Mehran Ghafourian: Actor and director

Consider going to film school. Though it's totally not required, film school is great for three things: forced experience, access to crews, and networking. Plenty have made it who did not go to film school, but plenty more have made it who have. You'll have access to internships, workshops, and, most importantly, names, names, names. If you have a project, you can get a crew handed to you and you can network by helping others out, too.