Taylor Sheridan has acted in a handful of his own projects over the years

NEED TO KNOW

• Taylor Sheridan transitioned from acting to screenwriting after roles in Veronica Mars and Sons of Anarchy
• He has created Yellowstone and its prequels 1883 and 1923, plus hit shows like Lioness and Mayor of Kingstown
• Sheridan has also acted in his projects, using his ranching expertise to enhance roles like horse trainer Travis Wheatley in Yellowstone

Taylor Sheridan may be known for the plethora of successful shows he’s created, but before that, he was an actor.

Sheridan got his start by acting in the hit series Veronica Mars before moving to Sons of Anarchy. However, after appearing in the thriller, Sheridan knew it was time for a change and pivoted from acting to screenwriting.

He went on to write his first screenplay for the 2015 movie Sicario and later the 2016 film Hell or High Water, for which he received an Academy Award nomination. After directing and writing various movies, he had a major breakthrough with the Western television drama Yellowstone, which ran from 2018 to 2024.

The success of Yellowstone led to the prequels, 1883 and 1923. In addition to the Yellowstone franchise, Sheridan has also created Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, Lioness, Landman and The Madison.

Even though Sheridan has prioritized his behind-the-scenes work on TV shows and movies, he has still picked up his acting skills every now and then by appearing in a handful of his projects.

Here are four of Taylor Sheridan’s projects that he’s also acted in.

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Hell or High Water

Sheridan received his first Academy Award nomination for writing the screenplay for the 2016 American Western crime drama movie, Hell or High Water.

The film starred Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham and was directed by David Mackenzie.

While filming Hell or High Water, Sheridan stepped in to play the minor role of an unnamed cowboy who interacts with Bridges’ character.

Sheridan was on camera for less than a minute and took on the cameo because of his comfortability riding horses.

02 of 04

Yellowstone

In 2018, one of Sheridan’s most beloved franchises premiered. In addition to creating Yellowstone, Sheridan also wrote, directed and executive produced several episodes of the beloved Western drama, which spanned five seasons and 53 episodes.

The Paramount+ series, which Sheridan began developing in 2013, starred Kevin Costner, Luke Grimes, Kelly Reilly, Wes Bentley, Cole Hauser, Kelsey Asbille and Birmingham as characters fighting for possession of the highly valuable Dutton Ranch.

Over the course of the award-winning show’s five seasons, Sheridan made appearances in 12 episodes as horse trainer Travis Wheatley. He made his first acting cameo in season 1, episode 5, and ended his role in the series finale, titled “Life Is a Promise.”

Sheridan, who has a long history at Texas ranches, explained that he took on the role, because he was using most of his own horses in production and felt that he was best suited to both act and ride the horses.

“All the horses, for the most part, in our business are terrible,” Sheridan explained in a 2022 interview with CBS Sunday Morning. “They’re not very broke, they’re not very safe, which is one of the reasons you don’t see actors on them very often. I didn’t want to do that so I bought all the horses for the show and then taught the actors how to ride.”

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1883

Amid the success of Yellowstone, Paramount+ ordered two prequels from Sheridan: 1883 and 1923. The miniseries 1883, which premiered in 2021, revolved around the origin story of the Dutton family making their way to Yellowstone.

The miniseries consisted of 10 episodes and starred Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Isabel May, LaMonica Garrett and Marc Rissmann, among others.

In episodes 7 and 8, Sheridan made quick cameos as Charles Goodnight, a bearded rancher who teams up with Elliott and Garrett’s characters to kill a group of bandits.

Goodnight was actually based on a real person by the same name who was a violent pioneer and rancher.

04 of 04

Lioness

In addition to Sheridan’s passion for Westerns, he also created the hit Paramount+ series Lioness, which premiered in 2023 and kicked off its third season in August 2026.

The spy thriller — on which Sheridan also serves as a showrunner, writer, director and executive producer — is based on the real-life Lioness CIA program in which female operatives went undercover during the war on terror in the early 2000s.

The hit series stars Zoe Saldaña, Nicole Kidman, Dave Annable, Jill Wagner, Garrett, Morgan Freeman and James Jordan, among others.

Sheridan has acted in Lioness, as well. He made his debut as Sergeant Major Cody Spears, a U.S. Army Delta Force operative, during the season 2 premiere and went on to act in two more episodes in season 2 and one episode in season 3, as of Aug. 17.

“Sharing scenes with him was a little nerve-wracking, because you don’t know if he’s coming at you as his character or he’s coming at you as your boss,” Saldaña told The Hollywood Reporter of acting alongside Sheridan. “He definitely tended to get really in character.”

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