Gordon Schaye on the Journey from Doctor to Actor to Novelist

When Gordon Schaye talks about starting over, there is no melancholy in his voice, only curiosity. At an age when most people are winding down careers, reflecting on what was, Schaye seems far more interested in what might still be possible.

Reinvention, for him, isn’t a dramatic pivot or a late-life crisis. It is a way of being.

Today, he is an actor, producer, and now a novelist. Yet those roles tell only part of the story of a man who has already lived several full chapters, each shaped by discipline, imagination, and a lifelong relationship with storytelling. As he prepares to share his debut novel with readers, Schaye is stepping into what may be the most personal chapter of his creative journey yet.

“Stories find you when you’re finally ready to tell them,” he says. “This one waited a long time.”

Long before he appeared on screen or put pen to paper, Gordon Schaye built a decades-long career in medicine. Trained as an ear, nose, and throat specialist, he practiced in both New York’s Gramercy Park and Southern California, where he became known for his pioneering work treating actors and singers with vocal concerns. He also served annually on the vocal health symposium panel at The Juilliard School and co-founded Health Care Partners, which grew to become the largest private medical group in the United States.

Medicine was deeply meaningful work, but it was not the entirety of who he was. Most people learn to ignore that quiet awareness. Schaye did not.

The precision, intuition, and emotional steadiness required in his medical career would later become unlikely creative assets. After nearly five decades in practice, Schaye retired from medicine and turned his attention toward acting, a long-held interest that had never fully left him. When he stepped away from the exam room and onto set, he did so with clarity and intention, surprising even those closest to him.

The transition proved natural. He began appearing in commercials, films, and music videos, bringing a grounded presence shaped by lived experience rather than performance alone.

Schaye is quick to point out that this evolution did not happen overnight.

“It came quietly,” he explains. “Through years of curiosity that never went away. Medicine demanded precision and discipline, but creativity was always there, running underneath it all. I never felt like I was leaving something behind. I felt like I was finally making room.”

That philosophy continues to shape his life today. Schaye divides his time between acting, writing, and development work through his independent production company, which he runs with his wife, Carmen. Together, they focus on stories that bridge generations, narratives rooted in love, legacy, and second chances.

Carmen, a former professor at California State University, has also joined Gordon on production. As partners in both life and art, the couple continues to create, collaborate, and explore stories that reflect the richness of lived experience.

Their first television pilot, Helen and Harold: Wrong Turn, earned early recognition on the festival circuit, validating their instinct that there is a genuine appetite for stories that embrace, rather than avoid, the complexities of aging and reinvention. Since then, they have continued developing additional projects centered on intergenerational dynamics, late-life creativity, and the universal desire for connection and belonging.

For Gordon Schaye, success now looks less like achievement and more like alignment. Choosing projects that feel honest. Working with people he trusts. Remaining engaged with the world rather than retreating from it.

As he steps further into his life as a novelist, Schaye remains clear that personal evolution is not a destination. It is a practice. There is no final version of himself he is trying to reach, only the next honest step.

“I don’t think we ever finish growing,” he reflects. “And I wouldn’t want to.”

In that quiet refusal to settle, Gordon Schaye offers something rare: permission to believe that life can continue unfolding long after the world expects it to narrow. In an industry often obsessed with youth, he does not pretend to be anything other than what he is: a man who has lived, loved, made mistakes, and evolved. That authenticity now shapes his writing, giving his debut novel an emotional gravity that only experience can provide.

Follow Gordon Schaye as he continues to tell stories through film, television, and fiction on his official author website.

Click here to read Second Chance at Love on Amazon.