Real-life “Yellowstone” cowboy went from sleeping in a tent to a building a TV empire

The real life cowboy behind Yellowstone went from sleeping in a tent to hitting his first big break near his 40s. Co creator and writer Taylor Sheridan dominates the most watched list across both broadcast and streaming shows. But it wasn't long ago that Sheridan was making his home on the range, literally. Sheridan experienced a difficult childhood growing up outside of Waco, TX, according to The Atlantic, where his family had a ranch they went to on the weekends. He described how living at a ranch taught him what it was like to be a cowboy, and it later inspired his work. Sheridan enrolled in Texas State University, but later dropped out after being scouted. Sheridan began landing acting gigs on shows like CSI and NYPD Blue. He eventually ended up in Los Angeles, living out of his car with his dog. Sheridan finally got a break playing David Hale and Sons of Anarchy, but just as he was making it, Sheridan left acting NLA behind to raise his child in Wyoming. But that didn't mean Sheridan was done with writing stories. As Sheridan wrote scripts for movies like Sicario and Hell or High Water, he worked on Yellowstone on the side before it was finally picked up by Paramount in 2018. Sheridan now lives on a ranch in his home state of Texas and netted a nearly $200 million deal with Paramount to produce more shows over the next couple of years.