Severance’s Tramell Tillman on Going from Pursuing Medicine to Emmy Nominee (Exclusive)

Tramell Tillman’s path to stardom was far from linear.

Although he is now known for his role as Seth Milchick in the Apple TV+ hit Severance, Tillman, 40, didn’t always think this career would be in the cards for him. He tells PEOPLE how he ended up in the place he always hoped to be.

“When I decided I wanted to be an actor, I had the courage to utter that and was told I’d never make it,” Tillman reveals. “And in order to make it in life, I needed to go in science, technology, engineering, math. So I looked at the sciences. I said, ‘I’m really fascinated with the bone structure. Why don’t I become an orthopedic surgeon?’”

“So I was studying that even in high school — still performing on the side — but my main focus was the sciences,” he continues. “And then I went to Xavier University, which was number one, and may still be number one, for sending African-Americans to med school.”

One day, Tillman says he was in a chemistry lab class and had a realization that changed his life.

“I was bored to tears,” he recalls. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to do this.’ There were so many people around me who were so enthralled with this and enjoyed it, and I’m like, ‘This is boring.’ And I was really inspired by those that had that zeal for this thing, and looking at my family and the choices that they made and other people around me, and if I had the opportunity to go pursue my dreams, I wanted to do it.”

He adds: “It took me a while to get to the point where I made the commitment to [do] acting full time, but I eventually got there. But I had to go from job to career, to career to job, in order to find out that it was always there.”

Looking back, the Mission Impossible star believes he just “had to be ready.”

“That’s it,” he says. “Timing.”

In July, Tillman had his full-circle moment when he received his first ever Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Severance.

When he heard the news, he said he had “a series of feelings.”

“There was adrenaline,” he notes. “It was a rush of relief because I finally had an answer. I’ve been waiting for months to find out how the show was going to do, if I was going to be part of that recognition in that way. And when the news came out, I was absolutely elated and floored and dizzy, and it was such a wonderful moment.”

He also happened to make history as the first openly gay Black man to secure a nomination in that category.

He says despite his success, he still sees himself as a “scared 10-year-old little boy who is afraid to go in front of a live audience and say lines.”

Even though he no longer feels that way, he admits he doesn’t know if that part of him will ever fade.

“I still hold on to him because there’s that curiosity that I have, that love for the craft and love for the art,” Tillman says. “And being an Emmy nominee doesn’t change anything. For me it just really humbles me in a way, because I’m thrilled to share this space with these amazing actors like Sam Rockwell and Walton [Goggins] and Zach [Cherry] and Jason [Isaacs] and James [Marsden]. Just to be one in the number is itself a gift, and I want to continue to follow that joy, follow the bliss.”

A month before receiving his nomination, Tillman turned 40 — which reminded him just how far he has come.

The actor shares that he used to have very different goals for this milestone birthday.

“As far as what I set out to accomplish when I was younger, by the time I was 40, I said that I was going to have six kids and be married to a woman and live in Atlanta, Georgia,” he shares. “None of which happened.”

Take PEOPLE with you! Subscribe to PEOPLE magazine to get the latest details on celebrity news, exclusive royal updates, how-it-happened true crime stories and more — right to your mailbox.

His journey to finding a place in the world of entertainment has taught Tillman a lot, he says. The sentiment that stands out the most to him: “I have little control over anything.”

“The only thing I have control over is me and how I respond to life,” he explains. “And navigating this industry has been such a life lesson in that from going on set to waiting for the next project, to auditions, to waiting for cars, transportation, all of that. You don’t have control. You have to wait. You have to figure it out and trust that you’ll be okay in the end.”

Seasons 1-2 of Severance are now streaming in full on Apple TV+.