Seth Burnham struggles to keep his acting dream alive
Seth Burnham, with his cat Griffin, has been acting since age 8. For the last three years, he’s been in L.A. pursuing it as a career. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Burnham developed a daily cafe routine. Each morning he awoke in his cramped apartment, fed kibbles to his cats, threw on his sneakers and walked across Glendale Boulevard to Kaldi Coffee & Tea. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Seth Burnham, left, and Hayley Williams, right, perform together during a rehearsal of “First Love/Worst Love,” part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival in May. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Seth Burnham waits for a rehearsal of “First Love/Worst Love,” part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival. He says he came to Hollywood “even though there’s a part of me that just wants to live in a small town and spend my time tending a garden.” (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Seth Burnham, center, performs with an ensemble during a rehearsal of “First Love/Worst Love.” After three years of living in Los Angeles, he has played a carjacker in a cable TV comedy and had a small role in an independent film. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Seth Burnham during a rehearsal of “First Love/Worst Love.” Since his college days in the early 1990s, the acting quest had taken Burnham to several cities. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Seth Burnham didn’t want fame; he wanted to simply be a journeyman, a working actor, appreciated for his skill, making roughly the same yearly salary as a union electrician. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Seth Burnham, an actor still waiting for his big break, takes a call in his one-bedroom apartment in Atwater Village. He survives on credit cards and his wife’s salary as a medical resident. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)