In 2018, Nelsen took home the Daytime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Digital Drama Series” for his portrayal of Daniel Garrett on the hit digital drama series, The Bay. “That was absolutely incredible. It was a dream come true,” he admitted.
Nelsen continued, “It has been such a privilege to work with such a talented and giving cast. Gregori J. Martin has done a great job bringing us all together as a family. It really has a family dynamic and the support within our family is so overwhelming. It was a great blessing.”
“The Bay has such an amazing fan-base and they have been so supportive over the years,” he said. “I feel like the show started as the ‘little engine that could’ in the beginning, and it kept trucking along and developed into what it has become now. The fans have always motivated us and have always been there for us through the ups and the downs. I love communicating with the fans personally on social media and writing to them back,” he elaborated.
Aside from his “Supporting Actor” Emmy win, Nelsen won three additional Daytime Emmy Awards, as a producer on The Bay. “I am still pinching myself every single day. It is mind-blowing when you put so much work into something and your peers acknowledge your work in such a beautiful way. It always takes your breath away,” he said.
All My Children
An equally exceptional opportunity for Nelsen involved being a part of All My Children, which allowed him to flex his acting muscles and helped him tackle being dialogue-heavy. “Before I worked on All My Children, I worked on projects where I was used to learning two pages of dialogue. When I got on All My Children, my workload turned into 100 pages of script with 30 to 40 pages of my own dialogue. That was a big shock and wake-up call for me. At first, I didn’t sleep much and my entire world revolved around learning my lines,” he said.
“At first it was hard for me, but the more I worked that acting muscle, the stronger it became,” he said. “A couple of days turned into weeks, and all of a sudden, I’m out at a restaurants and I can look at the menu, and tell you everything on the menu I’ve read, without needing to look at it again. My memorization skills developed and strengthened substantially. All My Children was the best training I ever received as an actor.”
‘The Affair
Nelsen also praised The Affair for being yet another incredible experience. “It is always fun joining a show that has its roots set,” he said. “I joined on the fourth season so the tone and rhythm of the show were already developed. It was a thrill to be a part of such a well-developed series.”
Inspirations
When asked what motivates him each day, as an actor, he said, “Back in the day, I was motivated by how different acting was from the life that I was living. I was from South Florida, where I did sports and community theater down there, but getting thrown to a big city like New York gave me a taste of a real set. That inspired me to work and follow my passion and that developed to where I am now.”
“Right now, I am inspired by good material. I am inspired by writers, good directors, and my peers. I really look for opportunities to broaden my wings in the industry and I do that through great material,” he said.
Digital transformation of the entertainment industry
On the impact of technology and streaming services on the entertainment business, Nelsen said, “Streaming services are the best thing that happened in the industry, in my opinion. Honestly, it gives us actors so many more opportunities. Back in the day, movie stars did movies and television stars did TV, and both were very separate. Movie stars almost looked down upon television stars, and now I feel that every A-lister wants to do television. All of the greatest actors are doing TV now.”
“Technology and streaming have become the hot thing to do right now in the industry because there is such great content created for television,” he said. “You now have videos on Instagram and YouTube. Disney announced that it has a streaming service coming out later this year. Streaming is the present and future of television,” he added.
To learn more about Emmy award-winning actor and producer Eric Nelsen, follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
