Jun 18, 2019
My guest is Orville's J Lee. Orville's J Lee is an actor, writer, director, and musician. He’s been a part of numerous shows like The Family Guy and American Dad. He also helped to write and produce and do voices for The Cleveland Show. Most recently though he has been rocking it as Lieutenant Commander John LaMarr on Fox's hit show The Orville. You probably know it but if you don't, check it out, you'll love it. Plus he just wrapped up production on his own film, one that he wrote, directed, and produced, it's called Wednesdays, we're going to be talking about that as well. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: Instagram: @jleefilm Twitter: @jleefilm The Orville on Fox TRANSCRIPT: J's got this awesome story you're going to love. He moved to LA with about 200 bucks in his pocket, worked his butt off to make it happen. He's also proud of his St. Louis roots and if you follow him on Instagram, as you should, you will know that his battle cries are #dobetter and #dothework, so it just seemed right to finally get him on DREAM THINK DO. J. Lee, welcome to the show man. J Lee: Hey. Yeah, what's happening? Thanks for having me, I appreciate it. Mitch Matthews: Absolutely. J Lee: Yeah. Mitch Matthews: I can tell you... DREAM THINK DO family, I got to meet J last year when two-time DREAM THINK DO guest Howard Berger and a good friend took my family and me around the set of The Orville and we got to meet J, which was so cool. I was a huge fan already, but man… when we got to meet you... you loved on my family. I so appreciated that, man. J Lee: Yeah, for sure. Mitch Matthews: Then I got to dig into your story and wow. You're one inspiring dude. J Lee: Yeah. You know, listen, I try to just ... You know we only get to go around this thing once as far as we know so I try to just be happy and try to keep a positive attitude whenever I can because life is already hard enough, you might as well try to be happy. Mitch Matthews: Yeah, absolutely. J Lee: But it was great meeting you and your family. You guys are so sweet, your family was nice and they were kind to me, so yeah that was nice. Mitch Matthews: I loved it, man. You hung out with us, you guys were in the midst of running around, the production's going on, but you stopped and hung out with us so it was just awesome. Mitch Matthews: Let's dive into your history because I know DREAM THINK DOers are just going to love your story, man. You grew up playing the piano. J Lee: Sure. Mitch Matthews: You played Carnegie Hall as a teenager, right? J Lee: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah. Mitch Matthews: You're an athlete, too. If I understand it correctly, your record still stands in your high school for the 300 hurdles. J Lee: I go back every year just to make sure nobody breaks it and if they do I told them, I'll lace my spikes back up and get back out there. I need to stand for a while. Mitch Matthews: That's right, let's do this. I love it. So then you go to Indiana University and the school of music there, Jacobs School of Music. You leave St. Louis after you graduate there, you move to LA with, if I'm understanding it, about two hundred bucks in your pocket. J Lee: Before I came to LA what happened was I had gone to school for classical piano and then I actually broke my thumb freshman year. I was on a scholarship and I break my thumb. Mitch Matthews: Holy cow. J Lee: That was the first time I had to look at my life and say, "Hey, what do I want to do?" Because I'd been playing piano my whole life. Mitch Matthews: Right. J Lee: I just didn't know if I wanted to continue down that path, being a concert pianist and everything. I had broken my thumb and that was the first time I had taken an acting class, so I kind of had that semester off. I remember my professor, Edmund Battersby. He has since passed away, he was a lovely, lovely man, an incredible teacher, and musician.