Noah Jay Wood is making waves in the entertainment industry with his infectious energy, undeniable talent, and humorous presence online.
The actor and social media influencer discovered his love for entertainment at an early age, captivating audiences with his natural talent and magnetic presence. For acting, he trained in theatre at the University of Mississippi, where he had major roles in productions on stage. He has also taken a summer program through the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, where he was trained to take his natural to perform in front of the camera.
Noah can be seen in the reality-based crime story series ATL Homicide, Tauren Wells’ Music video Millionaire, as well as the action, sci-fi movie Robot Apocalypse alongside Tito Ortiz.
While training, Noah has found his place in the social media world accumulating over 7 million followers and 251 million likes on TikTok through his storytelling and engaging acting performances. He has been able to successfully make an impact online as a social media influencer reaching 3.7 million followers on YouTube and over 532k followers on Instagram. He has a broad and far-reaching audience who is encouraged daily by his smile and contagious personality.
Check out our interview with Noah:
So it’s my understanding that acting came first for you. How and at what age did you discover that this was the path you were going to take in life?
Noah: Yeah, so I actually started acting when I was really young. I was homeschooled when I was younger. I didn’t go to school until the eighth grade. So, while I was homeschooled, my mom put me and my siblings in acting classes. I did this expo, maybe like 2005-2006, where it was like this whole entire talent thing, I had to go on stage and do a little commercial skit and it was for modeling. Through that I actually got to be a part of a PBS Kids show that aired in 2008. It was called “Lomax, The Hound of Music,” which was a lot of fun. I stopped acting when I started going to school because I was a big sports guy. I played football, basketball, baseball and ran track, so I didn’t really do much acting in high school. But when I got to college, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. And my first year of college, I was majoring in communications, and that was no fun, and I just realized I hated school. So my mom was like, ‘well used to love theatre and acting so why don’t you do that again?’ I was like, ‘you know, that’s a great idea.’ So I decided to transfer to Ole Miss and I was a theatre major there and I got to do a couple of plays online. I ended up tying with the agency as well. And everything went from there.
Why was it important for you to go to college and get acting training?
Noah: I actually did not finish school. I went that one year to Ole Miss. Because of COVID, everything ended up being online and, as a theatre major, you do not want to take classes online. I went my sophomore year and finished out the semester online. After that, I moved to Atlanta to pursue acting– not LA– because Atlanta is less expensive, of course, and I found that I could take classes out here instead of paying all that tuition. It was cheaper to just take acting classes here. That’s what I’ve been doing since 2020.
You’re not just an actor, you’re also super successful on TikTok. How’d you get started with that?
Noah: So, during COVID I started posting more consistently. When I first started doing TikToks, I would dance a lot and my brother actually had me have a “come to Jesus” moment. He was like, ‘bro, you suck at dancing. So you should stop doing it and do something else.’ I worked at Chick-fil-A at the time, and he was like, ‘you should try doing a Chick-fil-A skit or something.’ I was like, ‘Okay, fine.’ I did it and it literally blew up overnight. It got like 4 million views. And he said, ‘I told you.’ So I started doing these videos that are called POVs [ point of view content] and so I started posting lots of those videos. From August of 2020 to January 2021. I went from like, maybe 10k to 200k [followers]. And then from 2021 January to May, I went from 200k to a million followers from just posting that content. Yeah, it happened pretty fast.
Did you expect that at all?
Noah: It wasn’t like a goal of mine or anything. I just loved posting what I was posting and people seemed to like it too. I never started posting so I could become famous or even make money off of it or anything, it was just something fun that I like to do. I figured that since I wasn’t being casted anything right now. I can cast myself in my own little stories, which I thought was pretty cool. I had also heard that maybe, in the long run, my following would help me get auditions or help me be up for certain roles in the future. So, I was like, ‘Okay, if I can make this a thing, then maybe I can, you know, be like Addison Rae and be in a Netflix movie because of her following and whatnot.
Have you found that to be true that your following has kind of helped you with your acting career?
Noah: Not yet. I mean, I train a lot. I’ve been training for the last four years in Atlanta and I’m with Kit International Talent right now that’s out of LA. And the reason why my agent reached out to me was because she had found me on TikTok. So, I guess you can say, in a way, it has. She said that she had seen my videos on Tiktok before so she reached out to me, and she’s an amazing agent, my agent Tabitha, who gets me all my auditions right now. So yeah, I mean, I guess in that way it has. As far as booking things, you know, that will come. With acting, I can only get the audition. I’m not in charge of being booked for the thing, you know, that’s a whole different process. I can only audition. And yeah, it hasn’t happened yet where, ‘oh, you have this role, because of you’re following.’
Well, I mean, there’s still time.
Noah: Most definitely.
With content creation, it seems like creators that are at your level are constantly producing very original content. How do you approach having to continuously put out new stuff?
Noah: Yeah. I mean, it’s hard and sometimes you get writer’s block. It’s like, I know for the longest time, I was posting POV after POV and that content just became like, ‘Okay, I’ve literally posted every single POV known to man. I don’t know how I can do this anymore.’ And that somewhat takes the fun out of it. Doing the same thing over and over again does not pique my creative mind and it’s not fun. So, I have to find ways to stimulate my brain by doing different types of content and switching it up sometimes. And that can also sometimes jeopardize my views and the content that people want to see but it’s just something that you have to do sometimes to get you out of a funk, I guess. So. Yeah, I think that it is it, just like sometimes you just have to find ways to stimulate your brain and do other things that you love. Maybe people don’t want to see that, but maybe they do. Who knows?
That just seems so stressful to me. Kudos.
Noah: How I make money is through views. And so, if my videos aren’t getting views because of the stuff that I want to post, it can be very discouraging, because then you’re out there having to fall back and do the things that you know will get views that you don’t really like doing. So yeah, it’s very much a juggling act where you have to find what people want to see but also find what you want to post.
I like watching what other people do and one of the things that I like are the “day in our lives” skits. With you being a content creator and an actor, what does a day in your life look like?
Noah: Um, so I’ve actually been training a lot for the past year. I had my on-camera acting class last night and I’ve been taking a Meisner class, viewpoints class and emotional access class for the past few months. So, if I’m not in an acting class, the day just looks like me creating content, going on live, or trying to figure out what’s next for me. I’ve been trying to step into more personality type content because I feel like that’s more sustainable when the people who are following me can actually get to know me. A lot of my time is spent scrolling through the For You Page and figuring out how to do that like how other people have because those people can come on TikTok, and because they’re so great at storytelling can just say what’s on their mind and their videos do well. I’ve been trying to figure out how to branch out into that type of content, which has taken some time now and I’m honestly still in the figuring it out process right now. So yeah, that’s just what my days look like now. It’s just figuring out how to rebrand myself, I guess.
Regarding the TikTok ban, do you have any updates or have you heard anything?
Noah: I honestly don’t think people are taking it too seriously. I mean, I know the people around me aren’t. If I remember correctly, there’s something that happened two or three years ago, where the President said that it was going to get banned but then it didn’t because it got sold or something. I don’t know what that situation exactly was, but I remember specifically that there was a situation about banning TikTok that time and it was just so that they could sell their company to whoever. I think people are thinking that the same thing is going to happen because TikTok is so huge that I feel like in people’s minds, they’re like, ‘bro, they’re not getting rid of it. Something’s going to happen where we get to keep it and everything will be fine.’ So yeah, I know the people I’m surrounded by are not that stressed out about it. I also think that’s why the talk about it has died down as well, which, if we get closer to the date where it’s supposed to actually be banned, I’m sure that talk will, will come back up, but as of now I don’t think people are taking it too seriously.
On the off chance that it does actually go through, what are your plans?
Noah: I mean, thankfully, I have already grown a YouTube following. TikTok’s algorithm is so good for you to just hop on the For You Page and see a video you like and then click the sound and then be able to make your own video and stuff like that. It’s so good like that where Instagram reels and YouTube shorts aren’t really like that. You also see lots of recycled content on those. I honestly don’t know what content is going to look like if TikTok does get banned because I know a lot of people recycle their content. So, honestly because I stream as well I might jump a lot more into Twitch and YouTube content if TikTok does get banned. That’s just in the back of my mind right now. Hopefully it does it but that’s definitely something I will push further into is gaming, Twitch content, and YouTube.
Nice. So whatever happens, we’re still going to be able to see content from you.
Noah: Oh most definitely. I’m also very active on Instagram as well. It’s just going to be a matter of figuring out how I can still make the same type of reel content without TikTok being there because that is where my content comes from– making TikToks and reposting them on Instagram and YouTube and stuff. so that will be a new challenge for me.
In the meantime, do you have any projects coming up that we can look forward to?
Noah: Oh, I was just in a short film actually. I recently got back. I’m waiting on the director to give me the go ahead to be able to post it on my other sites. But, as far as that, not much. I’ve auditioned for things in the past few weeks that are kind of big. I’m still waiting to hear back from those. But besides all the training that I’ve been doing recently, there’s nothing big happening in my life just yet.
That’s understandable. I don’t know a whole lot about what goes on in the acting world as far as auditions and timeframes, but I just know it’s a long process.
Noah: Yeah, a very long process. Like, I mean, who knows? I could even hear back from something I auditioned for like a year ago. You never know in this industry. It’s always a waiting game.
Now since you have seen such success in your career on both sides, is there a piece of advice that has really stuck with you that you feel could help others who want to dive into content creation?
Noah: Well, I have two. One that relates to social media– I encourage people to stay consistent because consistency is key when it comes to anything social media. I know a lot of people get into their heads about what they should post and they start overthinking everything instead of just posting and figuring it out along the way. That’s your best bet. Just post and you will figure it out. Trust me. I sucked at TikTok when I first started. I sucked at it. And I don’t know, it feels like people think that I was just dropped into 7 million followers. I actually have conversations with my friends all the time where they are like, ‘Yeah, but you have 7 million followers.’ But I didn’t always! It was a process. So, stay consistent and don’t get discouraged. The more consistent you are, the more people will see your face and the better you’ll get at it. Acting wise– I know there’s a lot of people who think that they can post TikToks and do their thing and a casting director will stumble across them and be like, ‘I’ll put them in the movie because they’re good at TikTok.’ That’s just a very false reality. I do post acting TikToks and stuff, but in real life, I am consistently working on acting training. I’ve been taking classes for the past four years and I take casting workshops and I take technique classes and all kinds of stuff. That’s stuff people don’t see. I’m consistently training my actor body and brain. If you are an actor who’s also doing social media, I would not just bank on social media. I would get some real life training so you can be connected with an actual acting community.
Stay up to date with Noah via social media: TikTok | YouTube | Instagram | Twitch |.
