Fort Worth has long been a city of cowboys, cattle, and country music \u2014 but in recent years, it\u2019s quietly staking its claim in the film world, and one Texas-born actor, director, and producer has returned home to seize the opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tanner Beard, the Snyder-born, Emmy-winning entertainment renaissance man, recently moved his production company, Silver Sail Entertainment, fully to Fort Worth after years of splitting his time between Los Angeles and everywhere else. The shift is more than geographic \u2014 it\u2019s a statement that Hollywood doesn\u2019t hold a monopoly on big dreams.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything\u2019s out here now,\u201d Beard says over the phone. \u201cPlus, the mode in L.A. has changed. I go where the work is, and the work is definitely here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
His timing\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0be better. In June, Taylor Sheridan moved his Bosque Ranch Productions to Fort Worth, taking over\u00a0450,000 square feet\u00a0in Ross Perot Jr.\u2019s\u00a0AllianceTexas\u00a0development \u2014 a clear sign that Texas\u00a0isn\u2019t just a backdrop anymore \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a destination for world-class filmmaking.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Beard, Fort Worth\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0just a new office location.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0home. After decades navigating the labyrinth of Los Angeles,\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0circling back to the community and culture that shaped him. \u201cI\u2019m\u00a0from Texas originally, so Fort Worth is\u00a0more\u00a0my speed,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0the best\u00a0\u2014 everybody knows it. The secret\u2019s out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beard\u2019s career reads like a Texas-sized Hollywood tale. A small-town kid who left Snyder at 18 with nothing but ambition, he studied at the New York Film Academy at Universal Studios, learning the ropes on 16-millimeter film. He spent years hustling in Los Angeles, working with a group\u00a0of diehard filmmaker friends, producing early web series, and sharpening every part of his craft. Along the way, he collaborated with Terrence Malick \u2014 executive producing three films \u2014 and worked with Robert Rodriguez on \u201cFrom Dusk Till Dawn: The Series.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even amid Hollywood prestige, Beard never lost his connection to Texas. His work on the psychological thriller \u201cFluxx\u201d \u2014 alongside Tyrese Gibson, Henry Ian Cusick, Shiloh Fernandez, and Shelley Hennig \u2014 and upcoming projects like \u201cBlood Behind Us\u201d and \u201cDaisy\u201d are all Texas-based productions. He also appears in season two of\u00a0Paramount+\u2019s\u00a0\u201cLandman,\u201d sharing the screen with Billy Bob Thornton and Jacob Lofland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And his Texas authenticity is\u00a0bone-deep. Beard carries a roughneck grit from his early days working the oil fields with his father in Snyder \u2014 something that gave him instant credibility on \u201cLandman.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to jump on the top of totes in Midland when I was 16,\u201d he\u00a0laughs. \u201cEven though I played Hamlet at Cambridge, I still have that roughneck quality and background.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The oil rig workers featured in the first episode of season two\u00a0weren\u2019t\u00a0actors \u2014 they were real roughnecks \u2014 and Beard\u2019s familiarity with the work helped him blend in\u00a0immediately. \u201cThat was the coolest role ever because it was such a homage to the work that my dad had done in the oil field for so long,\u201d he recalls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another family member also has a tie to his role in \u201cLandman.\u201d\u00a0Around the same\u00a0time\u00a0he\u00a0landed\u00a0the role of Marty on\u00a0the popular\u00a0series,\u00a0his daughter, Harley, was born.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a fun day,\u201d he\u00a0recalls of\u00a0his daughter\u2019s birth. \u201cThat was the same day I found out I had landed the role on \u201cLandman.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This serendipitous turn of events also prompted Beard to\u00a0relocate\u00a0from his longtime home in L.A.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted\u00a0my daughter\u00a0to grow up somewhere real, not Los Angeles,\u201d he says. \u201cFort Worth is just a better place to be.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beard has also continued to create across the greater DFW area \u2014 his first major directorial effort, \u201cThe Legend of Hell\u2019s Gate: An American Conspiracy,\u201d was filmed in Fort Worth, Mineral Wells, and the surrounding area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But his ambitions extend beyond acting and directing.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0building infrastructure for the next wave of Texas filmmakers: Silver Sail Studios \u2014 set to officially open in January 2026 on East Lancaster \u2014 will offer costumes, props, fabrication, and production services, serving as a one-stop shop for indie productions in North Texas. Having often had to source materials from Dallas or Austin while filming in Fort Worth, Beard now aims to give other filmmakers everything he once had to hunt for.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His approach\u00a0remains\u00a0hands-on, true to the Texas spirit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re here to create, in Texas,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Silver Sail Studios will focus on indie projects in the one-to-three-million-dollar range, a sweet spot where filmmakers can maintain creative control while still telling ambitious stories.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want Fort Worth to become a self-sufficient ecosystem for film \u2014 where production crews, props, costumes, and fabrication all exist under one roof.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beard\u2019s career also reflects a balance of artistry and pragmatism. He speaks warmly of mentorship from Malick and Rodriguez and of the lessons he learned during the 2007 writers\u2019 strike, which ultimately prompted him to launch Silver Sail Entertainment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was my first time seeing what the industry can look like when it shuts down. I thought, I\u2019m going to make my own company and do it myself. We learned everything by necessity \u2014 write, direct, produce, act \u2014 and it was the best film school I could have asked for.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 that includes an Emmy win for his travel series \u201cDestination Golf,\u201d feature films, television roles, and collaborations with Hollywood heavyweights, Beard remains grounded in Texas. He continues to champion indie filmmakers, founded the Mammoth Film Festival, and is actively building the infrastructure needed for Texas-based productions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beard sees Fort Worth not just as a film hub, but as a community he wants to help cultivate. \u201cA lot of people want to come out here and create, but it\u2019s due to who you surround yourself with, too,\u201d he says. \u201cWe want to help any of those companies coming in that are looking to do that typical indie stuff \u2014 keep the creative control, tell your story, and still have the resources here in Fort Worth.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Worth has long been a city of cowboys, cattle, and country music \u2014 but in recent years,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":395517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[568,5229,2677,12043,185,45216,39054,7371,7372,12044,53,18904,10763,5921,12045,358,7453,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-395516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-actors","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-artists","11":"tag-arts-and-culture","12":"tag-celebrities","13":"tag-entrepreneur","14":"tag-filmmaking","15":"tag-fort-worth","16":"tag-fortworth","17":"tag-landman","18":"tag-movies","19":"tag-production","20":"tag-stephen-montoya","21":"tag-style","22":"tag-taylor-sheridan","23":"tag-texas","24":"tag-top-story","25":"tag-tx","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-united-states-of-america","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115589921361192894","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}