Brandon (I) Byrd filmography and biography

Brandon (I) Byrd biography

Impersonating college quarterbacks and musical influences may have seemed odd and funny growing up but this would later become Brandon Byrd's recipe for his complete emergence into characters. He would adapt the mannerisms of a character and associate like them in reality.

Perhaps a journey that starts out with the flip of a coin. Burnt out with college after taking fifteen hours in the summer and twenty one hours his fall semester, Byrd decided to flip a coin his uncle gave him, which he kept shined through military school. Heads he would go to Los Angeles or tails he would stay and finish his remaining eighteen hours, heads won. That night, Brandon booked a flight, packed his bags, and was headed for LA the next morning. This spontaneous trip to Los Angeles led him to meet actor Brandon Routh, who advised him to get an acting coach. He has landed small roles in Time Expired (2011) and Real Steel, starring Hugh Jackman and directed by Shawn Levy (I)

If you met Byrd and asked him what he was studying in college he may have told you he was a quarterback or working on his MCATs. Byrd's most organic acting training probably came from hanging out with his uncle, who together would convince people that Byrd was a college quarterback. He also was able to convince security at a Foo Fighters concert with a friend that they were roadies by carrying in a table to the band's crew room.

In middle school, Byrd made a video for an English class project. After being well received by his classmates and teacher, he enrolled into an acting class. His drama teacher was so amazed with his improvisation, that one day when Byrd walked into class she had him teach her students on the spot, illustrating to them how to act.

Byrd attended Oklahoma State University, where he studied journalism and theatre. He wrote for the schools Daily O'Collegian. Discovering deeper passion for acting, he switched to business in order to gain a broader perspective of every aspect as an actor in the environment of "show biz." While pursuing his degree, Byrd spent time training in boxing and grappling classes. He took as many acting courses as possible under his electives. He participated in school plays, student films, and wrote plays for theatre festivals.

Brandon (I) Byrd trivia

- Majored in business management with a minor in marketing.
- Has a green belt in Tae Kwon Do.
- Worked immensely through high school and college; even seventy hours a week at times to buy his dream truck, a 2007 Chevy Regency RST, only to sell it two years later because he realized he wasn't truly happy. Once he sold it, he had around $25,000 saved up by the age of 21 to survive on before going out to LA, rather putting the money toward his true happiness. [Lighting the meaning to his quote "Let go of your possessions and hold onto your passions"].
- Took a journalism course in college with 1st runner up Miss USA 2010 Morgan Woolard.
- English teacher in fifth grade was a camera man for Walker, Texas Ranger.
- Howie Long once taught his Sunday school class at Prestonwood Baptist Church. Chuck Norris had also attended the church.
- Musically gifted-plays guitar, piano, and drums by ear and by observing other people playing.
- Attended the same journalism school as actor James Marsden (I) [Paul Miller school of Journalism and Broadcasting at Oklahoma State].
- From the same town as The All-American Rejects,[Stillwater], who played shows at his middle school.
- Friend's with Jesse Tabish, the original front man for The All-American Rejects. Tabish left the group and is with the band Other Lives.

Brandon (I) Byrd quotes

- The best acting training I had was going into bars with my uncle and becoming someone I'm not, like a quarterback for a college football team... I sometimes felt like Frank Abagnale Jr. in Catch Me If You Can
- I love reinventing myself and not having one set personality. With acting I can do everything
- Good acting is the difference between when you are working and when you are working when a manager's watching you. I call it mime acting. Think of how you drive when a cop is behind you.
- Is the law not broken when it is enforced? So it is the same with my morals in acting on a high speed chase.
- The ability of matching a characters soul to an actor through collaborating and interpreting material inspires me. There's something captivating about walking into a characters shoes and seeing life through their eyes. I want to get inside their head and know what their morals are
- Before flipping a coin on deciding if I should go to LA, I told my uncle that "Faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains, will I move a mountain?" The coin came up heads that I go to LA.
- I had just got back into Oklahoma from shooting Real Steel in Detroit. I was driving into town behind a car that said "ONESHOT" on its license plate. I was living with my family at the time, and when I got home the first thing I saw when I opened the door was some kid passed out on the living room couch and a bunch of high school kids drinking and smoking cigarettes. My sister was throwing a party while my dad had been working. I wasn't about to come home to that crap after experiencing all the great things I did on one of my first sets. I had enough, so I quietly went up to my room and began packing my bags. After everything was cleared out except for my bed and a deer head I had mounted on the wall, I took a look around my room breathing everything in as if "this was it." I looked up at the deer as a sign of resemblance toward courage and boldness. Remembering the license plate, I said to myself, "I have one shot." Then it occurred to me, I had the bullet I shot the deer with in a plastic bag hanging on the wall underneath it. There was only one bullet in that bag, I had never used the gun or test fired it before. The first shot I ever fired from that gun was when I shot the deer. It took me one shot to drop that deer and put him on the wall. If that's not a spiritual moment then I don't know what is.
- My experience with management and theatre taught me how to manage behavior toward acting with creative instincts and intellectual capacity to perform with ability to affect an audience.
- While training is an integral key toward success, I also believe that enduring is equally valuable. Enduring and greatly preparing to prosper as an actor adequately shows integrity and honor to a true character
- I want to be the realities that people thought only exist in dreams. A man of men that can show you can be good and still be a bad ass.
- It was one of my first nights in LA. I was on Sunset Strip standing outside the Viper Room, waiting for it to open. I had always wanted to go there just to say I slammed a drink at a club Johnny Depp owned... but for some reason had this gut feeling like something magnetic was pulling me to walk back to my hotel. As I was walking back that's when I ran into Brandon Routh. If I had waited ten more minutes for the club to open I could've stayed and got that drink but probably would've never met Routh.
- Breathe in every moment because you never know when your last breath will be
- Let go of your possessions and hold onto your passions
- Just because you have a right to do something doesn't make it right to do something
- Reverse psychology can be a great acting tool