Chris Massoglia

Chris Massoglia

Massoglia at the premiere of Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, 2009
Born Christopher Paul Massoglia
(1992-03-29) March 29, 1992
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Other names Chris Kelly
Occupation Actor
Years active 2003-present

Christopher Paul "Chris" Massoglia[1] (born March 29, 1992) is an American television and motion picture actor.

Early life

Chris Massoglia was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Christopher and Karen Massoglia.[2] His father is a chiropractor and his mother a homemaker.[2] His parents are devout Christians and Republicans, and Massoglia grew up a fan of Christian pop music (as well as unable to listen to rap music).[2] Gifted with an above-average intelligence, Massoglia was homeschooled by his mother.[2] While his peers were taking third grade-level subjects, Massoglia was taking eighth grade-level courses.[2] By the age of 13, he had enrolled in an online university where his coursework included developmental psychology, Biblical studies, algebra, and American history.[2] He also had studied jujitsu, played piano, trained as a hip-hop dancer, knew American sign language, and rode horses.[2] He was also a stand-out Little League Baseball player.[2] The Massoglia family has, as of 2009, refused to move to Hollywood, preferring to maintain a home in Minneapolis despite the extensive travel for Chris that this requires.[3]

Movie career

He began attending acting workshops at a dancing academy in his home town of Minneapolis while in middle school, and auditioning for television commercials by creating home-made audition tapes.[3] His first jobs included commercials for Target, Marshall Field's, PepsiCo, and Best Buy.[2]

He began acting in 2003 under the name "Chris Kelly" (sometimes appearing as "Chris J. Kelly") in an episode of the television program Law & Order: Criminal Intent.[3] The same year, he was considered for the part of 10-year-old Sean in the Nicole Kidman film Birth, but the family refused to allow him to appear naked on screen with a nude, grown woman.[2] He auditioned for Spider-Man 2 (getting far enough in the casting process to spend an afternoon with Tobey Maguire) and Bad News Bears (he returned six times for call-backs but was not cast).[2] He spent the summer of 2004 away from auditions to play Little League Baseball; his team (the Robbinsdale All-Stars) won the Minnesota state title that year but did not go to the Little League World Series after losing in the Indianapolis regionals.[2] He appeared in two episodes of Medical Investigation in 2004,[4] and four episodes of the TNT cable television police drama Wanted in 2005.[3][4] He began using his family name of Massoglia in 2008.[3]

He made his feature film acting debut in 2007 in the motion picture A Plumm Summer,[5] but his most prominent role as of 2009 was as "Darren Shan" in the 2009 film Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant.[6] Originally scheduled to debut in theaters in 2010, the film was moved to October 2009 to "capitalize on the Halloween season",[7] and opened a month prior to another highly anticipated vampire picture, New Moon.[8]

His follow-up project was the 3-D horror film The Hole, directed by Joe Dante,[9][10][11] He also went on to play the role of older Sam, Zac Efron's brother in Charlie St. Cloud, but his role was cut from the film.[11][12]

Acting critiques

As of November 2009, most critiques of Massoglia's acting have concerned his leading role in Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. His performance has not won raves; motion picture industry trade publication Variety said, "The production puts far too much faith in the appeal of newcomer Chris Massoglia, who plays Darren Shan, a rule-abiding, good-grade-earning conformist with the shaggy coif and bland, gumdrop charm of your average Nickelodeon character."[13] The Boston Globe called his acting "too bland to deliver."[14] However, in his 2009 film The Hole, The Hollywood Reporter called Massoglia "a young Zac Efron... who ably carries the film." [15]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
2007 A Plumm Summer Elliott Plumm
2009 The Hole Dane Thompson Main role
2009 Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant Darren Shan Main role

Television

Year Title Role Notes
2003 Law & Order: Criminal Intent Sam Connors Episode: "Happy Family"
2004 Medical Investigation Jack Connor Episode: "You're Not Alone"
Episode: "Coming Home"
2005 Wanted Tony Rose 4 episodes
2006 Boys Life Tom Porter
2013 Our Wild Hearts Ryan TV movie

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/23/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.