Alex Shaffer | |
---|---|
Born | 1993 (age 29–30) |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 2010–present |
Alex Shaffer (born August 23, 1993) is an American actor, best known for his role as Kyle Timmons, a troubled kid and a wrestling prodigy, in the 2011 film Win Win .
Shaffer was born in Hunterdon County, [1] New Jersey and raised in Raritan Township. [2] [3] He was a sophomore at Hunterdon Central Regional High School [4] when he was cast as a young wrestler in the movie Win Win after a classmate tipped him off about the auditions to the film that required an athlete-wrestler. [5] Shaffer had been a successful high school wrestler, winning the 2010 New Jersey State Wrestling Championship at 119 lb. as a sophomore, [6] but his wrestling career ended when he broke his L-5 vertebra. [7] [8]
Shaffer's screen debut earned raves. Roger Ebert described his acting as "effortlessly convincing." [9] Shaffer, whose hair was bleached for the role, "plays the reserved and withdrawn Kyle to perfection," said film critic Brandon Fibbs. [7] As for the film director Tom McCarthy, he said: "I knew that if the kid we cast had never wrestled, he wasn’t going to be able to fake it, at least not at the level we wanted Kyle to be. The great thing about Alex is, he also evokes all the qualities of a 16-year-old kid. He just felt so real to me. We really put him through the wringer on this movie and he just kept getting better and better." [10] In an interview with PBS he said: "You know, this monosyllabic shut-down character we all know and love so much, which is very difficult to bring to the screen actually, as you run the risk of the character being flat, but he [Alex Shaffer] found a way in his directness to be very charming". [11]
After the success of Win Win, Shaffer decided to pursue acting professionally. In 2013 he starred alongside Kristen Bell and Martin Starr in the Sundance indie The Lifeguard. He also stars in the director/writer Kimberly Levin's independent film, Runoff. [12] He played the character Squirrel in the 2015 film We Are Your Friends, starring Zac Efron and directed by Max Joseph. At the same time, he briefly filled in as a guest host on the MTV series Catfish: The TV Show in place of Joseph. [13]
In 2016 Shaffer played the role of board track and dirt track racer Albert "Shrimp" Burns in the Discovery Channel docudrama Harley and the Davidsons . [14]
Jesse Ventura is an American politician, actor, and retired professional wrestler. After achieving fame in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), he served as the 38th governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003. He was elected governor with the Reform Party and is the party's only candidate to win a major government office.
Raritan Township is a township in Hunterdon County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 23,447, an increase of 1,262 (+5.7%) from the 2010 census count of 22,185, which in turn reflected an increase of 2,376 (+12.0%) from the 19,809 counted in the 2000 census. The township is located within the heart of the Amwell Valley and Raritan Valley regions, as the South Branch of the Raritan River flows through the center of the township. The northwestern portion of the township is located on the Hunterdon Plateau.
Simon Phillips is a US-based English jazz, fusion and rock drummer, songwriter, and record producer. He worked with rock bands during the 1970s and 1980s and was the drummer for the band Toto from 1992 to 2014.
Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke Jr. is an American actor and former boxer who has appeared primarily as a leading man in drama, action, and thriller films.
Donald Edmond Wahlberg Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, actor, record producer, and film producer. He is a founding member of the boy band New Kids on the Block. Outside music, he has had roles in the Saw films, Zookeeper, Dreamcatcher, The Sixth Sense, Righteous Kill, and Ransom, as well as appearing in the World War II miniseries Band of Brothers as Carwood Lipton.
Delaware Valley Regional High School is a regional, four-year public high school and school district, that serves students in western Hunterdon County, New Jersey. The high school is located in Alexandria Township. Students hail from the townships of Alexandria, Holland and Kingwood along with the boroughs of Frenchtown and Milford.
North Hunterdon High School is a four-year regional public high school serving students from six municipalities in northern Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States, as one of two high schools in the North Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional High School District. Students in the high school hail from Bethlehem Township, Clinton Town, Clinton Township, Franklin Township, Lebanon Borough and Union Township; the school is located in the Annandale section of Clinton Township. The school is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools.
Voorhees High School is a four-year public high school located in Lebanon Township, named for Foster McGowan Voorhees, the 30th Governor of New Jersey. It is one of two high schools in the North Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional High School District, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades from six municipalities in northern Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 1977.
Hunterdon Central Regional High School is a comprehensive, four-year public high school, and regional school district that serves students from five municipalities in east central Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. Students hail from Delaware Township, East Amwell Township, Flemington, Raritan Township and Readington Township.
Thomas Joseph McCarthy is an American film director, screenwriter, and actor who has appeared in several films, including Meet the Parents and Good Night, and Good Luck, and television series such as The Wire, Boston Public, Law & Order etc.
Michiel Huisman is a Dutch actor who has acted in both Dutch and English-language TV series and films.
Emma Jean Bell is an American actress, best known for her role as Parker O'Neal in the films Frozen and Hatchet II, as Molly Harper in Final Destination 5 (2011), and for playing Amy in the first and third season of The Walking Dead, and Emma Judith Ryland Brown on the TNT drama series Dallas (2013–2014).
Win Win is a 2011 American sports comedy-drama film written and directed by Tom McCarthy and starring Paul Giamatti, Alex Shaffer, Amy Ryan, Bobby Cannavale, Jeffrey Tambor, Burt Young and Melanie Lynskey.
Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown is a 2011 American martial arts film starring Evan Peters, Michael Jai White, Dean Geyer, Alex Meraz, Todd Duffee, Scott Epstein and Jillian Murray. It is a sequel to the 2008 film Never Back Down. The film made its world premiere at the ActionFest film festival in Asheville, North Carolina, on April 8, 2011. The film was released on DVD on September 13, 2011, from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The film marks White's directorial debut.
UFC Live: Hardy vs. Lytle was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on August 14, 2011, at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The event was the first that the UFC has hosted in Wisconsin. The event was broadcast on Rogers Sportsnet and Versus.
Ronald Kyle Funches is an American actor, comedian, and writer. Born in California, Funches spent his early life in Chicago before relocating to Salem, Oregon, as a teenager. He began his comedy career in Portland, Oregon, at age 23. After moving to Los Angeles in 2012, he began appearing as a guest on several comedy series, including @midnight, Mulaney, and Kroll Show.
Angela Denise Trimbur is an American actress, writer, dancer, choreographer, and former reality television participant.
Robert Aramayo is an English actor. From 2016 to 2017 he played the role of young Eddard Stark in the sixth and seventh season of the HBO series Game of Thrones. In 2021, he starred in the Netflix psychological thriller miniseries, Behind Her Eyes. In 2022 he played Elrond in the Amazon series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Harley and the Davidsons is a 2016 American television miniseries directed by Ciarán Donnelly and Stephen Kay, and co-written by Nick Schenk, Evan Wright and Seth Fisher which dramatizes the origins of motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson, and how Arthur Davidson founded the company together with his brothers Walter Davidson, Sr. and William A. Davidson, along with their childhood friend William S. Harley.
Even teenage son Finley (Alex Shaffer, the star wrestler from "Win Win"), who can't wait to leave for the city...