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Eric Guilmette: Award-winning actor and producer in vertical dramas
- Markos Papadatos
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
Markos Papadatos interviewed actor and producer Eric Guilmette about starring in vertical dramas, as well as being a part of the digital age.
Eric Guilmette grew up in Massachusetts, just an hour outside of Boston. His acting credits include the holiday film “Tails of Christmas” for Great American Family; however, he is best known for his commercial success in the vertical drama space. He has been a part of nearly 40 micro dramas, and counting.
Guilmette was voted the 2024 “Vertical Legend” and “Best Actor in a Drama” (Vertical Drama Love Fan Awards) and he won the “Sapphire Vision Award” at the Vertical Awards.
The Rise of Vertical Dramas
On being a part of vertical dramas, Guilmette remarked, “It has been my bread and butter for the last three years. I started in 2023, and it has been quite a journey.”
Guilmette feels privileged to be a part of the vertical drama brotherhood along with such actors as Tyler Scherer, Noah Fearnley, Seth Edeen, Luke Charles Stafford, and Kyle “Kiki” Fragnoli. “All of these guys have become good friends,” he said.
Regarding his daily motivations as an actor, he explained, “It’s kind of twofold. For me, I love going to set every day and being able to act with a lot of people who have now become my friends.”
"Of course, I love when the story is really good. If there’s a good script, it definitely makes it a nice, enjoyable experience to go kind of give yourself to the art, if you will. So that’s part of it."
“Then, I love that the actual fans have such a great outlet to be able to escape. That’s what verticals have become,” he observed.
“Verticals have become a place where a lot of the fans go to watch and escape from their daily lives, even if just for a couple of minutes a day. That can be while they’re in transit somewhere or while they’re waiting to pick their kids up from school, or whatever they’re doing. They can easily flip through a few vertical episodes.”
Producing for Vigloo
On being a part of the Vigloo family, Guilmette said, “Vigloo is great! I actually produced a show with Vigloo called ‘Campus Rivals,’ which was great.”
That was written by Adam Santa Cruz. It was produced by Adam, myself, and Brielle Li. Bomi Song from Vigloo served as an executive producer. “So, it was really the four of us that attacked that project. We had a great director Tingting Lyu,” he noted.
“Tingting really brought the project to life, especially using color. Going scene to scene, you can see her use of color and what it was trying to actually accomplish,” he said. “We were lucky to have 15 cameos from friends of mine that are in the vertical space. So, it felt very much like an Adam Sandler project because he is notorious for having his friends come on set.”
“Vigloo gave us a lot of freedom to kind of create something that we knew would be a favorite in the vertical world,” Guilmette admitted.
The show ‘Campus Rivals’ has won a couple of awards now. It won for “Best Love Story” at the Vertical Shorts Festival. Also, at the 2025 Vertical Awards, which was held during Verticon, it won for “Best Pinnacle Ensemble Story.”
Success in the Digital Age
On being a part of the digital age, Guilmette stated, “Everything is digital! It’s crazy!”
“I don’t think any of us — when we got into the vertical space — expected this kind of response. I can tell you just from the fan base that I have, and how much they support me and care about me,” he elaborated. “I’ve created a much bigger brand for myself than I thought I ever would. Being a successful poet has opened a lot of doors for me.”
“Even just now, during the holidays I have been doing Cameos, and I’ve ranked No. 75 out of all of Cameo. That’s all because of my incredible fan-base that cares and supports me for my acting, verticals or features and for my poetry,” he explained.
“So, it has been crazy. I love that the digital age exists because we are able to connect with so many people that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to,” he added.
What's Next?
On the title of the current chapter of his life, Guilmette revealed, “To Be Determined…”
“I haven’t titled it yet,” he admitted. “It’s funny. I have a poem where I just talked about starting this new chapter in my life, and I’m already in love with it but I don’t even know what it is yet.”
“It’s a very new chapter, and it feels new,” he admitted. “I moved into a new place in October, and ever since, it just feels like I’m taking a different approach to everything. So, it has been very nice, and we’ll see what that title shapes out to be.”
On his definition of the word success, Guilmette responded, “I would say success at this point is a blend. At this point in my career, I’m not just trying to win for me. I’m trying to win with friends and colleagues of mine.”
"I’m working on producing nine or ten different projects right now with a bunch of different producers. I’m trying to just constantly do projects with people that I love."
“We all deserve some level of success, especially the people who have really worked their tails off and are good humans at the core,” Guilmette concluded.