Tyler Oakley, Ed Helms and Patrick Stewart are all successful in their field, and they all have a specific mentor to thank in some way or another.
January is National Mentoring Month, so TheWrap partnered with the Fulfillment Fund, a non-profit organization that makes college a reality for students in Los Angeles’ under-resourced communities, to find out who actors and actresses look up to in the industry.
“When you first start out in show business, it’s so daunting, it’s so terrifying, it just seems impossible to go from where you are to where you want to get,” Helms told TheWrap.
Oakley, the YouTube sensation who has almost 8 million subscribers on his channel, told TheWrap that he considers one of his middle school teachers to be his mentor.
“She was life-changing for me,” he said. “Her outlook, the way she approached challenges and the spirit she brought to the classroom was something I guess I never encountered before.”
“The Returned” actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead cited her mother as her mentor, while “The Librarians” star Christian Kane said Garth Brooks inspired him.
Patrick Stewart remembers a quote by the director of his acting school, and said he never really understood what it meant until recently.
“You’ve got to take risks, you got to be fearless,” he said.