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Tanner Beard
Fort Worth has long been a city of cowboys, cattle, and country music — but in recent years, it’s quietly staking its claim in the film world, and one Texas-born actor, director, and producer has returned home to seize the opportunity.
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 — it’s a statement that Hollywood doesn’t hold a monopoly on big dreams.
“Everything’s out here now,” Beard says over the phone. “Plus, the mode in L.A. has changed. I go where the work is, and the work is definitely here.”
His timing couldn’t be better. In June, Taylor Sheridan moved his Bosque Ranch Productions to Fort Worth, taking over 450,000 square feet in Ross Perot Jr.’s AllianceTexas development — a clear sign that Texas isn’t just a backdrop anymore — it’s a destination for world-class filmmaking.
For Beard, Fort Worth isn’t just a new office location. It’s home. After decades navigating the labyrinth of Los Angeles, he’s circling back to the community and culture that shaped him. “I’m from Texas originally, so Fort Worth is more my speed,” he says. “It’s the best — everybody knows it. The secret’s out.”
Beard’s 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 of diehard filmmaker friends, producing early web series, and sharpening every part of his craft. Along the way, he collaborated with Terrence Malick — executive producing three films — and worked with Robert Rodriguez on “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series.”
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Even amid Hollywood prestige, Beard never lost his connection to Texas. His work on the psychological thriller “Fluxx” — alongside Tyrese Gibson, Henry Ian Cusick, Shiloh Fernandez, and Shelley Hennig — and upcoming projects like “Blood Behind Us” and “Daisy” are all Texas-based productions. He also appears in season two of Paramount+’s “Landman,” sharing the screen with Billy Bob Thornton and Jacob Lofland.
And his Texas authenticity is bone-deep. Beard carries a roughneck grit from his early days working the oil fields with his father in Snyder — something that gave him instant credibility on “Landman.”
“I used to jump on the top of totes in Midland when I was 16,” he laughs. “Even though I played Hamlet at Cambridge, I still have that roughneck quality and background.”
The oil rig workers featured in the first episode of season two weren’t actors — they were real roughnecks — and Beard’s familiarity with the work helped him blend in immediately. “That 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,” he recalls.
Another family member also has a tie to his role in “Landman.” Around the same time he landed the role of Marty on the popular series, his daughter, Harley, was born.
“That was a fun day,” he recalls of his daughter’s birth. “That was the same day I found out I had landed the role on “Landman.”
This serendipitous turn of events also prompted Beard to relocate from his longtime home in L.A.
“I wanted my daughter to grow up somewhere real, not Los Angeles,” he says. “Fort Worth is just a better place to be.”
Beard has also continued to create across the greater DFW area — his first major directorial effort, “The Legend of Hell’s Gate: An American Conspiracy,” was filmed in Fort Worth, Mineral Wells, and the surrounding area.
But his ambitions extend beyond acting and directing. He’s building infrastructure for the next wave of Texas filmmakers: Silver Sail Studios — set to officially open in January 2026 on East Lancaster — 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.
His approach remains hands-on, true to the Texas spirit.
“We’re here to create, in Texas,” he says.
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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.
“I want Fort Worth to become a self-sufficient ecosystem for film — where production crews, props, costumes, and fabrication all exist under one roof.”
Beard’s 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’ strike, which ultimately prompted him to launch Silver Sail Entertainment.
“It was my first time seeing what the industry can look like when it shuts down. I thought, I’m going to make my own company and do it myself. We learned everything by necessity — write, direct, produce, act — and it was the best film school I could have asked for.”
Despite a résumé that includes an Emmy win for his travel series “Destination Golf,” 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.
Beard sees Fort Worth not just as a film hub, but as a community he wants to help cultivate. “A lot of people want to come out here and create, but it’s due to who you surround yourself with, too,” he says. “We want to help any of those companies coming in that are looking to do that typical indie stuff — keep the creative control, tell your story, and still have the resources here in Fort Worth.”
