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For students at NULS in the 90s, Hollywood may have felt like a distant prospect. But for Dominic Burgess (2000), those early afternoon rehearsals in the Memorial Hall lit the path ahead. Today, he’s a successful actor, writer and director in Los Angeles, appearing in some of television’s biggest shows, and the journey began in Newcastle-under-Lyme and in a school drama club he “only joined to check out.”
Raised in Blythe Bridge, Dominic’s early life was quintessentially Stokie – visits to Festival Park and Waterworld, summer jobs at Alton Towers – and school drama became the unlikely catalyst for everything that followed. “It wasn’t until I started doing school drama that everything clicked into place. I suddenly realised, Oh – this is what I love. My love for school drama fed into my love for English lessons, Shakespeare, and plays in ways I hadn’t appreciated before.” Like many NULS students, Dominic discovered that learning doesn’t always happen best at a desk. “I learned by doing,” he says. “I was always more excited in the physics labs, using Bunsen burners, doing chemistry experiments.” His first school production was Cabaret in 1995, joining the ensemble. Everything changed in his fourth year when Miss Sproat (later Mrs Godridge) encouraged him to audition for Biff in Death of a Salesman. “Then we were off to the races” he remembers. “We rehearsed every lunchtime and after school – I was hooked.” From Twelfth Night to The Birthday Party, and even helping direct Bugsy Malone, Dominic threw himself into every production.. “I just wanted to be involved in everything” he says.
Dominic took a gap year to work and travel, gaining the “life experience” which he felt drama schools valued. His determination led him to the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA) in London, where he won a Dance and Drama Scholarship Award. His commitment to the craft – something he emphasises to students now – became the foundation of everything that followed. His entry into the professional world came with both highs and harsh lessons. He auditioned for his first role – Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins – on his graduation day. But he quickly learned how unpredictable the industry could be. “Here’s an important lesson for actors: you can book a role… and then not make the final cut. You can work incredibly hard and still not get the role. Someone else may simply fit better.” Dominic refused to sit back. “I was proactive – I wrote to casting directors,” he says. That persistence landed him a role as Agorax in Doctor Who, a dream for a lifelong fan. And even now, he hasn’t changed his approach. “I still do it to this day. If there’s a project coming up, I’ll find out who the casting director is and I’ll reach out. I did it with Star Trek: Picard. When I heard that was coming back, I thought, I’m going to find out who casts it, I’m going to write a letter, and I’m going to put myself out there.” A move that ultimately led to working alongside sci-fi icons.
Dominic moved to Los Angeles in November 2007 – straight into the writer’s strike. Even so, the city felt immediately different. “I met more casting directors in three weeks than in three years in London,” he says. “I started auditioning immediately, found a manager, got representation, and everything moved quickly. I thought, Ah – this is what an acting career is meant to be.” Visa issues, setbacks, and a denied Green Card application tested his resilience, but he kept going. “I can’t imagine doing anything else”. And this is where Dominic is most candid about the realities of the arts: “A career in the arts is not linear. You don’t get a job and level up like other careers. It’s up and down and up and down. There’s a lot of rejection. You audition constantly, and it’s not something you can measure on paper or test for. It’s subjective – maybe someone doesn’t find you funny, or you don’t share a sense of humour, or you walk in and instantly click and they think, that’s the guy I imagined. There are so many variables.” “My advice? Persistence. Knowing rejection is part of the job. It is hard—but I can’t imagine doing anything else. I get excited on set. You meet new creatives, actors, showrunners and no two days are the same.” He smiles at the unpredictability. “I get to travel for work. I’ve been to the Caribbean, South America, Alaska. You’re always learning – your brain stays active. There’s no monotony. I don’t know what Monday or Tuesday is going to bring. Just yesterday I was offered a job in Florida out of nowhere – so in December I’m off to Florida for three days of filming.” His breakthrough came with the Disney Channel series A.N.T. Farm. Originally booked for just two episodes, he faced a difficult choice when his day job threatened to let him go if he accepted the role. “I took the leap,” he says. That decision changed everything: “That turned into 18 episodes. I was able to afford my green card case. It opened so many doors.”
Dominic went on to develop a varied and impressive résumé, appearing in The Magicians, The Good Place, Dr. Death, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, The Flash, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, and recently Palm Royale. For the pupil who used to “race home to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation and Buffy the Vampire Slayer on BBC Two,” stepping onto the set of Star Trek: Picard was surreal. “I mean, to get to work with Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes, and to be in that world, truly is a career highlight for me.” More recently, he appeared in Feud: Bette and Joan, working with what he describes as a cast of “powerhouses.”
From the Potteries to the palm trees of LA, Dominic has carved out a remarkable space in the industry. Dominic’s story isn’t just about success – it’s about discovering what you love and having the resilience to keep pursuing it, even when the path is uncertain. From the Memorial Hall to multicam sitcom sets, his journey reinforces a message that resonates at NULS: passion often begins at school – and resilience is what turns that spark into a career. “I’m so glad I went into the arts,” he reflects. “It’s what makes my heart flutter. I have no regrets because I know I tried – really tried. It’s hard and challenging, but I love it with all my heart.” Dominic remains close with his NULS friends. “We’re all still in touch – one lives in Portugal, one in New Zealand. We’ve spread out all over, but we’re still connected,” he says. Those lasting friendships, forged in classrooms and rehearsal rooms, are part of what gave him the confidence to follow a more unconventional path. For today’s students, whether passionate about drama, physics, rugby, robotics, or something entirely outside the curriculum, Dominic’s journey is a reminder that school can plant the seeds of a lifelong passion. Sometimes it only takes one teacher, one rehearsal, one experiment – one moment where something “clicks.”
Thank you so much to Dominic for sharing his journey, his stories, and his continued support of NULS. We wish you all the best as you continue on to even more amazing things in your career.
Louis Bond: “The site of the camp was much larger than I had ever expected. Much of the camp was destroyed, but there were the cabin like structures at the front of the complex which were tiny in comparison to the number of people who were forced to stay in them. At the rear of the
Mount Pleasant, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire, ST5 1DB
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