- April 24, 2024
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It started with picking an elective for college.
Seabreeze High School alumnus Alexander Bedria had always loved film, but he never dabbled in it while in school, other than one elementary school play. Until he graduated in 2000, he doesn't remember thinking about trying acting at all. But the opportunity presented itself when he was enrolled at Daytona State College — then called Daytona Beach Community College — and Bedria thought theater could be fun to try.
“That was when everything changed," Bedria said. "I completely fell in love with it from my very first day doing a scene in front of the class.”
From that moment on, he was a man on an acting mission. He did play after play at DSC, started auditioning in Central Florida for any part he could find, whether it was a commercial, film or TV role. Bedria, who also graduated from Ormond Beach Middle School, moved out of Ormond Beach in 2005, and now lives in Los Angeles. He's starred in shows like "Mayans M.C.," "The Newsroom" and "Scandal."
His latest project is a film titled "Aftermath," featuring "The Twilight Saga's" Ashley Greene and Shawn Ashmore, known for his role in the "X-Men" movies. The thriller, produced by Winther Brothers Entertainment and River Run Entertainment, is about young struggling couple who moves into a house with a questionable past. Bedria plays Robert in the film, who owns the home with his wife and isn't pleased to sell it.
It's a different role from ones Bedria has played in the past, which he is excited about. The role people will most likely associate Bedria with is Agent Santiago Heimler from "Mayans M.C.," the "Sons of Anarchy" spin-off series. Bedria appeared in five of the 10 episodes.
However, it's not Bedria's most personally memorable role. That credit goes to his guest star appearance in Aaron Sorkin's HBO drama "The Newsroom." Bedria played a priest in the show's fourth episode of its third season.
Bedria recalled performing scenes from Sorkin's other shows with his friends at DSC — not for a class, but just for fun.
“Then, there I was, some years later working on Aaron Sorkin’s show with Jeff Daniels, who I grew up watching and who couldn’t have been more gracious and awesome to work with," Bedria said.
It was surreal stepping onto set right before the first of that scene, Bedria recalled. He described it as a "pinch-myself" moment.
“When I fell in love with acting, I wasn’t in love with the idea of a career or fame or notoriety, or even making a living doing it. It was just the craft."
Alexander Bedria, SHS and OBMS alumnus
And despite the difficulties that come with pursuing a career in acting, Bedria said what keeps him sustained is directly rooted to what he discovered that first day of theater class at DSC. The love of the work.
“When I fell in love with acting, I wasn’t in love with the idea of a career or fame or notoriety, or even making a living doing it," Bedria said. "It was just the craft. It was the performance, and the embodiment and the work that you put into creating a scene and putting on a play. That feeling is still there for me every single time I’m on a set, or I’m doing an audition, or I’m even just running lines with fellow actors.”
Those same feelings of joy and fun haven't gone away, he added. They are the core of what keep him going.
His advice for up-and-coming actors? Create, create, create.
In this day and age, people who want to pursue a career in film and TV can share their work with the world by creating their own short films on their phones, or diving into writing their own works, Bedria said. When he realized for himself that no one was going to give him the opportunities he wanted, he started making short films. His 2017 short film "The Zim" went on to win Best of Fest at L.A. Shorts Fest and Studio City Film Festival.
That film, Bedria said, was born out of the desire to create. You never know where something will lead, he added.
“At the end of the day, it’s your life to live, and if it’s something you really want to pursue, then any opportunity that you have to act, take that opportunity," Bedria said.
