wrong. A fellow actor and close friend of mine told me once that acting is either something that can be taught or is something that just comes natural for some. Right now I’m in the midst of finding out which one best relates to me.

I'm often times compared to the Fresh Prince! It’s courteous comparisons and comments like these that motivate me to be as half as great as credible performers such as Will Smith who just so happens to be one of my favorite actors.

So with everything I’ve accomplished in such a short amount of time and the Gauntlet results being just around the corner, whether or not I realized it, I guess when I met Acting, it was love at first site. ;-)

Dee

P.S.-I wanna know when did you fall in love with acting???