Beyond the Gates Performer of the Week: Jaden Lucas Miller as Tyrell Richardson

Recently, Beyond the Gates has been focusing on an important topic: bullying. This week, we’ve seen the subject of Tyrell’s bullying come to a head as pictures of him were nearly distributed, but Martin (Brandon Claybon) was able to intercept them. Both of Tyrell's parents pleaded their case for wanting to be there for him. They cited their concern for him as their reasoning for wanting to take action against the bullies at his school. But Tyrell made a compelling argument for them not to get involved in the situation and explained that he could handle it himself.

Beyond the Gates' Tyrell

Miller does an incredible job at portraying a teenager dealing with the stresses of today: bullying in person and online, and feeling as though your parents don’t understand you or what you’re going through.

Jaden Lucas Miller, who is 20 years old himself, embodies this role and gives Tyrell his due dedication by showing the effects of bullying as well as the life of an adopted child being bullied.

The character of Tyrell has been a sort of mysterious one thus far, with the audience only finding out about the bullying within the last few weeks, even though it has been going on as long as the show has. Miller accurately portrayed Tyrell's teen angst and elusiveness, as well as his seemingly constant struggle with being adopted — or, rather, his classmates' struggle with his being adopted.

Miller gives the character of Tyrell a resilience that is well beyond his age, making for a solid character that the audience can't help but care about and root for.

Parents Just Don't Understand

Of course, Martin and Smitty (Mike Manning) wanted to talk to Tyrell about this and get some answers. They asked him why he hadn't told them about it, stating that it was definitely serious since Tyrell had been physically hurt, and they wanted to go straight to the principal. Tyrell unsurprisingly asked them not to, and Smitty did a great job of convincing Martin to listen to Tyrell's pleas for them not to get involved. When it was found out that Martin had still gone to the principal, Tyrell addressed them as soon as he got home.

Miller's acting in these scenes was no small feat; he was tasked with still portraying a teenager who doesn't quite know who they are, what they want out of life, or everything that life could possibly bring. But, Miller rose to the occasion and, again, brought the character of Tyrell's concerns to light, desperately trying to get his parents to understand that going to the principal would only exacerabate things, which it now has, with Tyrell stating that the children were calling him a "snitch" and saying that his senator dad had come to his rescue. Tyrell, again, asked his parents to stay out of it and left for his room abruptly.

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This week's performance on Beyond the Gates saw Miller showcase his acting chops, possibly pulling from his own past teen angst to be able to bring awareness and authenticity to this storyline. A job well done, Mr. Miller.

Catch Jaden Lucas Miller as Tyrell on Beyond the Gates weekdays on CBS and Paramount Plus.

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