Jake O'Flaherty

I have a degree in Psychology and Business Administration from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. I use my experience from these two degrees in my philosophy for acting, coaching and career consultation. The Psychology degree helps me get into the character faster and with a more unique perspective. The Business degree helped me realize I was going to need to keep track of everything I was doing for my acting career in order for my "business" as a self-employed actor to succeed, and as a marketable item in Hollywood that had to be presented as something unique as well.

I started my career as non union actor doing extra/atmosphere work for experience and a little money. I started booking non union commercials and moved my way up to the William Morris Agency in 1995. I became a member of SAG & AFTRA in 1996 by booking commercials. I then started sending out postcards to all casting directors to let them know who I was and I got called in to read for general auditions. I booked TV shows Shameless, Lethal Weapon, The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia, King of Queens, Grounded For Life, Alright Already, Criminal Minds, CSI:NY etc. Lots of live theatre and my latest film, RED PILL directed by Tony award-winner Tonya Pinkins and starring Ruben Blades and Kathryn Erbe.  

As an actor, in order to communicate your artistic statement, you must imprint something unique into each performance by expressing a sense of truth, reality and understanding thru specific choices that come from and relate to YOU.[/blockquote]

During this time I was asked to teach a commercial class at The Promenade Playhouse & Conservatory in Santa Monica. I enjoyed teaching so much and received so much positive feedback that I continued to teach commercial classes as well as Improv, Comedy and On-Camera classes until 2012.

I have been very fortunate and blessed to have many students/clients now successfully working in the entertainment industry, including Movie & TV star Ken Jeong (Hangover 1,2,3; NBC's Community; Knocked Up; Role Models etc.), Tony award-winning Broadway star Tonya Pinkins (Jelly's Last Jam; The Hurt Village; Storefront Church;TV's 24; Army Wives etc.), and Japanese star Tsuyoshi Ihara (Clint Eastwood's " Flags of our Fathers).

My teaching/coaching philosophy is simple: start with something that is grounded in reality (by just saying the lines out loud repeatedly in your "normal voice"), then develop the character from what the lines say to you, based on the object exercises of Who am I? What is going on? Where is this happening? When is this happening? Why is this character saying & doing these lines? Now that you have answered these questions, make simple, specific choices that pertain to the scene yet are unique to only YOU.

It's challenging in the beginning....but it gets easier and becomes a part of how you think and what you do.