Troy Beyer : Actor, Writer, Director.

Troy Beyer began her career in media at the tender age of four in a role on the popular children’s television show Sesame Street which just celebrated its 40th birthday on November 10th 2009. She then went on to study acting and psychobiology at City University of New York's School for the Arts. Troy’s studies paid off as she continued to wear one of her several “media hats”; acting in several roles like her regular part on the ABC prime-time Soap Opera Dynasty in 1986, as Jackie Deveraux, the daughter of Diahann Carroll's character Dominique Deveraux. She also has several movie roles under her belt; Disorderlies (1987), Weekend at Bernie's II, (1993), Eddie (1996) starring Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Altman’s The Gingerbread Man (1998) starring Kenneth Branagh and Robert Downey Jr.and John Q (2002) starring Denzel Washington. She even earned the ShoWest's Newcomer of the Year Award for her leading role in the feature Rooftops (1989).







Not only did Troy Beyer explore acting but she also put her writing skills to use, she wrote the movie B.A.P.S starring Halle Berry of which began her interest in directing since she was unhappy with how her script had been changed during the filming process. Inspired by B.A.P.S, her directing career began with her writing and directing the screen play




Let’s talk about sex (1998) in which she also starred, then she wrote and directed the movie Love Don’t Co$t a Thing (2003).
In the production notes of Let’s Talk About Sex Beyer writes that the purpose of the film is to “show the honest, sometimes provocative, truth of certain women's lives” to which James Berardinelli; critic says “Frankly, however, I can't think of one "truth" revealed in this film that I haven't been exposed to before.” Bell Hooks would have been in agreeance with James Berardinelli. In trying to imitate “real life” in this film, Beyer actually expresses her idea of “the real” but it leaned more toward exaggerated stereotypes. In his critique of Let’s Talk About Sex Berardinelli writes “Beyer makes it worse by heaping on huge portions of melodrama. There are scenes that caused me to wince with embarrassment, and, during one particularly sudsy sequence (when all three women are sobbing while doing housework – come on, there can't be that much dirt), I thought I was going to burst out laughing. Beyer is clearly trying to manipulate the audience, but I'm reasonably certain that's not the reaction she was attempting to achieve. Honestly, although the premise for the film doesn't sound all that interesting, the execution turns it into an 82-minute nightmare. Any potential value – that of learning what women think and talk about when men aren't around – is eliminated by the manner in which Beyer chooses to construct her feature.”
http://www.reelviews.net/movies/l/lets_talk.html



Beyer’s various “media hats”, specifically author and director allows her to express her creative voice despite the opinions of critics, not only does she write works that embodies her view of the world but she has taken on the power of directing her own work standing behind the camera guaranteeing that the audience sees her point of view. Troy Beyer Actor, Author, Auteur; the power is in her voice, her eyes, her view.