One of Illinois State University’s most accomplished theater grads is back on campus — the place that helped inspire his breakout character on the TV series Ted Lasso.
Brendan Hunt is one of the creators and stars of the Emmy Award-winning series. On screen, he plays Coach Beard, a stoic, loyal and, yes, bearded assistant soccer coach alongside titular Coach Lasso.
“To a large degree, Beard is based on the dudes I worked with while I was a stagehand at Braden Auditorium, when I was a student here,” Hunt told WGLT on Wednesday, the first of his three-day return trip to campus. “Laconic, super-intelligent, but very dry, slow-talking people. I’m very consciously bringing my Braden tech brethren into that.”
Hunt is back at ISU for a residency with ISU’s School of Theatre, Dance and Film, from which he graduated in 1996. He’ll be working closely with current students and faculty, attending classes about screenwriting, acting for the camera, solo performance, and more.
ISU’s theater program has produced a lot of famous alums, including Jane Lynch and Gary Cole. Alums Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry partnered with Gary Sinise to create Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company in the mid-1970s.
Hunt left his mark too. He was a co-founder of Theatre of Ted, a student-run weekly open mic where performers live the mantra “Dare to Suck.” Ted is still alive and well today.
“There was a lot of pressure — some of it real, but some of it we put on ourselves as a student body — to make every piece of work we did perfect. It felt like we had to hit this bar of Steppenwolf alumni and the teachers who had taught them. Everything had to be great, intense,” Hunt said.
“And we started to become of the opinion that, it’s OK to fail sometimes. We should dare to suck, in fact. There can be tremendous liberty in doing something just for its own purpose and not trying to stick the landing and make it great for someone else.”
Hunt also worked on the crew and performed at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, a professional summer theater that’s affiliated with ISU. Hunt said it was a great experience — other than the 1992 Chicago Bulls championship game he missed because he was stuck in a tower running a spotlight.
“That was technically my first professional acting job. It felt like being a real actor, because I was. I was only in two of the three shows, but I had tremendous fun working with super-talented people,” Hunt said.
After leaving ISU, Hunt created opportunities for himself to perform — even if the professional gigs were slow in coming. He and some fellow alumni started their own theater company. Just about every weekend he was performing on stage, either doing theater or improv.
Small stages require a big effort, he said.
“Back then, we’d get maybe $10 a show. But there’s no reason not to give it 1,000% commitment. You must always try to do the best show you can do, no matter the circumstances. That will do you well once you have something a little meatier to work on.”
Finding Ted Lasso
He later moved to Amsterdam to perform with Boom Chicago, an improv comedy theater. So did Jason Sudeikis, a connection that later led to the pair co-creating Ted Lasso in 2020.
The show became a hit, winning over fans with a freshly uncynical view of people and how they can change. Season 4 is in development now, and Hunt said he expects to return as both an actor and writer.
Ted Lasso became a hit when Hunt was in his late 40s. He gets recognized in public — a lot.
“If it would’ve happened when I was 25, I would’ve melted down. Particularly if I was 25 and there was this amount of cameras in everyone’s pockets,” Hunt said.
Hunt will be talking about the Ted Lasso first-episode, or pilot, script this week when he visits a film studies class that’s focused on sitcom writing. Hunt said he’s pleased to see ISU’s theater program adding more coursework around film and TV, while not losing its roots in live performance.
Theater is still vital to Hunt. He’s written plays and several one-man shows, including one he’s now trying to bring to Broadway. He likes to “throw change-ups,” as he puts it — yank an audience from comedy into something more heartfelt and back again.
“It’s hard to quantify. It’s just incredibly satisfying in a live way to make an audience react,” Hunt said. “The energy in a room when you make 1,500 people do that is a great moment. Not just for me, but for the 1,500 people I’m sharing it with.”
“As we become more of an entertainment-by-YouTube culture … so much of what we once called entertainment or art but is now strictly content is now done from home. And that’s fine, and it’s effective, and a lot of these people are spreading joy and knowledge.
"But woe to us if we cannot still foster in our society the ability to bring that same amount of connection in a live setting. Because there’s nothing that replaces that degree of vitality. That’s why it’s damn near the only fad that is still around since the Greeks. I guess some of their other stuff is still around. Aqueducts, what have you," he joked.
"But it’s been around a while, and it’s not going anywhere. And it’s because there’s nothing like it, and that suggests it’s not only something we enjoy as people, but on some level, we need.”
