Today, we’d like to introduce you to Mike Danielson. Mike was introduced to us by the brilliant and talented Terrance Brashun.
Mike, thank you so much for joining us today. We’d love for you to bring our readers up to speed – can you introduce yourself and share your story?
I grew up in Alief on the SouthWest side of Houston Texas. I have always been a creative person, but I lacked the skills necessary to be skilled in various art forms like drawing, painting or sculpting. That lead me into rap music as a creative outlet. My stage name was PayDay. In Houston I worked with the groups; Lion’s Den, NMS Laboratories, Murda House and 30 Below. At this time I also started my own record label called, Drastik Recordz and I put out several artists projects. When I moved to Dallas I thought my rap career was over. Was I ever wrong. I joined up with 2 amazingly talented rap groups in DFW, The SlumpMasters and D.D.C. (Dirty Dialect Click). We went on to get quite a buzz in both groups. We appeared in numerous mainstream rap magazines such as Ozone Magazine and were in several news paper articles and music videos. At some point in 2007, I decided to give up music and focus on my family. However, without that creative outlet I felt extremely unfulfilled for many years. Fast forward to 2015, I signed up as an extra in a movie called Prepper that was filming in my old neighborhood. I really enjoyed the movie making process and finally found a new creative outlet. I discovered that acting was family friendly enough to still give me plenty of time with my wife and kids and yet give me an outlet to be creative.
Alright, so we’d love to learn more about your acting career. What should we know?
I’ve been acting since 2015. I have appeared in 2 movies currently featured on Amazon Prime, Prepper by Film Patterson & It’s A Wonderful Plight by Vintage Rhodes Productions. Both films have been nominated and featured in several film festivals. I’ve also acted in a few music videos and a short film/music video called “Listen To Black Girls” by J. Rhodes. I co-created and co-star in 2 sketch comedy shows with one of my friends/business partners, Alexander K of Burfdate Lasagna. One is called PayDay Playz and is basically just me acting out various characters with a few guests on some episodes. The other show is called, Laugh League Comedy Collective. It is a sketch comedy show with me and 4 stand up comedians. I’m funny enough to hold my own with them on LLCC, but you won’t see me on any comedy stages anytime soon…lol. Both shows can be found on YouTube as well as all other social media platforms by searching their name. That brings us to the current project we are discussing in this interview, Ridge Run. I met the director, Terrance Brashun through my work on It’s A Wonderful Plight by Vintage Rhodes Productions. Terrance gave me a part as Jack the driver in his short film, Ridge Run for Classic Villain Films. It’s been a few good years for me as far as acting goes. I’ve been lucky enough to link up with some REALLY talented movie producers. I’m looking forward to what the next 10 years or so has to offer as far as new roles for me.
So, as we mentioned to our audience earlier, you were introduced to us by Terrance Brashun and we really admire them and what they’ve built. For folks who might not be as familiar, can you tell them a bit about your experience with Terrance.
As I said before, I met Terrance through my connection with J. Rhodes from the film It’s A Wonderful Plight. Terrance saw my demo reel and said he had a small part for me in his short film Ridge Run. As it turned out, one of the other actors didn’t show up on both days we shot. So, my “background” role became a little bigger. It included a line of dialog and I even got to punch Terrance in the face in the after credits scene…lol. Working with Terrance, Maxx, Cris and Harold was tons of fun and I look forward to working with them again in the next installment of Ridge Run.
Website: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm7787538/
Instagram: @SouthWestPayDay
Twitter: @SouthWestPayDay
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/southwestpayday
Youtube: https://youtube.com/user/southwestpayday
Other: Check me out on TikTok: @PayDayPlayz_ Also check out our sketch comedy shows on YouTube here: PayDay Playz: https://youtube.com/channel/UC7Yjs_HuKxd1uR4n5uCgQvQ Laugh League Comedy Collective: https://youtube.com/channel/UCfiizXeMn4VrE1ZEic5zBnQ Here is my acting demo reel as well… https://youtu.be/OF0fdhFycS0 If interested in booking me please shoot me an email at: southwestpayday@gmail.com Thanks ✊🏻
