Experience

My professional career as an actor started over 30 years ago. At the age of 14 I was signed to a local talent agency in Columbus, Ohio, and enrolled into their acting class where I first learned the techniques of Meisner’s “emotional recall” and “sense memory.” The first acting class session culminated with a showcase in which my partner and I performed a scene from The Diary of Anne Frank, with me portraying the young Peter and my partner the young Anne Frank, and in turn sparked my lifelong passion for acting.

At the age of 28 I signed with a regional talent agency and began auditioning and landing working in commercials, industrials and independent films, all the while continuing to pursue work on the stage. It was right around this same time I was cast in the lead role of Barney Cashman in Curtain Player’s production of Last of the Red Hot Lovers. And while I was successful in getting roles both theatrically and commercially, I knew that just working wasn’t enough.

In 2004, I started taking classes with Richard Mason of Acting In Columbus, in which the focus was both in preparing for the audition and working a scene with a partner. Recognizing my accomplishments, Richard Mason cast me in his production of Dave Carley’s Test Drive, a three-actor play in which I portrayed seven different roles.

In 2006, having moved to a larger regional talent agency, I earned my Screen Actors Guild ( SAG/AFTRA) card appearing as a featured actor in a national Toyota commercial that ran for over 12 years.

Shortly after, while performing in Women At Play’s production of Hungry Hearts as a 1920’s Argentinian Yiddish theatre promoter, directed by Katherine Burkman, I learned of another instructor, Kevin McClatchy, who was offering acting classes. McClatchy, an accomplished actor of theatre, film and television, who studied with the legendary Wynn Handmann and Greg Zittel, brought a legitimacy and gravitas to his classes that demanded the actor’s full attention and effort. For two years, from 2006 to 2008, I took his class every week, working on monologues, scene work and improvisation, working outside of class at least once a week with a scene partner when needed.

The Stage

In 2008, Kevin McClatchy started Carrickmacross Productions, a local theatre company dedicated to producing Irish works. They chose Stones In His Pockets, a two-actor play, in which I shared the stage with Kevin, portraying 8 different roles with varying dialects of Irish, British and Scottish, under the direction of Jimmy Bohr. For my work I was recognized for Best Male Theatre Performance by the Central Ohio critics.

In 2009 I again won Best Male Theatre Performance for my portrayal of Ralph Ian Wantage in Bryony Lavery’s Frozen, produced by Evolution Theatre.

That same year I was asked by Kevin McClatchy to appear in Carrickmacross’s next production of Ronan Noone’s The Blowin of Baille Gall in the role of Stephen, the troubled attempting-to-reform alcoholic construction worker, once again taking on an Irish dialect.

In 2011, I was back on stage at Evolution Theatre for their Adam Rapp festival, performing in Rapp’s one-act Nocturne, a 43-page solo piece about a Son coming to terms with a tragic event that happened in the past, navigating guilt, shame and forgiveness.

Next, in 2012, I auditioned for CATCO, at the time the only Equity theatre in Columbus, for their production of Geoffrey Naufft’s Next Fall, landing the lead role of Adam, initiating my entrance into the Equity Membership Candidate Program (EMC).

That same year I would again perform at CATCO in their Equity production of Rajiv Joseph’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, playing the lead role of Musa, an Iraqi translator during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The role was a unique and welcomed challenge as it required working with a language and dialect coach learning Arabic for much of my dialogue and delivering my English lines with an authentic Iraqi accent.

Staged reading performances include CATCO’s Clybourne Park (Karl/Steve) and Death of a Salesman (Biff) at CATCO, The Book of Liz (Brother Nathaniel Brightbee) with Blue Forms Theatre, As You Wish: A Reading of The Princess Bride (Inigo Montoya) for New Players Theatre, and Wild Duck (Hjalmar Ekdel) with Wild Women Writing.

More recent roles include Looped (Danny Miller) at Evolution Theatre under the direction of Jimmy Bohr in 2015, for which I was nominated for Best Actor at the Jebby Awards; partnering back up with director Katherine Burkman and Wild Women Writing in 2018 to perform the solo one-act play Title and Deed by Will Eno; and returning to CATCO in 2019 with director Steven Anderson for the Equity production of Geoffrey Hatcher’s Holmes and Watson (Dr. Watson).

The Screen

In 2000, I began auditioning and working with independent filmmakers in Columbus, Ohio. I landed my first role in a feature film in the 2001 mocukumentary comedy Going Corporate, playing John Leveck, the arrogant and entitled VP of Sales for a tech company that was buying out a smaller start-up. The actors were given the outline of the scene to be filmed, with an occasional specific line of dialogue that might be needed, and were then left to improvise. It required a significant amount of work in building the character, knowing the “moment before” a scene, and actively listening to the other actors while making sure to hit all of the needed moments for the story to progress.

Since that first film, I have appeared in over 50 commercials and industrials, including national spots for Nationwide Insurance and Toyota. I have also been cast in leading roles in more than 40 short films produced all over the country.

Cast as the lead role of Lt. Jack Schmidt in the 2006 independent horror/sci-fi feature Horrors of War, I won Best Actor at the Sansevieria Film Festival. And in 2011, my performance in the short film Eroded, as the haunted and troubled Billy, garnered me the award for Best Actor at the Underneath Cincinnati Film Festival.

In 2013, casting director D. Lynn Meyers, having seen my performance on stage in CATCO’s Next Fall, asked me to audition for the Hallmark Channel’s The Christmas Spirit. After two callbacks and a producer’s session I was cast in the role of Jerry Hart, a soldier trying to get home to his family for the holidays. My character ending up being the spotlight of the “Hallmark Moment” of the film. Better than that, however, was being able to spend time between scenes with Olympia Dukakis, sitting on the steps of her trailer talking about acting, theatre and movies.

The following year I was cast alongside Patrick Wilson and Haley Bennet in the 2014 thriller A Kind of Murder in which I played Patrick’s boss, Jon Carr, under the direction of Andy Goddard.

That same year I auditioned for director Andrew Neel’s fraternity drama Goat. After the initial audition with the casting director, I was asked to read for the director at a callback, after which Andrew asked if I would read for a different role. I was given sides and told I could take a few minutes before coming back into the room to read with him again. In this situation I relied on my training and experience to breakdown the sides, build a character, create the “moment before” and make strong choices. Once back in the room, Andrew read with me personally, first with the sides line-for-line, then “throwing them out” and improvising the scene. My training and work paid off as I was cast as the college provost, sharing a scene with the talented Ben Schnetzer.

In 2017, I auditioned for Emilio Estevez’s feature film The Public, a drama centered around the public library in Cincinnati, Ohio, and its homeless patrons during the coldest night of the winter. I was cast as the head of security for the library and shared scenes with Emilio, Alec Bladwin, Jeffrey Wright and Christian Slater, under the direction of Estevez.

Most recently, in 2019, D. Lynn Meyers brought me in to audition for director Todd Haynes’ drama Dark Waters, starring Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway. After auditions and callbacks, I won the role of Anne’s on-screen brother, sharing scenes with her and Ruffalo.

Click on the image below to see my current theatrical demo reel.

Guest Speaking, Instructing

• CINUBLUE PRODUCITONS, Instructor, 2007
  Introduction to Commercial Acting
  Students: 18+

• MID-OHIO FILMMAKERS ASSOCIATION, Panelist, 2014
  Panel Discussion on Acting and the Actor’s Life
  Produced by Framelines

• ACTORS WORKSHOP @ 400, Guest Speaker, 2015
  The audition, agents and headshots

Education and Research

Below is a list of the classes and workshops I have taken:

• Acting in Columbus (2004-2005). Richard Mason, instructor. Audition techniques, monologues, scene work.

• McClatchy Act (2006-2008). Kevin McClatchy, instructor. Warm-up techniques, monologues, scene work, improvisation, movement.

• McClatchy Act - Shakespeare Workshop (2015). Kevin McClatchy, instructor.

• Audition Intensive (2005). Donna Belajac, instructor.

• Audition & Career Workshop (2007). Jimmy Bohr, instructor.

• Improv Workshop (2008). Ralph Scott, instructor.

• Improv Technique (2003-2004). George Caleodis, instructor.

Over the years of classes and from having worked with various directors, the following is a list of a few of the books on acting which I have read and continue to come back to for new contextual discoveries and inspiration:

• Brestoff, Richard. The Camera Smart Actor. SK, 1994.

• Shurtleff, Michael. Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part. Walker, 2003.

• Stanislavsky, Konstantin. An Actor Prepares. Routledge/Theatre Arts Books, 2003.

• Stanislavsky, Konstantin. Building a Character. Routledge/Theater Arts Books, 2003.

• Mamet, David. True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Author. Vintage Books, 1999.

Including those in which I have performed, the following is a list of plays I have read:

• August: Osage County, by Tracy Letts

• The Beauty Queen of Leenane, by Martin McDonagh

• A Behanding in Spokane, by Martin McDonagh

• Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, by Rajiv Joseph

• The Blowin of Baile Gall, by Ronan Noone

• The Book of Liz, by Amy Sedaris and David Sedaris

• Buried Child, by Sam Shepard

• Clybourne Park, by Bruce Norris

• The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, by William Inge

• Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller

• Frozen, by Bryony Lavery

• Hamlet, by William Shakespeare

• Holmes and Watson, by Jeffrey Hatcher

• Intermission, by Will Eno

• The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, by Stephen Adly Guirgis

• The Last Liberal, by Dave Carley

• Last of the Red Hot Lovers, by Neil Simon

• A Lie of the Mind, by Sam Shepard

• Looped, by Matthew Lombardo

• The Mercy Seat, by Neil LaBute

• Next Fall, by Geoffrey Nauffts

• Nocturne, by Adam Rapp

• Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey

• Proof, by David Auburn

• The Realistic Joneses, by Will Eno

• Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakepeare

• The Shape of Things, by Neil LaBute

• Simpatico, by Sam Shepard

• Stones In His Pockets, by Marie Jones

• Test Drive, by Dave Carley

• Title and Deed, by Will Eno

• The Treatment, by Eve Ensler

• True West, by Sam Shepard

• Wakey, Wakey, by Will Eno

• Wild Duck, by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by David Auburn