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Sometimes, it seems, mothers really do know best. When Miles Fowler was growing up in Redwood Shores, he was a shy kid who was more interested in sports than the arts. It was his mother who encouraged him to give the stage a chance, starting with a middle-school production of the classic screwball comedy “Arsenic and Old Lace.”
“My mom was like, ‘Why don’t you just try out for the play and see what happens?'” he recalled. The rest, as they say, is history, as Fowler, who graduated from Menlo School in 2015, now has a thriving acting career.
“It was so fun. There wasn’t, like, a pressure or a force on it or a weight on it, or an expectation to do it,” he said, of his journey from casual hobby to vocation.
Some of his favorite projects to date include the 2022 drama series “Women of the Movement,” about Mamie Till-Mobley, the Civil Rights Movement activist and mother of slain teen Emmett Till; the 2023 high-school comedy “Bottoms,” the medical drama “The Resident” and the Pasadena Playhouse production of “Sanctuary City.” Each has been meaningful to him in different ways, he said.
“Women of the Movement,” with its powerful, historical story that still resonates today, was “one of my first sort of projects where I was like, ‘Oh, this is … so much bigger than me. This is so much more than just, ‘I like acting,'” he said.
“Bottoms,” in which he played an “evil” teen football player, gave him the chance to expand his skills. “I never thought I was a very funny person,” he said (although he did play high-school football). “That was the most incredible experience to step outside my comfort zone and play a role I could never imagine playing. Just being able to play around in that space was really cool.”
And while he doesn’t do much theater work these days, the 2022 production of “Sanctuary City,” by playwright Martyna Majok, which deals with the impact of U.S. immigration policies on two young DREAMers, stands out as a special experience. Fowler’s own father is an immigrant from Jamaica. Helping tell a story about immigration was “not only eye-opening for me but also interesting to consider my dad in that context, which I hadn’t really done growing up,” he said. “It was really impactful.”
His latest high-profile project is nabbing the role of Lenny in the second season of the Netflix series “Nobody Wants This,” which he finished filming recently (it’s slated to come out later in the year). Working on that show, which stars Kristen Bell and Adam Brody, was “nerve-wracking and incredible at the same time,” Fowler said, as a longtime admirer of his fellow castmates’ careers.
Thinking back over his Peninsula youth, Fowler credited several teachers with helping inspire and encourage him along the way. He attended The Carey School in San Mateo, then moved on to Menlo School for middle and high school, attracted to it in part because of the way the school encouraged experimentation and trying a variety of activities.
He’s thankful to his first Menlo School theater director, David Mugglebee, who made the experience “joyful and community-driven,” he said. The world of professional show business can get overly self-serious, so he likes to think back to that early, joy-filled atmosphere and make an effort to preserve that early sense of play and lack of pressure. “That only benefits, in my opinion, the work,” he said.
Trying to make it as an actor is “a process of a lot of nos, a lot of rejection, not even really hearing anything most of the times, sending these auditions into a void,” he reflected. “I think something that’s been really important for me to develop is, sometimes it can get very frustrating in that way. I’ve wanted to continue developing a way of making the auditioning fun for me … at the end of the day I can send that off and say I had a really good time making the audition tape itself.”
In high school productions, he learned from directors Beth Orr and Steven Minning. “He saw something in me before I really saw it in myself; he didn’t take that lightly,” he said of Minning’s influence. “I just wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing without him.”
While Fowler double-majored in acting and political science at the University of Southern California, when he started college, he still considered acting as a hobby. He figured he’d end up in law school, until he decided an acting career was ultimately something worth trying to explore professionally.
“I’ve always had the most supportive parents and friends. That was sort of the push to sort of try it,” he said. “I’ve been really, really fortunate and lucky to have the opportunities I’ve had over the past couple years.”
Next up, Fowler plans to try his hand at directing, working on some “passion projects” and creating opportunities for his friends in the process.
“That’s something that’s so important to me as my career develops – continuing to uplift and give people opportunities, like my friends, who I think are more talented than me,” he said.
He’s also working on affording himself more grace and less criticism. Initially, he couldn’t stand watching himself on screen.
“It’s a vulnerable profession because everyone sees what you do, it’s up for public consumption, for critique, so I think I try my best to remember that I am of service to someone else’s story and I’ll do my best to serve that story, then I go home and move on and live my life,” he said.
Fowler considers himself “deeply uncomfortable” with the concept of fame and celebrity culture.
“I think I’m socially awkward. I like keeping to myself and having my own life,” he said. However, he does relish the excitement his acting career has given his family – in particular his mom.
“Getting to hear what they thought about the movie, the fact that I can share in these experiences, and seeing the joy that that brings my family” is one of the most rewarding parts of the job, he said, recalling bringing his parents to a movie premiere.
While his family no longer lives on the Peninsula, Fowler still has many friends in the area and remembers it fondly.
“I miss it every day,” he said. “It really is home.”
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