The Working Actor NYC

What's haunting your acting career? This Halloween, Benjamin Howes and Patrick Richwood are confronting the monsters that can quietly derail an actor's career—and we're not just talking about the things that go bump in the theatre. Meet the Imposter Vampire , who whispers, “Who do you think you are?” every time you dare to imagine yourself achieving something bigger. And the Good Enough Ghoul , wh...

Whatever happened to those wonderful little characters who made movies feel so alive? In this LIVE recording of The Working Actor NYC Podcast, Benjamin Howes and Patrick Richwood explore a provocative theory: that Hollywood has been cutting small speaking roles from film and television to save money — and that both audiences and working actors are paying the price. Patrick made some of his most me...

Are actors ever satisfied? We want the job — then we get the job and complain that we’re exhausted. We want more auditions — until one arrives with twelve pages due tomorrow. We want people to love our work — and when they do, somehow we’re still thinking, “Yeah… B-minus.” So what is it about being an artist that keeps us perpetually looking toward the thing we haven’t achieved yet? Flying solo th...

What happened to the working actor? Self-tapes made auditioning more convenient — but shifted much of the cost and infrastructure of auditioning onto actors. Streaming created enormous amounts of content — but changed the residual model that once helped performers sustain a career between jobs. Seasons have gotten shorter. Roles are being compressed. And some of the television jobs that once repre...

What does "success" actually mean to you — and are you sure you'd recognize it if you had it? This week, Benjamin Howes and Patrick Richwood get real about the messy, moving target that is "making it" as an actor. Benjamin kicks things off fresh from a Bhangra boot camp (yes, at 55, and yes, his body survived), then the conversation turns to the big question: what does success actually feel like,...

What happens when acting and life both need you at the same time? Actors spend a lot of time worrying about life derailing our careers. We get sick on the day of an audition. A family emergency happens during a run. An important event collides with a callback. And somewhere in our heads is that old rule: the show must go on. But sometimes there isn't a choice where everybody wins. There are just t...

What happens when actors stop waiting for the industry to give them permission to be creative? Actors spend so much of their careers waiting: waiting for the audition, the callback, the offer, the next opportunity to actually do the thing we trained to do. But casting gets to decide when we get hired — it doesn't get to decide when we get to be artists. In this episode of The Working Actor NYC Pod...

Ever wondered what it's actually like to make a living as an actor? This episode starts with a Field Report on the early closing announcement of Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway, and what it says about the economics of producing theatre today. But from there, Patrick Richwood and I head down a rabbit hole of stories that only working actors seem to collect. We talk about performing musicals in...

Stop waiting for permission to own the parts of your career that already belong to you. What does it really mean to be in control of your acting career? In this Independence Day episode of The Working Actor NYC Podcast , Benjamin Howes and Patrick Richwood unpack the difference between control, ownership and true creative independence. Using real comments from actors in the community, they explore...

Why does walking into a room full of your peers feel so intimidating? Benjamin and Patrick unpack the invisible scorecard we all carry—and why genuine curiosity might be the best networking strategy you'll ever learn. When you walk into a room full of people in your industry... what's the first thing your brain starts measuring? Who's more successful? Who already knows everyone? Who looks more con...

Actors deal with rejection a lot. This week, we're ranking their coping strategies from healthy to completely unhinged. This week on The Working Actor NYC Podcast, we're diving into one of the most important—and ridiculous—parts of being an actor: coping with the ups and downs of the business. After a field report from Tribeca Festival, where Benjamin shares what he's learning from inside one of t...

Every actor has at least one audition story they still think about at 2am. This week, we gathered around the internet campfire to relive some of the funniest, most mortifying, most chaotic audition stories we’ve ever heard — hopping into a bread truck to make it to Ripley Grier, singing West Side Story with a surprise bell choir accompaniment, self tapes shot like Oscar-winning cinema before anyon...

The rejection you didn't see coming. What happens when you help build a project… and then the project moves forward without you? In this LIVE episode of The Working Actor NYC podcast, Benjamin and Patrick dig into one of the most painful — and least discussed — experiences actors face: being part of the reading, workshop, lab, or regional production… and then not being invited back. Benjamin share...

Do you need to be selfish to succeed as an actor… or is that just insecurity in disguise? We break down confidence, ego, and the real behaviors that shape a career in the room. In this episode of The Working Actor NYC, we tackle a deceptively simple question: do you have to be selfish to succeed as an actor? What starts as a surprising on-set interaction quickly opens up a deeper conversation abou...

Are you falling behind as an actor… or does it just feel that way? In this LIVE episode of The Working Actor NYC, Benjamin Howes and Patrick Richwood dive into one of the most destructive beliefs actors carry: the idea that everyone else is ahead. They unpack the comparison trap, the illusion created by social media, and why acting careers don’t follow timelines — even though we keep trying to for...

Type gets you in the room. Brand gets you cast. In this LIVE episode of The Working Actor NYC Podcast , Benjamin Howes and Patrick Richwood introduce their new format — featuring real-world field reports, live audience questions, and deep dives into essential acting career topics. This week, they tackle one of the most misunderstood concepts in the industry: type vs brand — and how understanding t...

If self-tapes feel like punishment, there’s a good chance you’re approaching them completely wrong. Self-tapes didn’t kill auditions. They just changed the rules. Self-tape auditions are now the standard for film, TV, and many theatre projects — but many actors still treat self tapes like a chore instead of a creative opportunity. In this episode of The Working Actor NYC , Benjamin Howes and Patri...

A conversation about longevity, identity, and staying alive to the work. Acting careers don’t follow straight lines — they move through seasons. In this episode, we explore the reality every long-term actor eventually faces: the transition from one chapter of work to another. Roles evolve, identities shift, and the challenge becomes not holding onto what once worked, but staying responsive to what...

A BFA doesn't make you a working actor. What’s the difference between foundational training and ongoing training as a professional actor? In this episode, we unpack the distinction between degree-based programs (BFA/MFA) and the kind of training actors pursue once they’re working in the industry. Neither of us came up through conservatory programs — but we’re both deeply committed to ongoing train...

Benjamin Howes and Patrick Richwood are back with Season 2 of The Working Actor NYC Podcast — and they’re starting 2026 with an honest conversation about goals, momentum, and what’s actually changing in the acting industry. In this episode, they talk about: Why traditional goal-setting doesn’t always serve actors The difference between chasing moments and building momentum Industry shifts they’re...

This is our Christmas week episode — and a look back at a year that changed everything. In this conversation, Benjamin Howes and Patrick Richwood reflect on 2025: the growth, the surprises, and the evolution of The Working Actor NYC . What started as an audio-only podcast recorded at a dining table became: • a video podcast • a full YouTube channel • daily short-form content • weekly long-form epi...

Every working actor knows the feeling: watching a truly top-level performer and thinking… “How do they do that every day?” In this episode, Patrick Richwood and Benjamin Howes break down the real habits, routines, and rituals we’ve seen in the pros — the ones that keep them consistent, resilient, and ready, even when life throws curveballs. We talk about things like: 🎭 Would you still show up to...

It’s the holidays, and that means one thing: people everywhere are trying to figure out what on earth to buy the actor in their life. So in this episode of The Working Actor NYC, Patrick and I put together the ultimate gift guide — featuring 20 actor gifts that range from genuinely helpful… to deeply questionable… to what fever dream did this Etsy creator wake up from? We’ve got everything from:...

From Broadway to birthday clowns — we’re talking every acting job out there, and why they all count. In this episode, we take a wild ride through every corner of the acting world — from Broadway and Off-Broadway stages to national tours, regional houses, and community theatre. We break down film and TV work, commercials, and the surprising ways acting shows up in the corporate world — training vid...

Spot the monster in your cast before opening night. Every actor has faced them — the narcissists, the laugh snatchers, the egomaniacs who turn rehearsals into nightmares. In this Halloween-inspired episode, Benjamin Howes sits down with actor Patrick Richwood to cast these toxic colleagues as monsters of the stage and set. Whether you’ve dealt with a Narcissactor, an Ego-Saurus Rex, or just a desp...