Tyler Brash: How I’m turning TikTok hate into an acting career

TikTok’s most famous creators are canceled for new reasons every day, and often have to post apologies to keep their fans on their side. But Tyler Brash had hate from the very beginning for his “cringy” acting videos. Instead of begging people to like him, Tyler has used the attention to his advantage. The goal? To eventually win an Oscar. 

One hallmark of TikTok is the POV (point of view) trend. Several TikTokkers have made a name for themselves using this particular trend such as Sway House member Kio Cyr, and Issey Moloney.

Instead of going for tongue-in-cheek “What my beauty blender sees when I’m in a hurry” or “On your 18th birthday you get a superpower,” Tyler has taken his videos more seriously, often putting together scenes from a relationship, or flirting with the viewer. More recently scenes have included “we’re rock climbing and something goes wrong” and “a shark nearly bites your arm.”

Tyler became well known after other popular TikTokkers such as Max Dressler duetted his videos making fun of his “bad acting”, and YouTuber Cody Ko even featured Tyler in two videos talking about the POV trend, slamming him for being “cringy.”

And yet the origin story is part of his success – who doesn’t love a bit of TikTok drama? Tyler told Dexerto: “I sucked at it, I really did. But I think that’s how I blew up,” he admitted. “But, I thought to myself, I don’t want to do anything else.

“It used to be like ‘this kid is so cringy’. ‘This kid is never gonna get anywhere’. I still get those comments. But now more comments are like, ‘dude, it’s TikTok. Like, why are you going so hard on TikTok?’”

What did Cody Ko say about Tyler?

“He has to be f*****g with us. No one talks like that,” Cody Ko said in one video. “Whatever emotion he’s showing there’s just this veil of f***boy right in front of it.” In Cody Ko’s second video he finds almost a new-found respect for the TikTokker, and says “Tyler brash nails it because he looks right into the camera and he hits on you.”

Tyler welcomed the attention, and even posted about how much he laughed. But, it was still hurtful. He said: “A lot of people thought I was joking, but I really wasn’t because the acting was so bad and I was super hurt.”

To begin with, Tyler hit out at the haters, defending himself, and engaging the attention of other high-profile stars on the app including Bryce Hall, Spencer X, and Brittany Broski. “I blew my composure,” he said, “but I learned from it.”

He made several videos in response, eventually apologizing to Max Dressler after feuding for weeks, saying “the meaning of my TikToks is more than just acting like a douche or a pretty boy… I’m sorry Max for threatening you.” A couple of months later Tyler even wrote a full diss-track about Max called “I Didn’t Ask” with lyrics such as “making fun of me is the reason that you pop.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVE34LU5ZSU

So this thick-skinned creator has ignored the haters and instead begun using the attention to his own advantage. In recent months Tyler has hired a small team to dramatically increase the filmic quality of his short videos.

Tyler and his team have been going to great lengths to ramp up the quality. In one of Tyler’s more recent videos, he appeared to get waterboarded, and yes, Tyler confirmed it was real, describing the experience as “gnarly,” but still one of his favorites to film because of the intensity.

He and his team also spent money going out to Lake Tahoe, renting out a boat – purely for the TikTok – and catching a fish. In this particular video, Tyler thrashes around on a “lifeboat,” gets severely sunburnt, and literally bites a fish in half.

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In July, Tyler explained that the reason behind the high-quality videos was to win an Oscar. He said “I only need the right set of eyes to see one of my videos”, and TikTok is going to help him to get his name out there by being his “acting portfolio”, and get him auditions for films and TV shows. Tyler says “God has blessed me with the creative mindset.”

What is Tyler up to now?

One of his latest projects is collaborating with the app’s biggest stars after requests from his fans. So far Tyler has enlisted Sway House’s Griffin Johnson to play a mafia leader, and Kio Cyr to be kidnapped.

Tyler’s efforts are even coming full-circle. He and Cody Ko have made up since the scathing YouTube takedowns, and they’re planning on making a video together in the near future, potentially with Cody Ko taking part in a POV – much like Kio and Griffin.

Despite TikTok’s potential ban and a global crisis, Tyler has had a meeting with a film director and is in talks with a talent company.

Whether he is able to win an Oscar or not, Tyler wants people to understand that “just because other people don’t like what you’re doing, it’s not right for you to quit.

“Who cares what other people think? Sometimes I care about what people think, but I’m human. But the meaning of everything is to just keep going. Who cares what people think about what you’re doing?”