Tommy Bechtold is settling in as the media coordinator for his family business, OptiPro, with a special skill set.

"Dealing with people and engaging with people and getting people excited about things is something I'm passionate about," Bechtold said. "Now, one way to guarantee that is to kind of make a spectacle. Everybody's got one thing they're good at right?"

Quite the character, that's where Bechtold has made his money over the years. He's an actor by trade, content creator by happenstance, and nerd by birth.

"Of course, we've got Frosted Flakes, Dark Side of the Force, Light Side of the Force, a personal prized possession of mine. The highest graded copy of the first appearance of Jubilee (X-Men) in the world. Why wouldn't I own that? I'm 40," he said, as he rattled through some more collectible items from signed Bills memorabilia to limited edition comic book stuff. "So, yeah, I often wonder why I'm single, but I think we're putting the clues together on solving that mystery."

He's able to use everything to his advantage since heading out west almost two decades ago.

"So I was in college and I was taking significant chunks of time off of college to work on shoots and making good money," he explained. "And honestly, I just told my parents I wanted to try and they both shot, to my surprise, were like, okay, go for it."

Bechtold is back home working with family now, with no real safety net to speak of.

"I mean, my mom was a public school teacher, you know, and like my dad had a growing business, but by no means could they support an adult man like like a third income of an adult man," Bechtold added.

So he put in for different odd jobs and extra work both on and off-screen.

"I said yes to pretty much every opportunity to be on camera that wasn't explicit material," he joked. "And I showed up early in that, let me tell you, showed up early. Probably an obvious thing. You'd be surprised how many people don't do it."

He has made enough of an impact and residuals to flesh out where he wanted to go next, which thanks to the pandemic means he's back in the Empire State.

"You know, right around then the first seeds of like there is a way to do this without living in L.A. were planted and then, you know, now basically the only time that you need to be in person is when you're filming. Or maybe for like a wardrobe fitting or something like that," Bechtold said. "I can live in Rochester, which is much more cost-friendly, and then I can be around my family. So to me, it was a no-brainer."

It's not for everyone and the initial work ethic needs to be there.

"It's not easy. It's never going to be easy unless you are born into a, you know, celebrity family. And even then, God knows what psychological horrors exist from being that," he said.

It's all come full circle for Bechtold as he continues to grow his career on different fronts still cutting his teeth on screen and glass in the lab.

"You know, I think after spending 16 years out west, being able to come home now and put all of the skills, you know, really from every job that I've had out there to use in one focused way is just exciting," he remarked. "I just feel very fortunate to be able to do that."