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Welcome to Inclusion Bites, your sanctuary for bold conversations that spark change. I'm Joanne Lockwood, your guide on this journey of exploration into the heart of inclusion, belonging and societal transformation. Ever wondered what it truly takes to create a world everyone not only belongs, but thrives? You're not alone. Join me as we uncover the unseen, challenge the status quo and share storeys that resonate deep within.

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And today is episode 188 with the title the Art of Authentic Living. And I have the absolute honour and privilege to welcome Sam Turlington. Sam is a non binary, award winning actor and multi hyphenated creative whose work champions queer joy and the complexity of authentic storytelling. And when I asked Sam to describe their superpower, they said that it is seeing people soulfully honouring the truth of. Of their experience. Sam, welcome to the show.

Hello. It's lovely to be here.

So, judging by the accent, you're not based in the uk, where I live. So where in the world are you?

So I. I'm American, I live in New York City, but I have really strong ties to the uk. I got my master's degree in Glasgow.

I think you're saying before we went on air that you spent a lot of time working up in Glasgow and you've just come back to the us?

Yes, I do. I. I'm actually working on a film in Glasgow at the moment and a lot of my colleagues are in London as well. So I pop over and we create things together and yeah, I'm all over the place.

I'm fascinated by the term multi hyphenated. So what is, what is. What is a multi hyphenate creative then?

So essentially, you know, when I first trained, I got my BFA many, many years ago. You could just kind of be one thing like you, you focus and that for me, at the time, that was just an actor. And as my career has developed and shifted and changed, and as I have developed and shifted and changed, I've taken on other positions. You know, I've produced films, I have directed plays. I don't know that just one title suits me. So, but saying 12 of them would be a mouthful. So just I'm a creative arts multi hyphenate. Boom, there it is.

But always an actor first.

So it's kind of the identity equivalent of being non binary, I guess. So you're not nailing yourself to any particular identity there?

Absolutely. I think my entire life could be summed up as if I find myself on a binary, I jump off of it immediately.

So what makes you tick? What was your kind of inspiration as a young person to plot your course in this direction?

So I have a fundamental curiosity at the core of my person to just connect and wonder. And I grew up in a. Not a small town, but in a small southern space where I didn't really have a lot of access to the wider world around me. And I found myself just gravitating towards anything that was different from what my upbringing had introduced me to. And that's how I fell into acting. Because as an artist, as an actor, you get to take on other people, other personalities, you get to walk in another person's shoes, you get to research their experiences and put yourself in scenarios that you yourself would never find yourself in. So I think in a strange way, my core nature of curiosity and wanting connection with the outside world led me to acting. And then I'm pretty sure it's that that led me even deeper in myself to discover that I'm non binary and that my experience of the world is much more varied than I originally thought.

When I was a kid, just being an actor playing, playing a part through someone else's words. I guess most of the time when you're acting, someone else has scripted you. You're someone else's Persona. Did that give you an opportunity to maybe step outside of yourself and try on new things? Is that kind of what happened there?