In the Kitchen with Tracie Jules From pastry chef, to actor, to writer-producer Sparta mom keeps evolving
By Rose Sgarlato Local actress Tracie Jules is playing a different role this time around, writing and producing a teen series based in Sparta.
Her life journey keeps evolving, and Jules wouldnt have it any other way.
She started her career as a pastry chef utilizing skills she learned from taking courses at the renowned Culinary Institute of America. I have always loved it from watching my grandmother I dont use a box for anything. I started as a pastry chef and then branched out to make wedding cakes, said Jules.
While teaching pastry courses in the summer at Naugatuck Valley Community College in Connecticut, she was exposed to some theater students. In the back of her mind, she had always thought acting could be fun.
As far as acting goes, I had modeled before, billboards, some ads and parenting magazines. During that summer, I just decided to fulfill a dream. I had always wanted to act. So I signed up on a Web site, and on my first job I got a line which was hard to do. It took me a while to do it again, but I did.
Her first exposure to acting was volunteering as an extra in the movie Homeland in New York City in 2006 where she was given a line: I played the not-so-nice ice cream customer who yells across the counter.
Jules transition from pastry chef to actor led her to take acting courses from Margie Haber who coached Hale Berry and Brad Pitt. But, not being part of a union and without an agent, she had to solicit all of her own work. Things managed to take off, and she got regional and national commercials.
She did all this while raising her five children. It is fitting that she often plays the role of a younger, upscale Mom. Dedication is important to me I take everything on 100 percent.
In 2007 a move to Maryland made life a little tougher for Jules who was now five hours away from New York City. I did a lot of driving to and from.
In 2009, she scored a principal role in Americas Most Wanted. When my son told his teacher my Mom is going to be on Americas Most Wanted, it didnt go over big. A call came into the house that my husband fielded asking if everything was okay they did not know I was an actor, laughs Jules. I do whatever I can.
But Jules is most excited about her accidental foray into writing. When the kids were young, I told them ghost stories. I never realized I had the capability of writing, she said.
Her four-episode teen series entitled Spirit Hunter casts Michelle Cella, Nils Veidis and her son Sam Jules, all Sparta Middle School students. It will be directed on location in Sparta in the near future by Charlie Andersen who directed her in Heaven Burns, a movie soon to be released.
Spirit Hunters (www.spirithunters-theseries.com) is a Web series that is family oriented and fun: They see a ghost in the house that is scary. The fourth episode is a dream sequence about zombies. The ultimate goal is for Nickelodeon to give us money to produce it, so it can go on TV. I love the project once I got it in place, I knew it was going to be a hit.
Jules is also sharing her knowledge about the industry with On Camera Film Class, a course she teaches about breaking into film and auditioning. For more information, email traciejules@yahoo.com.