Gary Bullock was born and grew up in the hills of East Tennessee, lived and taught in New England, where he got his first SAG job. He met his mate, Mil Nicholson there, and they were married in the Merrimack Repertory Theatre on the set of The Importance of Being Earnest. They moved to the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina, where he won his first film role in Winter People. He toured with Poetry Alive!, performing poetry in schools all over the East. He and Mil also worked in dinner theatre, and created and carried out an artist's residency program in theatre in Western North Carolina schools.