Back in 2022 when Channel 4 reporter Sheldon Ingram guest starred as the deputy mayor of New York on NBC’s “Law Order: SVU,” we should have guessed this day would come.
Ingram will put down his microphone and reporter’s notebook and retire from WTAE after his May 29 broadcast to pursue acting full time.
At 64, Ingram is 34 years into his tenure as a general assignment reporter at the local ABC affiliate, most often seen reporting in the 4, 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts.
“I wanted to stay until 35 years and I’m doing it just short, right at 34 years,” Ingram said Wednesday. “There are a number of opportunities for me that are coming up. Acting auditions are constantly coming in and I need to free myself up to pursue my new passion.”
In addition to “SVU,” Ingram played a gynecologist in director Lee Daniels’ Pittsburgh-shot movie “The Deliverance” and he was one of three actors who voiced the film’s demon. He also appeared in a couple of Lifetime movies, including a role as a pediatric surgeon in the independently filmed “Gaslit by My Husband: The Morgan Metzer Story,” which played on Lifetime and then went to Netflix where Ingram said it was the streamer’s No. 1 movie for a time a few weeks ago.
Ingram’s also appeared in local plays, including “Three Blind Mice” at Becoming Arts Collective, “Art of the Wise” and “Two Trains Running” at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre and “Chicken and Biscuits” at New Horizon Theater where he’ll open in “Coconut Cake” the night of his final Channel 4 broadcast.
Ingram has lined up managers in and outside of Pittsburgh with a goal to work in TV, film, theater, voiceover, commercial narration and TV/movie promos and trailers.
All of those goals, with the exception of live theater, are incompatible with working in TV news where executives don’t want their TV news talent to confuse the audience by moonlighting as actors in fictional roles (aside from newscasters playing newscasters, which always seems to get a pass).
“The standard in broadcasting is they have a very tight rein on their talent being able to do certain things,” Ingram said, declining to discuss how WTAE management reacted to his “SVU” role but emphasizing he redirected his efforts to live theater and non-commercial projects once he understood the restrictions required by his day job.
Upon his retirement, those strictures will no longer hold sway.
Ingram said he waited to leave TV news after his “SVU” role because that was near the start of his acting efforts, which he said he knew would likely include roles of authority figures like doctor, lawyer and police officer.
“I needed a runway to build some acting equity, if you will, to build my training, plus I wasn’t really ready to leave TV news at the time,” Ingram said. “As I got stronger with my acting skills and got my feet cemented and as my tenure at Channel 4 grew into 34 years, it was time to make that move. As we speak now, I just got a notification for an audition for a television show being shot in L.A. The audition notices are coming in fairly frequently, but I can’t do anything with them as long as I’m tethered to television news.”
Ingram, who plans to remain based in Pittsburgh for the immediate future, said there’s one thing he’ll miss most about working at Channel 4.
“I’m going to miss meeting so many fantastic, phenomenal people of Southwestern Pennsylvania, my exposure to some of the best people I will ever meet in my life,” Ingram said. “I’ll miss being out of the office all over the place in the seven-county region with no two days being alike and that rush of being a television reporter with the incredible deadlines we encounter on a daily basis, the pressure that comes with that good juice. I’ve always enjoyed that rush.”
As Ingram sees it, he’s making a change in focus rather than a wholesale career change.
“Storytellers come in many forms, so I’m just transitioning to another form of storytelling that I consider a deeper realm of storytelling,” Ingram said, “because there are layers and layers of preparation to prepare for a role.”
Channel surfing
Shawn Hatosy, who won the best guest star actor Emmy for playing Dr. Jack Abbot on “The Pitt” in the show’s first season, will be submitted under supporting actor and director for his work on season two in this year’s Emmy race. … Claire Danes will star in Netflix’s “Lovesick” from “The Affair” showrunner Sarah Treem as a breast cancer surgeon who gets her own cancer diagnosis while embarking on a relationship with a patient. … Netflix’s Tom Segura dark comedy “Bad Thoughts” returns for a second season May 24 and western soap “Ransom Canyon” is back for its second season July 23.