Vanderbilt student Tyler Ford will be one of 14 contenders featured on season two of The Glee Project when the reality television series returns to the Oxygen network this summer. The competition’s grand prize is a guest-starring role on the Fox TV series Glee.
Ford, from Boca Raton, Fla., has been performing for 11 years and is passionate about picking up and learning to play different instruments, including the ukulele, according to his bio on The Glee Project website. The show held open casting calls for season two in New York, Chicago and Nashville, in addition to a competitive online search. Ford participated in the Nashville open casting call. The show’s final 14 contenders hail from across the country and come from widely different backgrounds.
During The Glee Project’s 11-week run, the contenders will be narrowed down through intensive rounds of workshops, singing, dancing and acting-based assignments by the creative forces behind Glee. Executive Producer Ryan Murphy will again join casting director Robert Ulrich and choreographer and Glee co-producer Zach Woodlee in the final deliberations of each installment of the series. Vocal coach Nikki Anders, who mentored the contenders on-air in season one, joins the judging panel in season two. In addition, Glee series regulars will appear as guest mentors, including Lea Michele in the The Glee Project’s premiere episode.
During season one of The Glee Project, winners Damian McGinty and Samuel Larsen each landed seven-episode arcs on Glee, and runners-up Lindsay Pearce and Alex Newell earned two-episode arcs.
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