You have likely seen this actor on screen — in the movies, on television shows or in commercials.
Shreveport resident and actor Ted Ferguson has an upcoming role in a movie to be released in February, “Portal in the Pines,” directed by Louisiana native Eric Gibson and filmed primarily in the Minden area.
Ferguson took up acting after a long career at 98 Rocks radio station and has been playing character roles for twenty years now.
Some of his favorites were playing the Judge Edwin J. Miller in “NCIS: New Orleans” and being a guest star in comedy sketches on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” he said.
Ferguson’s list of film and television credits is extensive. You can see the whole list on his website.
He was at 98 Rocks when the station was sold in the late 1990s, so he cashed out his stock options and “started being retired,” he said. “Being retired takes skill. You have to realize that if you don’t get something to do, you’re going to get bored stiff. You have to have a plan in your retirement. And if you don’t, you’re nuts.”
He went back to LSU to finish his degree, having been put on scholastic probation the first time around for doing more partying than studying. “But all those years, I determined that what I was going to do one day would be go back and right that situation.”
Ferguson said he took an acting improv class while there. He also noted the similar skills used in radio. “I mean, you click a mic every day in radio, which I did for 41 years, and you’re acting. You might be over the top, but you’re still acting,” he said.
After Hurricane Katrina pushed the film industry to set up shop in Shreveport, he decided to apply to be an extra in “Blonde Ambition” starring Jessica Simpson. He had also returned to Shreveport at that time.
Ferguson said in that movie there were to be four Norwegian priests, two with speaking parts, two without, but they had not cast one of the speaking parts yet. He called the Swedish Embassy and asked them to translate the lines. “So I learned the scene in the Norwegian language, Swedish,” he said.
“And whenever I showed up that morning for the role, I told the casting director, I said, ‘I can do this in the language.'” Ferguson auditioned with the director, and that’s how he ended up with his first speaking role in a film.
He continued with his acting. “From 2005, I was very proactive about learning to be an actor, to the extent to where I packed up and went to Los Angeles. And then I got a role as an extra, a featured extra in “Mad Men” in downtown Los Angeles.
When asked what advice he had for would-be actors, he spoke about learning the craft, his philosophy, and professionalism.
“You get in casting workshops, working with casting directors, and you listen to what they say,” he said. “That’s why I went to LA, because they don’t have workshops in Shreveport.”
Actor Ted Ferguson speaks during an interview with The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate in Shreveport, La., Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025.
Ferguson believes “you have to be relatable and one-on-one as an actor. The deal is, keep it simple. Just nail it. You’re talking to a person, and if you’re not doing that, then you’re missing the boat.”
He also expressed being serious about the work. “If you’re going to act, you can’t show up and not know your lines. You have to prepare, you have to work hard, and you have to be the guy that you’re supposed to be. After a while, you get the idea, and then you start doing it right. And then you start booking bigger roles and bigger roles, you know?”
Upcoming movie part
The storyline for Ferguson’s next movie is, “A rural fireman discovers that a secret particle collider has opened a portal to hell,” according to imdb.com. A screening at Robinson Film Center is being planned, he said.