Today we’d like to introduce you to Milo Mee.
Hi Milo, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
As a child, I did a few little classes associated with acting (such as our staged reading of “Click-Clack-Moo”, but I never fully understood it. My first spark of interest came from seeing Peter Pan fly in a production I saw downtown. But even then I didn’t fully understand what I saw. My story really begins with the book “Tom Sawyer” and a kid who loved the movie. When I say I loved Tom Sawyer, I mean it. My dad and I even built a miniature model of Huckleberry Finn’s river raft (which I insisted must be waterproof and support my legos). I didn’t have many friends at school, as they all loved sports more than I did. My mom was asking around about after school activities when a family friend said a company called “Children’s Musical Theater” or CMT was doing the musical adaptation of Tom Sawyer.
She signed me up and I never looked back. I felt alive on stage, in a way I couldn’t find anywhere else. I played school kid number one and took my responsibilities very seriously. Show after show, I fell more and more in love with acting. I had always loved movies as my parents liked to show me a new one every other day, but I hadn’t fully grasped it till then. The biggest breakthrough for me was when I played Charlie Brown in “Your a Good Man Charlie Brown”. I had a monologue on stage all by myself that was about 3 or 4 minutes, and in that character, that scene, I found fully embraced the character. My father, who is very supportive of my endeavors, said that was when he knew I actually had a future in this. My mother helped me with every audition, every scene I needed to memorize, hell she is the reason I work so hard, because she taught me that if I want to do this I cannot half ass it. I needed to go for it.
As years passed and I did more and more shows. Theatre was now my life and I wouldn’t have it any other way. In high school I often spent more time at the theatre than I did at home. I took every opportunity to learn. I joined the improv team, took on serious dramatic roles and fine tuned my subtle comedy techniques. I did speech and debate and improved my understanding of the spoken word, winning a few tournaments around the way. I was poised to lead the musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at my school and covid hit right before we opened.
I was destroyed but I used the time to focus on vocal lessons, take in as much content as I could, and find out who I was when I couldn’t fully embrace my art. I even submitted to the Rita Moreno Awards (a very prestigious award for high school actors in San Jose/the bay area) and I won! That lead me to being a nominee in the Jimmy Awards! It was a bummer that we had to be online as the nominees normally get flown to New York and perform on a Broadway stage, but I met so many people and most importantly learned from the best of the best in my business.
San Diego State University was barely on my college radar initially. I had a cousin who went there so I looked it up and was very impressed. However, what really made it feel like home was my zoom call with the head of the program Robert Meffe. I reached out to every school I applied to to speak with an educator, and every other one either dismissed me or gave me 5 minute. Rob talked to me for an HOUR. I decided it was the best place for me to have freedom in my education and become a well rounded individual.
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I didnt get into their musical theatre program initially but went as an acting major. What happens when I show up? I got into the first musical production (Steel Pier) and was able to re-audition. At SDSU I had a rare opportunity as someone affiliated with Acting and Musical Theatre and did every show I could. I have learned so much and Im so happy with my growth as a professional. Along the way, I added a Minor in Marketing with the goal of combining the two into a theatre marketing side gig. As of this semester I was able to put together a team and get a pitch accepted to market my final musical Rent and get paid to do it. I worked hard for this opportunity, and I am so blessed to see it come to pass at my own college.
A few other highlights were my summer shows during the college years. I played Patrick in the spongebob musical and studied in Italy playing melchior in spring awakening for the trentino music festival (a trip that I will NEVER FORGET). But my most cherished performance was playing Quasimodo in the hunchback of notre dame. The character has been a dream of mine to play since I was a child and I finally had the skill and the chance to do it. It felt like a send off to all of the work I had done to get to the professional world.
At the end of the day my family will always be the most important part of my life as they have helped me shoot for the stars. My Mom, Dad, brother, and little sister are the reason I am able to do what I do. I love them so much.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It was not a smooth road, but I am grateful for it. As a kid I was bullied for theatre and for things like my body or my lack of sporty skills. When I did school shows and had to go back to class mid day I would try to scrub the mascara off but if it was even a little visible I would be called gay and girly, which are not bad things to be but when you attend a catholic school they are verbal weapons thrown without repercussions. I was bullied relentlessly for 9 years and the school wouldn’t do anything about it, so my mother, my theatre friends, and my therapist got me through it. High school was better, but I still struggled with extreme anxiety and panic attacks. Thats the irony of theatre; you can be a nervous wreck who doubts himself all the time, but step on a stage and become an incredibly confident performer. I learned to use my anxiousness as energy for my work. While covid brought a lot of those problems back, highschool was largely a place where I learned to stand up tall. College was hard because it taught me to treat my art as a job, but I loved the effort I had to put in so I dont regret that at all.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a performer first and foremost. I have been performing since the age of 9 and have experience in musical theatre, plays, film, and improv and sketch comedy. I take characters and make them live. I sing, dance, act, and much more, but at the end of the day storytelling is the most important part of what I do. I like to think I am known for my skill and my professionalism, but I cannot fully speak for others, nor would I want to. All I know is that I have been training to do what I love since I was 9 years old, and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon.
I am also a marketing specialist, which began at SDSU with my minor in marketing. I specifically focus on promoting theatrical productions or artistic companies, but have training in content creation and consumer behavior that can be applied anywhere.
I am currently a member of a marketing team I put together and pitched for a paid publicity job promoting the musical Rent as SDSU. I got the idea of doing this after seeing how many students and San Deigns didn’t know about our incredible productions. I had the training from my marketing minor and knew fellow students who had similar qualifications and now we are having a blast combining our interests for a common goal. To see progress on that check out the new instagram we launched for promotions @sdsumusicaltheatre .
What do you like and dislike about the city?
The best part about this city is the joy. People love living here, as they should. It is a beautiful city with so much activity you could never get bored! I specifically love Balboa Park and the beaches along the coast. I also like finding new coffee shops and bookstores to get lost in. People just have a sense of excitement in San Diego and I think that comes from the beautiful environment around them.
What I like least would probably be the stigmatization of unhoused individuals. I come from San Jose, which is also faced with extreme housing issues and hate towards people living on the streets, but by working with my older brother back home to do outreach I learned that we shouldn’t fear people just because they are in a hard situation. I was genuinely shocked by how some people treat the unhoused community in San Diego and I applaud those who are working to make a difference. I took part in a class called Theatre for Social Change that focused on the issue, and it lead me to better understand it even more. With such a beautiful world around us here in San Diego, we should learn to see the best in each other, regardless of our situation.
Contact Info:
- Website: milomee.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/milomeeofficial?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/milo-mee-2125a632b
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@milomee9979/featured
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/sdsumusicaltheatre/
