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Will is a native of Chicago Illinois who moved to Orlando for freshman yr and later spent sophomore and junior yr in LA. Senior yr was back in Orlando before he joined the US Army. He served for 7 yrs (97-04) and attained the rank of Sergeant (E-5 SGT) He was stationed @ Ft Jackson, SC (Alpha Company, 1-61 Battalion) for basic training; Ft Eustis, VA (Echo Company, 8th Training Brigade) as a Transportation Management Coordinator or "88 November"; he then went back to Orlando for 6 months as a reservist while serving under his recruiters for the "hometown recruiter program". Successfully mentoring and helping other former classmates become soldiers who proudly serve till this day.
Will went active duty and was assigned to the 491st Automated Cargo Documentation Detachment (ACDD) and served in Duress, Albania during "Operation Shining Hope" and "Task Force Hawk" in 1999 during the Kosovo War. After returning to Ft Eustis, he was assigned to the 837th Transportation Battalion, Military Traffic Management Command in Pusan, South Korea in 2000. While assigned in Korea, he was part of the redeployment team during "Operation Cobra Gold" in Hatyai, Thailand. When he came back from the redeployment, he was sent back to Ft Eustis, VA and assigned to the Headquarters Post Company, 765th Transportation Battalion, 8th Training Brigade. There he worked at the Directorate of Logistics where he worked in the Installation Transportation Office or better known as the "ITO". Better known to his soldiers as "SGT TJ" was a part of the deployment team that sent over 35,000 troops, both active duty and reserves, to Kuwait to start the Iraq War. Will had his first daughter in December of 2004.
Will was in the process of getting out of the military and decided that the powers that be would prefer he chose another profession so he thought "what could I do to make a LOT of money for the LEAST amount of work?....THATS IT! ILL BE AN ACTOR!!!" He figured it couldn't be as hard as serving in the military...boy was he wrong! He googled acting conservatories in Los Angeles and found the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Hollywood. Will was then informed that he would have to get his transcripts from Orlando sent to Hollywood so he could meet an administrator from New York for an audition in DC! (yeah it was that serious! lol) Thinking "if any of this isn't meant to be, SOMETHING will fall thru the cracks and it wont happen" well all the hoops were jumped and the school board in Orlando offered to send the records directly to the Academy...I KNOW AWESOME RIGHT?!! So Will then went to DC to audition for the Academy at the Doubletree in downtown DC. Everything went well and Will was told he would be contacted if he was considered for a slot in the fall. Later that week, Wills grandmother, Luz Maria Lozano, was having open heart surgery and she didn't make it through the recovery process. Will jumped on an emergency flight to Chicago to bury his grandmother. SGT Tijerina placed his first set of dog-tags in the coffin with his grandmother and whispered to her "Im leaving my career plans in your hands literally abuelita...ayudame por favor" (help me please) Dona Luz was buried and SGT TJ went back to Ft Eustis. The following Monday, SGT TJ was informed he would be out of the Army on the 10th of May. Something told him to call the Academy to find out the status of his application and he was told by _____ (not a rat! lol) that "I cant say if you made it or not, but ALL I can say is when you get your WELCOME PACKET...please fill it out and return it ASAP!" So the 10th of May SGT TJ became Will Tijerina for good! After serving proudly for 7 yrs, that chapter was closed and became a big part of his history (as you can see) ;)
Will attended AADA for 2 yrs and was invited back to attend the 3rd yr. Things didn't work out logistically for Wills paperwork to attend the 3rd yr, go figure...He served 7 yrs in the Army being part of Logistics and his paperwork didn't get taken care of in time for his 3rd yr attendance. So Will went into the acting world as a professional classically trained actor in May of 2006! He then booked a National Tour with NASA and Honeywell called "FMA Live" www.fmalive.com as one of the hosts. So instead of paying another $15k to perform, Will was paid as much to tour the country teaching middle school kids about Sir Isaac Newtons "3 laws of motion"
Will had his second daughter in 2009 during a traumatic period in his life. Will then took some time off and moved back to Orlando to "regroup". Coming back home in Oct 2010, Will has been back in the acting scene and hitting auditions hard and working to make ends meet as an automobile re possessor helper and currently as a Sales Order associate for Herbalife.
Since Wills graduation, he has been featured on a couple of shows for TruTV called "Murder by the book"; a commercial for Boost Mobile called "Chirpees", Wendys commercials as one of the 3 window washers for the Spanish market; an independent film called "Addicts"; a print ad for T-Mobile; and a number of student films for USC one of which has become a popular student film called "Misdemeanors Revenge"...Many more credits to come and added to the bio...
