My name is Chase Ramsey. I’m an actor, writer, director, teacher, husband, and father. I was drawn to the arts partly because my dad is very musical. Thus, growing up, I was always around music. When I was 15, my parents got divorced. It was really tough for our family. I was pretty much out on the streets during high school. I often had to worry about when and how my next meal was coming, so I was forced to find a way to get what I needed on my own. I learned how to hustle. That led to a sort of confidence in searching for work in the performing arts since it’s tough to make it in the arts unless you know how to hustle.

When the time came for me to go to college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I felt like I didn’t know how to do anything. I played baseball growing up, and sports were a big part of my childhood, but I wasn’t someone expecting to be able to make money playing sports. So, I enrolled in two classes at Utah Valley University (UVU): a communication class and Dave Tinney’s Acting I class.

The acting class had a huge impact on me. Dave Tinney is a gifted individual, and all who learned from him at UVU were so lucky. While taking the class, I found a passion for acting. Then I was cast in the university’s production of Urinetown.At that point, it hit me that I wanted to try to make a living in the performing arts, even if I was going to be a starving artist. Never satisfied in any other position I tried, whether that be sales, customer service, or office jobs, I was always thinking about doing art.

Right after I graduated with a bachelor’s in theatre arts, my wife and I were about $17,000 in debt and struggling to stay afloat. Reality hit. I applied for 200 theatre-related internships and was offered only one — an associate director position at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I assisted a director by the name of Rob Melrose, who also was the artistic director of the Cutting Ball Theater in San Francisco. After a month and a half at the Guthrie and a paycheck of $1,000, I felt I needed to keep grinding. Rob hired me as his associate director for a year in San Francisco, but I needed more work.

While in San Francisco, I walked into a few agencies and said, “I am serious about this, and I will find work.” Stars, The Agency, signed me. From there, I started auditioning and booked several commercials and a job as “California Dream Eater,” a series about tasting all the best eats in California. I got that job by eating a sandwich and making the producers laugh. In the time when my family needed it most, “California Dream Eater” offered me a contract for 30 episodes and $100,000 dollars. I was so overwhelmed — my hard work was paying off.

Since the arts can be such a cutthroat industry, so many professional filmmakers say, “If you can do anything else, do that other thing.” The fact is, I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. UVU taught me that I could go after my unique dreams — it’s going to be hard, but we just have to do the work, and it will be worth it. Sometimes the payoff looks like money, and sometimes it looks like fulfillment in other ways. 

I was in two shows at Berkeley Repertory Theatre: Tartuffe and One Man, Two Guvnors. After that, I participated in SundanceTV, I did a show on Food Network (since it was clear that I was good at doing shows related to food), I did a few movies and some more theatre, and I even worked at Disneyland and California Adventure for a year as a show director. 

Perhaps the largest credit on my resumé so far is playing Elder Cunningham in The Book of Mormon on Broadway until the COVID-19 shutdown. The cool thing is, someone involved with casting for The Book of Mormon had seen me in One Man, Two Guvnors six years before. When the production was looking for a new actor to play Elder Cunningham, the person who’d seen me act before remembered me and wanted to cast me in the role. That is how I booked my Broadway debut. It was an incredibly rewarding and challenging experience — one that I’d love to have again.

 

I’m currently working on a few exciting projects. At the Hale Center Theater in Orem, I’m playing Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I have a son with autism, so I feel this is a chance for me to look through his lens and increase in empathy. Actors benefit greatly from being writers as well, and I’ve taken that to heart. My writing partner, Willy Eklof, and I are writing music for an animated series coming to Disney Channel. I’m also working with some people on a couple of different musicals that we are hopeful for.

Mostly, I’m auditioning for several films. I was recently pinned for a part in an upcoming movie with Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell, but someone more famous nabbed the role. I just keep going and working hard, and things will happen as they are supposed to.

In the midst of all this work, I think the best work of my life is learning to be free of others’ expectations and opinions of me and accepting who I am. There is something special about acting — the best actors have freedom that most people don’t. They are able to, for example, tell a joke in front of a camera or in front of a large group of people, and they know they are funny even if no one laughs. They are okay with themselves being separate from what anyone else thinks. I’m working on it. It’s a lifelong process to get there, I believe, but an extremely worthy and important pursuit. 

Life often feels like a pursuit of success or something tangible. And honestly, if we could just remain quiet for a bit and settle into our own bodies, all of those things that we’re working hard for will come. Oftentimes we are so caught up in planning everything that we miss the most important things that are right in front of us.

To current UVU students, I’d say no matter if you’re an actor, artist, or participant in any of UVU’s programs, don’t worry so much about controlling everything that you miss what’s happening in your life right now. Live in the moment and be present.