TIM POWELL

By Ed Donovan

Tim Powell was born on June 16th, 1956 in Jonesboro, Arkansas to Carl and Bettie Powell. Tim is the third of four brothers. At the age of three the family moved to Sheffield, Alabama, one of the four cities that are grouped on the banks of the Tennessee River and form the “Muscle Shoals Area.” There his father ran his own wholesale electronics and audio/video supply companies. Most of the hit recordings from Muscle Shoals in the 1970's were recorded on Ampex multitrack tape that came from Powell Electronics. Lynard Skinnard refers to the Muscle Shoals Musicians as "the Swampers".

Tim attended Blake Elementary in Sheffield, Alabama. As a young boy he was not an athlete, “Kind of chunky” he says, “I played one half of a season of little league baseball and hated it. That was the end of my sports career.” He preferred to spend his time playing in the woods, or on the lakes and rivers around his home town, or reading.  He was, and still is a big Science Fiction fan. His father had a strong Christian work ethic and from about the third grade, Tim worked most of his young life after school, weekends and summertime. By the age of 16, Tim was running his father’s shipping department for all his stores.

In the sixth grade Tim was sent to Mars Hill Bible School, a private Christian School run by a rather strict fundamentalist group called the Church of Christ. At Mars Hill Tim received six years of acapella voice training. Although his parents had planned for him to be a preacher, Tim had other aspirations. Attending a live production of the Music Man opened his eyes to theatre and actors. Tim says, “At the time I wasn't sure why, but I wanted to do what they were doing.” From 14 to 17 Tim honed his performance skills playing bass guitar in a short-lived rock and roll band. He happily left Mars Hill after his Junior year and graduated from public school in 1974.

After graduation and a three-month eye-opening hitchhiking adventure, Tim returned to Florence, Alabama, and worked his way through the University of North Alabama at first as a Psych major, then in English. His meagre salary at the media center paid his rent. In his sophomore year a friend suggested an “easy” arts credit in theater lab: work fifty hours and get a B. Work one hundred hours building sets and get an A. Tim opted for the “A”.

Tim recalls, “I knew carpentry, electrical work and painting, so I fit right in. One night I was working on a set piece when the director came over to me and asked my name. He asked, “Can you sing?” and I told him I’d been singing all my life. He asked if I had ever done any acting, and told me he needed actors for a production of Inherit the Wind. I showed up at the audition and booked the part. Opening night I walked out on the stage and felt the energy coming from the audience I said, "this is it, this is what I'm supposed to be doing.” For the next few years, Tim auditioned for every main stage production he could and landed roles in most. “I took theatre classes for fun — I never dreamed I'd use them. I didn't see it as work. I never understood how people flunked out of Theatre classes." Tim and his eclectic friends honed their counter-culture musical comedy skills in a group called The Armenian Yoshmadargah Chamber Orchestra - performing to captive audiences whenever possible. “We stole routines from Frank Zappa, Firesign Theatre, and a variety of other left-leaning wackos.”

In his junior year Advisors told him he only lacked three hours for a theatre major, an surprised and pleased, Tim double-majored in English and Drama. After graduation, Tim took an offer for a graduate assistantship at the University of Mississippi as an MFA Directing Candidate in Theater.

At Ole Miss, Tim taught 12 - 14 hours per semester, in addition to his 12-hour class load. Each directing student also had to perform in both main stage productions each semester and had to produce and direct one show each semester. “I think I slept maybe three hours a night for two years... It was tons of paperwork, with no computers. Essays, grading, analysis, and position defenses... but no one ever told us how to get a job doing what we do.”

Towards the end of his last semester, with a 4.0 GPA and the greatest respect for academic theatre, Tim took advantage of an opportunity to go to New York and work for Playboy’s CMR marketing division. He produced and directed spring break promotions for beach resorts for six months out of the year for Playboy and other marketing companies for the next six years.

Tim says, “During hiatus and a visit home a friend mentioned a movie filming in nearby Huntsville, Alabama, and asked if I wanted to go audition. I went and read for a part and was cast. I played "Private White" in a low-budget Science Fiction movie called: What Waits Below. I was eaten by a giant lizard, while working alongside Tim Bottoms and Robert Powell.” (Those scenes are at www.timpowell.tv and Tim's Facebook page) With the earnings from this film he joined SAG and moved to Nashville, Tennessee.

Tim began booking commercials and industrial films, joined AFTRA, and AEA, and became a regular performer at Tennessee Repertory Company, most notedly in their Shakespeare Productions. Between engagements, Tim worked odd jobs -running the office for a singing telegram service, and at the Guinness Hall of World Records, and continued to do Spring Break Promotions for various New York based Advertising and Marketing companies.

While he was living in Nashville a friend from Orlando, Mike Collins of Stage Equipment and Lighting, began sending Tim newspaper clippings describing the burgeoning Florida film industry and touting Orlando as "the new LA."

Tim often went to Atlanta for auditions and in 1988 was cast in a Disney Feature called Goodbye, Miss Fourth of July. The same year the Powell's sold their Nashville home and moved to Orlando. Tim signed with a few agents and at first got very few calls. His (now ex) wife, a Speech Pathologist, began working for the Orange County School System. Tim says, “She had a “real” job. I had to do whatever I could to bring in money: I test drove cars, sorted bottles at the Pepsi Plant, worked booking at a local temp agency and often as a consultant on Macintosh computers.” Tim was president of the Macintosh Users Group of Orlando for three years.

Soon things started to kick in for Tim in Orlando with Superboy, and Superforce and regular commercial gigs, Usually 1 or 2 class A Nationals a year. He frequently returned to Atlanta where he booked roles in Silent Victim, the Class of 1861, and guest starred on In the Heat of the Night, and I’ll Fly Away. He also continued to do Theatre whenever possible. While performing in The Importance of Being Ernest at the Caldwell Theater in Boca Raton, Lori Wyman, casting director for Miami Vice, came backstage and asked Tim to read for the show. He booked the part. Lori deservedly takes the credit for "discovering" Tim.

Other television credits followed: Wiseguy, Sea Quest, The Cape, ER, Safe Harbour, Unsolved Mysteries and as a guest star on Sheena. Tim was also co-leader of the Loop Group on Sheena, lending his SAG Voice talent to 28 episodes of the show.

 His theater credits include roles in Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Fallen Angels, and Pygmalion.

Some of his other credits include China Moon, Drop Zone, Problem Child 2, The Holy Man, From the Earth to the Moon, Walking Across Egypt, The Sunshine State, The President’s Man, Bad Boys II, the Transporter 2, Recount, Son of Mourning, Dandelion Dust, Pregnancy Pact, and Burn Notice.

Since 2001, Tim has headed his own production company called Bark at the Dog Productions, Inc., (now called "B.A.D. Production") - through which he continues to do regular Voice-Over work, produce, develop and perform as a narrator-spokesperson in non-broadcast industrials, interactive CD Roms and DVDs, and as a web host for a variety of clients; and continues to work as a Macintosh computer consultant to a select few. 

“It's an eclectic mix, I know—” Tim says. “I do the business, the art and the tech; I don't ever stop working. My philosophy is pretty simple: The universe is ready to give anyone whatever they want; they just have to remember to ask for it.” If it isn't fun, I don't want to do it.

To give back to the acting community, Tim teaches Tele-prompter, Ear-prompter and Voice Over workshops, and a course he conceived called Acting Commercially which he describes as “35% audition technique, 50% acting business, and 15% common sense.”

Tim was happily divorced in 2007 and continues to reside in Orlando, FL. In his spare time, Tim goes backpacking in the mountains of Alabama, North Georgia, and the Carolinas — Getting as deep as he can into the woods, the only place that ever really feels like "home."

Tim Powell's email:  timpowell@me.com

His web page is www.timpowell.tv  and of course, on Facebook.

Ed Donovan can be reached at edono@bellsouth.net