To paraphrase Shakespeare, it is our job as storytellers and actors to “hold a mirror to life." Here's an actor who does just that.
Here’s a couple of things about Brayden Hade: He’s a survivor. And he knows how to balance his acting career with real life. But it’s his awareness, his determination…his pluck, not simply his dramatic arts, that reveal the depth of his performances. Keep reading…you will see what I mean.
Equally comfortable with musicals, black comedies, quirky dramas or artsy pieces, the actor has accumulated a sizable repertoire of work on stage over the past decade. Just in talking with him, I would say comedy musicals lead the pack of preferences, mainly due to his passion for singing and flair for light entertainment.
Some of his favorite theatre credits have included sure-fire draws like “Mamma Mia!” “The Last Five Years.” “Company,” “Seussical,” “City of Angels,” and “Titanic.” He was also seen in John Freed’s old-fashioned comedy musical “Sex Anyone” (picking up wonderful reviews and festival acclaim) at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2017.
As a transplant from New York City, this dapper male star deserves the spotlight for a lot of the right things – his acting talents of course. But there’s also that social media expertise, creative work, self-effacing humor, and general good-guy demeanor. One of the reasons that Brayden’s career has been so fascinatingly diverse is because he is so adaptable and is constantly reinventing himself.
As an example, Brayden has not only conceptualized and filmed the video segments for “Comic Monkey,” “The Dreamstalks: When I Grow Up” (2015), “Train Approaching” (2015) and “It Gets Funnier,” but he was also the writer/director/DP for the short films "Coven of Fifth Avenue" and "Made for TV."
The adroitly gifted Brayden has also created, written, directed and shot several webseries: "How to Make It To 30.," "Making It," "Rock-star Café (2012)," and "The Adults.” Nick Gauthier from examiner.com says, “Rock Star Café is “a musical comedy internet show that should be on prime-time TV!”
A natural-born leader, Brayden has served as creative director for Bruth Media, senior casting director for Ten Thirty One Productions (which you may remember was featured on Shark Tank), and currently is directing the musical, “Avenue Q,” at the Cupcake Theater in their new theatrical playground at the Hollywood Majestic Theater.
He’s also the founder of TheatreSourceLA, an internet source that connects theatres, audiences, and actors in fun ways to help elevate Los Angeles viewership. You can find him on social media at twitter.com/braydenhade, IG: braydenhade, FB: braydenhade. A client of Movement Talent Agency.
This week, Brayden Hade graciously took time to answer a few questions for The Show Report, and, in the process, dropped us a number of surprising revelations. Not to mention some amazing insights in this business we call "acting." This is what he had to say:
Brayden, how did you get started in the arts?
"When I was very young, my parents put me in a lot of different kinds of arts classes—things like tap, pottery, and puppeteering. They sort of flung everything at the wall to see what would stick. Well, unfortunately, I was very willful and pretty much quit everything. That changed when I was in third grade. I had been attending shows at a local theater with my mother. I became rather taken with them. Initially my mother tried to prepare me to audition for them, but she didn’t really have a musical background. Somewhere along the line my third grade teacher (her name was Mrs. Klau) stepped up to help. She would keep me after school and help me prepare my audition several times a week. Years later, when I was adult, I stumbled upon her in a local production. She was actually pretty fantastic. I did book that local theater show and I continued working with that theater from third grade until when I left for college (shoutout to the late Hartford Children’s Theatre.)"
"After high school, I pursued a degree in musical theatre from Wagner college. While in college I took so many visual arts classes that I often joke I was an arts minor. Like when I was a toddler, my focus had always been scattered among many artistic endeavors. Unlike when I was a toddler, I learned there is medication for that."
"After I graduated I invested in professional photography equipment and began taking headshots and event shots to help supplement my income. During my first few years out of college I got a bit disillusioned by the kind of roles I was getting called in for. The musical theatre world still consisted of “ethnic" shows and “white" shows, and aside from maybe “Aladdin,” I was usually the wrong ethnicity. The level of cultural and racial awareness in the musical theatre world was very much behind the rest of the culture. I decided to pursue film: joined professional scene study courses, joined AFTRA, and began doing low budget films, and extra work. I enjoyed that a lot more, but somewhere along the line I realized I would probably enjoy being on the other side of the camera more. I began writing and directing my own short films and series, and really took to it. That expanded to be directing stage projects as well."
"Writing and directing were my main pursuit for the last five years of my time in NYC. When I moved to Los Angeles, I fell back into musical theater mainly as a way to make friends. The experience I had was much more rewarding than it had been ten years prior so I decided to more actively pursue it. I got an agent (Jim Keith), and began booking more work at the end of 2019. We all know how that story plays out in March of 2020. The setback of the pandemic actually gave me time to get back into writing and directing and brought me back to what I had been working towards for years. That led me here, directing for the stage again, and being happier than ever doing it. I guess a simple “when I was a toddler” probably would have answered your question."