Actor Jeremy DeCarlos '09 Takes Teen Ambition to the Stage, Screen

Pictured on the set of Cartoon Network’s live-action film “Ben 10” are Jeremy DeCarlos, left, and Nathan Keyes.

Jeremy DeCarlos ’09 can pinpoint the moment he knew he wanted to be an actor to the “premature mid-life crisis” he had at age 13.

DeCarlos, just into his teen years, decided to get serious about figuring out a career path, and acting was first in his mind. “I knew that I always loved going to plays and watching movies,” said the Columbia, S.C., native. DeCarlos started taking acting classes and participating in his local community theater. Then he came to Winthrop, where the drive of his fellow theatre students was contagious.

“The creativity of the students is something that I hadn’t experienced anywhere else. Their drive to create was incredible,” said DeCarlos. Later, he used that resolve as motivation, acting in several Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte productions and auditioning for TV parts, landing roles in shows like “Dawson’s Creek” and "One Tree Hill." But it was his 2009 role in Cartoon Network’s “Ben 10: Alien Swarm,” a live-action alien film using green screens, that gave him his first taste of professional film acting. The experience, which taught him to see the “very thin line between acting believably and waving your arms in the air,” got him hooked on the craft.

Since “Ben 10,” DeCarlos has worked on “Zombie King,” a short independent zombie film, and its follow-up; auditioned for numerous TV and movie roles; and started writing his own projects, including a romantic comedy he hopes to turn into a film. Though the business isn’t easy, DeCarlos’ love of acting helps him stick with it.

“With this job, you work with your imagination and you collaborate with other people’s imaginations,” he said. “In the future, as long as I’m still doing that, I’ll be happy.”