Real-life “Yellowstone” cowboy went from sleeping in a tent to a building a TV empire

Yellowstone co-creator and writer Taylor Sheridan’s huge success was inspired by his real-life cowboy experience.

Transcript

00:00The real life cowboy behind Yellowstone went from sleeping in a tent to hitting his first

00:04big break near his 40s.

00:05Co-creator and writer Taylor Sheridan dominates the most watched list across both broadcast

00:10and streaming shows.

00:11But it wasn't long ago that Sheridan was making his home on the range.

00:15Literally.

00:16Sheridan experienced a difficult childhood growing up outside of Waco, Texas according

00:20to The Atlantic, where his family had a ranch they went to on the weekends.

00:23He described how living at a ranch taught him what it was like to be a cowboy, and it

00:27later inspired his work.

00:29Sheridan enrolled in Texas State University but later dropped out.

00:32After being scouted, Sheridan began landing acting gigs on shows like CSI and NYPD Blue.

00:38He eventually ended up in Los Angeles, living out of his car with his dog.

00:41Sheridan finally got a break playing David Hale in Sons of Anarchy.

00:45But just as he was making it, Sheridan left acting and LA behind to raise his child in

00:50Wyoming.

00:51But that didn't mean Sheridan was done with writing stories.

00:53As Sheridan wrote scripts for movies like Sicario and Hell or High Water, he worked

00:58on Yellowstone on the side before it was finally picked up by Paramount in 2018.

01:02Sheridan now lives on a ranch in his home state of Texas and netted a nearly $200 million

01:07deal with Paramount to produce more shows over the next couple of years.