Actor Dulé Hill's big break was in 1999 on Aaron Sorkin's "The West Wing," where he played Charlie Young, the personal aide to President Jed Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen. The show inspired a generation of political hopefuls and helped shape modern politics. For Hill, the award-winning show launched a 25-year multifaceted career in TV, films and Broadway.

Hill was an artist long before "The West Wing" came along. He started tap dancing at three years old and was cast in the national tour of the Broadway show, "The Tap Dance Kid," with fellow tap dancing great Savion Glover. I talked to Hill on "Salon Talks" about his ability to transform into different characters. He shared, “I don't really have a step-by-step plan. It's really a spiritual thing, an emotional thing." He continued, “I say, ‘Who is this dude? Why is this person the way they are?’” Hill continued, “That's really the first question I ask."

Hill's latest project, "The Express Way with Dulé Hill" on PBS, taps into those early creative roots and aims to shine a light on the localized power of art. Over the course of the series, Hill meets artists from all walks of life across America. Hill stops in San Francisco, Chicago, Texas and Appalachia. “When you take the time to travel the vast lands of this country," Hill explained, "You realize we're all pretty much seeking after the same thing. We want to be seen. We want to add value to the world around us.”

Much like Hill's experiences as a young dancer, many of the artists featured in the show are happiest when they are lost in their art. The idea of going big or making it is not often the goal. “You get caught up in the celebrity of it and the magnitude of it.” Hill said, talking about Hollywood. “But the people that I met were trying to affect where they are right there like, 'I'm passionate about this. This is my square. This is my circle of influence, and I'm trying to give all of myself to influence my circle.'"

Watch my "Salon Talks" episode with Dulé Hill here or read a Q&A of our conversation below to hear more about "The Express Way with Dulé Hill," the colorful way he balances family life as a working artist, his transition from actor to host and learn why his love story with his wife actor Jazmyn Simon is so special.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

I love “The Express Way with Dulé Hill.” I learned a lot. How did it come about?

The show came about because Chris Howard and Josh Jacobs, who are two exec producers on the show, came to my wife, Jazmyn Simon and I with this nugget of an idea of: how does dance affect culture?

I'm a tap dancer, so they knew I was passionate about dance. Then thankfully we were able to connect with Danny Lee and the team over at Calico. Danny had a magnificent idea of expanding the lens beyond dance to include all forms of expression, all forms of art. That's when we realized we had something special, that, if we can take an expressway throughout the country, meeting people who are using their art, their gifts, their creative forms of expression to make the world a better place, to empower their communities and to find their voice, then maybe there might be an interesting and inspiring story to be told.

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You've done theater, you've done film, you've done television. What is it like making the shift to host?

That was different. I believe on life's journey, you got to always stay open to something new. I think if you keep just doing what's familiar to you, then it can get redundant. To me, you're not living to the fullest at that point. The idea of stepping into hosting was a new challenge and a new genre that I had not experienced before.

I'm not really somebody who likes to get up and talk in front of people, but I am somebody who's always interested in people. As I went on this journey, that's the thing that I really enjoyed was connecting with people along the way and hearing their story. I think oftentimes in life and especially in this country, we don't lean in and listen to each other enough. I want to tell you so much about me, but I don't want to sit back and lean in and listen to you. When you take the time to do that, you actually learn so much if you're curious about people.

Not with looking at them with the judgment in your eyes, but really if you're just listening, it's like, "I want to know about you." That along this journey was the thing that I really enjoyed the most.

"I'm not really somebody who likes to get up and talk in front of people, but I am somebody who's always interested in people."

Going on “The Express Way,” it was really just listening to people's stories, and the stories throughout this country are so powerful. You would think, OK, being in California, they don't really have anything that connects them to Appalachia, or Appalachia doesn't have anything that connects them to Chicago. Chicago definitely doesn't have anything that connects themselves to Texas.

But when you take the time to travel the vast lands of this country and you get a chance to hear about the vast stories and the diverse journeys that we go on, you realize we're all pretty much seeking after the same thing. We want to be seen. We want to add value to the world around us. We want to know that our existence means something. That we're not just here by happenchance, and we want to know that we're powerful. There's a gift that's inside of us. There's something that's always burning inside of us. I think when we realize that if we honor that and we share that we can actually make this........

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