Mair Mulroney: When You’re Not Getting Cast, You Make Your Own Project [Actress, Call of Duty, Death Battle, Sands of Fate: A Star Wars Story, 195K+ Followers, USA]

 Mair Mulroney Interview

Success is having control over your own destiny, loving what you do, and loving the people you get to do it with.
Mair Mulroney | Actress, Musician, Screenwriter & Producer (Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Unchained, Death Battle, Sands of Fate: A Star Wars Story, Candy & Ronnie, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Dhar Mann & Co-Founder of EVR FWD Productions, She has over 2 million followers on TikTok)

Q. Your fans know you as an actress, singer, co-founder of a production house and much more. You are a very creative person. But beyond all these titles, who is Mair Mulroney? How would you describe yourself to our readers? 

I’m a storyteller and an underdog. Someone who’s never been willing to settle or be put inside a box. That’s led to plenty of road bumps and detours, but I’ve come to believe those are the very things that make for a great story.

Q. You've explored so many creative fields and built a remarkably versatile career. We'd love to know - how did this journey begin, and when did you first realize that the creative world was where you truly belonged?

I always knew the creative world was where I belonged. I was drawn to music and the arts, but I grew up outside Washington, D.C., where the expected paths were corporate or government jobs. An entertainment career was never presented as a real option. The closest “acceptable” alternative was broadcast journalism, which I considered for about five minutes before remembering that I didn’t do particularly well in school and had no desire to spend any more time there than legally necessary.

When I was 15, a close friend died in a car accident. Then another. And then another. Three friends in the span of a year. It changed me.

For the first time, I was confronted with my own mortality. Death wasn’t something that happened to old people or to strangers somewhere far away. It could happen to any of us, at any moment. And I started thinking: If it comes for me next, how will I be remembered?

The school system had told me I was stupid and wouldn’t amount to anything, but I knew that wasn't true. I believed they were the stupid ones for judging someone who learned and thought differently, so I stopped going. Home was incredibly stressful, so I stopped being there, too. I partied. I hung out with friends. I became outgoing and wild. I started chasing the kind of epic, ridiculous memories you only ever see in movies. Honestly, it was a great time.

But at 16, failing out of school wasn’t an option as far as my parents were concerned. I ended up in military school. When I ran away from there, I was sent to a wilderness program. If you’re not familiar with wilderness programs, they’re worth a good Google deep dive.

At that point, I had no idea if I’d be able to live a normal life again anytime soon. There was a real possibility I could remain in the system until I turned 18; which, when you’ve only been alive for 16 years, felt like an eternity.

I was terrified of wasting time. I kept thinking about everything I could be doing with my life if I were free to pursue something that actually mattered to me. So I made a decision: the second I got out, I was going to find a door. Any door. Something that could lead me into entertainment.

And that’s exactly what I did.

It started with a little modeling and a little acting, which led to meeting people in music. That turned into an artist development deal, followed by a distribution deal. Eventually, I moved to Los Angeles and started pursuing whatever creative avenues opened up in front of me.

I didn’t have a roadmap. I just kept finding doors and walking through them.

Q. Every creative journey comes with its own highs and lows. Were there any challenges or defining moments that shaped you along the way? We'd love to know how you navigated those phases and what they taught you.

Oh yes. There have been periods where the lows have far outweighed the highs. Thankfully, the pendulum has begun swinging in the other direction, but this is by no means an easy path.

Honestly, there have been so many lows that I can’t point to one definitive moment. I had thyroid cancer at 19; I was diagnosed two days before my first single was released, with a show hosted by the local radio station already on the books. Instead of touring that summer, I was recovering from surgery. It sucked, but it could have been so much worse, and I’m grateful it wasn’t.

The music industry is insanely toxic (or at least my experience of it was) and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Unless you have a direct “in” that allows you to enter the industry at a certain level, you’re working your way up from the bottom like you would anywhere else. The difference is that entertainment attracts a disproportionate number of predators, con artists, and bottom-feeders. They talk a good game, sometimes even manage to walk a good walk for a while, and there’s really no avoiding them. You have to learn how to weave through the bullshit and crawl out of the mud.

But if you make it through that part of the game, you develop an almost supernatural ability to spot those people from a mile away. Your spidey senses get very finely tuned, and you learn to trust your gut.

And the thing about this life is that you never really graduate to a level where everything becomes smooth sailing. You’ll still deal with bad people. You’ll get overworked, underpaid, overlooked, and undervalued. When your income isn’t stable, you miss out on things. It can be incredibly lonely. You’re away from your family. You make friends, but when everyone is an actor with completely chaotic schedules, actually finding time to see each other can feel impossible.

There are plenty of egos and plenty of fake nonsense; people chasing accolades, status, or Instagram likes. But experiencing those people also teaches you what you don’t want in a friend, what kind of energy you don’t want around you, and what actually matters. Eventually, you find your people. You build your circle.

And when you’re not getting cast, you make your own projects. Sure, they probably won’t be great the first time. But you learn. You get better. You’re more prepared the next time around. And all the while, you’re assembling your team; collecting your Avengers.

And when that team finally comes together? That’s magic. That’s the part that makes everything else worth it.

Q. Over the years, you've been part of a wide range of projects - Star Wars, Death Battle, Unchained, Candy & Ronnie, and you've even appeared in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, along with releasing your own music. Looking back, is there one project or experience that remains especially close to your heart? We'd love to know what makes it so meaningful to you.

Yes. All of the ones you mentioned hold a very special place in my heart, for completely different reasons.

Candy & Ronnie was only a short film, but it did incredibly well on the festival circuit. We all won different awards, including Best Actor and Best Actress, which gave me a huge boost of confidence in my acting. More importantly, though, that’s where I met my partner, Tyler. He was producing and starring in the film, and I auditioned for him and his team. He fought hard to get me cast.

We stayed in touch as collaborators, and all these years later, we co-own a production company with our other partner, Tim Neff, with several of our own films in development. So that little short film ended up changing my life in ways I never could have predicted.

Star Wars came at a time when I really needed hope. I had done more commercials and music videos than I could keep track of, but I was incredibly unfulfilled and starting to wonder if I was ever going to cross another threshold, or if I had simply plateaued.

I needed to be part of something made by real artists who cared deeply about what they were creating, and that project gave me exactly that. To this day, they are one of the most inspiring, talented, and passionate groups of people I’ve ever had the privilege of working with. I have enormous respect for that team and still keep in touch with all of them.

And, of course, being associated with the Star Wars universe has its perks. I now have lightsaber companies sending me lightsabers like they’re candy, and I get invited to Star Wars events and premieres. Epic. Total bucket-list checkmark.

Death Battle also came at a time when I really needed it. Tyler was co-starring in a movie he had also co-written called Placid Park, which was being produced by his longtime friends and production partners Ismahawk, whose work I already knew of and admired.

A few weeks before filming, their lead actress dropped out. They called and asked if I would take the role. I hadn’t led a feature in a couple of years, and I was incredibly burnt out from filming YouTube series, so I jumped at the opportunity.

I got to spend a couple weeks working alongside Tyler and the Ismahawk team, and an incredible relationship formed. A couple of months later, Ismahawk offered me the role of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in Death Battle: Blade vs. Buffy. They asked Tyler to stunt coordinate the project, and we spent the next nine months training.

After Placid Park wrapped, I got heavily into filming vertical microdramas. They’re almost as difficult to work on as they are to watch, but for a while they were some of the only productions consistently filming in L.A. The industry was in a rut, everyone needed work, and they became a lifeline for a lot of actors.

I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy all of my time on those sets or love working with all of my co-stars, but if you’ve ever worked on one of those productions, you know exactly what I mean. For a real actor, storyteller, or artist, it's soul-crushing work.

Death Battle reminded me that I was a real actor. It reminded me what I was capable of and gave me back my power. I fought freaking Blade. I went toe-to-toe with Fikshun Stegall, who played Blade and is one of the most incredible athletes, martial artists, and swordsmen out there. Yes, the fight was choreographed, but I kept up with him, and I'll always be proud of that. After becoming known primarily for Dhar Mann and verticals? Yeah. Your girl needed a project that showed people a different side of what I can do.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was a completely different kind of win. It was actually a super easy day for me. I went to Activision Studios, which is right down the street from where I live, spent a few hours doing facial and body scans, stepped into this incredible sphere of cameras that photographs you from every conceivable angle while you run through every expression imaginable, and then I went home.

But seeing yourself become a playable character in a massive video game is surreal. I'm the skin for Anika Grimm, and the coolest part is seeing the character show up in the trailers for Event Passes and Content Drops. Nicholas Cage became a playable Operator in Black Ops 7 and Warzone for the "Nick Cage Event," and when I saw the trailer for the Season 4: Summer of Action trailer with him, I was completely shocked to see myself in it. I was not expecting that at all. That was wild.

Q. You've never limited yourself to just one creative path. What keeps you excited about exploring new forms of storytelling, and what continues to inspire you to evolve as an artist?

Sometimes there’s no choice but to explore new forms of storytelling. Technology, what gets made and how, and the way we consume media are constantly changing. Sometimes that feels awful. You finally feel like you’ve learned your craft inside and out, only to realize the entire industry has shifted and the way you thought things were done isn’t how they’re done anymore. You have to adapt. But problem-solving can be fun. Exploring new technology, techniques, and possibilities is exciting. At the end of the day, it’s all just exploration.

And no matter what we’re making, it always brings me back to being a kid with my mom’s video camera and my friends in the backyard. We’re just a little more seasoned now.

The one thing that has to remain consistent is the story. From songwriting to filmmaking, if you have a story that means something to you, it’s worth fighting for. It’s worth exploring new avenues, learning new tools, and finding new ways to create the opportunity to tell it.

Q. Success means different things to different people. After everything you've experienced throughout your journey, what does success truly mean to you today?

Man, after everything I’ve experienced on this journey, the fact that I can find at least one thing to smile about every day is my definition of success. By that standard, I’m highly successful.

If you told me six years ago that I’d be where I am now, with who I’m with, doing what I’m doing, I don’t think I’d be completely surprised. I’d be a hell of a lot more surprised by how I got here. But I’d be proud to know that the dream that once felt like such a distant fantasy was, in many ways, my current reality.

We’re in the game. We’re part of the conversation. We’re at the table. And it feels really good, but more than anything, it feels right.

I think success is having some control over your own destiny, loving what you do, and loving the people you get to do it with. There’s still so much I want to accomplish, both personally and professionally, but if I spend too much time focused on the future, I’ll miss the present. And if I’m always looking at what I don’t have yet, I’ll never fully appreciate all the incredible things I already have.

Q. Before we wrap up, we'd love to know a little more about your interests. Is there a book, film, or series that has stayed with you over the years or one that you often find yourself recommending to others?

I love high-fantasy epics. I’ll never not be in awe watching The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit films.

I’m also a huge Harry Potter fan (I even have a Harry Potter tattoo). Bellatrix Lestrange is my dream role, and Helena Bonham Carter is my favorite actress, so it probably goes without saying that Johnny Depp is my favorite actor.

Whenever I feel down on myself, I remind myself that even at the height of his movie-star fame, in Johnny Depp’s own mind, he was still just a failed musician. Then I’ll see clips of him performing for thousands with Hollywood Vampires alongside Alice Cooper and Joe Perry, and it reminds me to look forward to what might still be ahead for me.

Anything is possible. No one has the power to put you in a box, and dreams only die if you give up on them.

Bio

Mair Mulroney is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and musician. Raised in Vienna, Virginia, she began her creative journey as a singer-songwriter, securing her first record distribution deal at nineteen before transitioning into acting and commercial work. 

She gained widespread digital prominence as a core cast member in the viral moral series Dhar Mann, starring in over 60 episodes that generated billions of views globally. Her acting credits extend across television, film festival indie projects, and short films, including playing the lead role in the action feature Unchained. 

In addition to her screen work, Mulroney is a prolific musical artist whose vocal and composition work has featured in major commercial campaigns and television productions, including the Emmy-winning series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. In 2024, she co-founded the multi-media production company and studio EVR FWD Productions. 

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Interviewed By Himanshi Bhatt