Delon de Metz is an actor on the TV show The Bold and the Beautiful. He portrays Zende, the charismatic, handsome and talented grandson of the Forrester patriarch, Eric Forrester. De Metz's acting career has spanned theater, film and television. His recent credits include Netflix's The Kominsky Method as well as CBS's NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, Zoo and Scorpion. 

Q. When did your interest for acting first begin?

A. I always loved movies, but my interest in pursuing acting as a career didn't start until my mother sent me to take acting lessons with a coach named Susan Batson during my sophomore summer in high school. Apparently my mom didn't have much interest in my pursuing acting as a career either - she told me the classes would be good prep for college interviews a few years down the line. After going to my first lesson - somewhat begrudgingly - I was hooked.

Q. Did growing up in New York City relate to your passion for acting? Can you speak about any thread between childhood and now?

A. I lived in the cinema. I can't remember a weekend I wasn't at the movies through all of middle and high school. It didn't matter what was out or what the reviews were; I was always there. There are some NYC movies that definitely influenced my love of performing, specifically American Psycho, Cruel Intentions, Zoolander, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. My friends and I would speak almost exclusively in American Psycho and Zoolander quotes through high school.

Q. How did your time at Harvard play into that story?

A. Well I studied economics, and for a while it seemed like finance would be my path, but I kept performing in school on-camera and theatrical productions. During the summers I would always make time to be in acting class at night back in NYC, and at some point - probably during the summer after sophomore year in college - I got an agent in New York.

By the end of senior year I arranged my schedule so that my mandatory sections were all held during two days of the week - I think it might have been Tuesday and Wednesday - and Wednesday afternoons I would hop on the train to New York and spend Thursday to Monday taking acting classes, auditioning, and clubbing. My friends back on campus would joke that they only saw me with a suitcase the last few years at Harvard.

Q. What motivated you to pursue acting full-time after college?

A. It was a tough decision, I had some offers from investment banks and hedge funds etc, but one of my friends - who was working in the mail room at a management company in Los Angeles called 3 Arts - called me, asked if I was considering pursuing acting at the professional level and offered to represent me in LA. After she mentioned that Power Rangers was casting and she could get me an audition, I turned down the finance offers and packed my bags. I didn't get cast on the team that season, but I ended up being offered a role on the show a year or two later . . . that's a story for another time.

Join us in congratulating Chloe Cho (Pilgrim School, Los Angeles, CA) & Lucy Yue (Valley Christian High School, San Jose, CA)! 

The aim of the Harvardwood Prize is to recognize and celebrate the artistic accomplishments and potential of high school students who exemplify our mission. Given Harvard University's robust arts communities and arts education opportunities, the Prize is meant to encourage high school students to apply to Harvard College. It is awarded annually to a high school junior (rising senior) who will apply for admission to Harvard in the upcoming fall and who has demonstrated excellence in their dedication to the arts, media, and entertainment and its power to enact positive social change.

Chloe Cho (Pilgrim School, Los Angeles, CA) | Born and raised in California, I grew up in a predominantly artistic family--with fashion designers, architects, toy designers, ballet dancers, and bakers. At the early age of three, my mother enrolled me in ballet lessons, telling me stories of how I danced while drinking from a baby bottle. By the age of six, I was attending the Kim Eung Hwa Korean Dance Academy, where I studied the art and music of Korean history. I learned traditional folk dances and performed at various events--in which I have received several President’s Volunteer Service Awards and Medals, as well as certificates recognized by the Korea Times Los Angeles.

Shirley Chen stars as the female lead in Beast Beast, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2020, opened in select theaters on April 16, and will be available for streaming on May 4. Shirley is a junior at Harvard pursuing a joint degree in Theater, Dance, & Media and History & Literature with a focus in Asian American Studies.

Q. When did your interest for theater and acting first begin?

A. When I was in elementary school, I would go to every one of my older brother’s high school theater productions. Back then, from the audience, I remember thinking that collaborating with friends on stage looked absolutely electric. I began to take acting classes in Seattle and fell in love with acting as a way to connect with others— whether that be a scene partner, director, crew, or the audience. Then, in middle school, my mother moved with me to Los Angeles to pursue acting full-time. I’ve realized that when that connection feels authentic and every part of the creative team works to produce great art together, it feels like pure magic; that’s the feeling I love when acting and always try to chase.

Q. Do you think starting your acting career at such a young age has informed your perspective on the career or the industry more broadly?

A. Definitely. The more experience I’ve gained through working on projects, the more I have been able to see directors, writers, and producers as collaborators, rather than as an intimidating pressure, which has allowed me to develop stronger relationships and work more freely in a professional environment. Growing up as an Asian American child actor has particularly allowed me to more deeply appreciate recent industry conversations on “diverse representation.” As a kid, I often viewed other Asian performers as “competition” because of the scarcity mentality surrounding such limited opportunities, but as conversations have shifted in the past few years, I have been able to see the types of roles I’m considered for opening up in a new and exciting way. There’s still work to be done, but starting out in the industry at an early age has ultimately hardened my sensibilities so that I now have a clearer perspective when approaching the industry as a business.

Q. What compelled you to apply to Harvard and to continue your acting journey there?

A. Harvard was actually a far-off dream of mine — I never thought of it as a real possibility! I was a theater major at a public performing arts school, the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, and was originally planning to apply to conservatory programs in Los Angeles so that I could continue my education while auditioning. At the end of my junior year, my guidance counselor recommended that I try applying to a school like Harvard, where students gifted in both the arts and academics would fit well into its new theater program. I applied to Harvard on a whim and, to my surprise, I was accepted early! Compared to other programs, Harvard has such a rich, unique history in the arts and humanities — both academically and extracurricularly — and I found the prospect of auditioning for the Hasty Pudding Theatricals during its first year of women in the cast to be a particularly exciting opportunity!

Q. What do you study at Harvard, and how does that relate to your interests and aspirations?

A. I am currently pursuing a joint degree in Theater, Dance, & Media and History & Literature, with a focus in Asian American Studies. While I plan to continue acting after college, in my long-term career, I aim to also write and produce work that draws focus to Asian American history and culture. Through my studies, I constantly find new historical narratives to tell through art, which will culminate in my senior creative thesis approach.

Ria Tobaccowala AB '10 is an Indian-American writer-director based in New York City. Her short film, Shadows, was selected for the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival and is now streaming on HBO Max. 

Q. What parts of your upbringing in Chicago led you to becoming a filmmaker? Can you speak about any thread between childhood and now?

A. My love for storytelling and filmmaking started in my early years. Instinctually, I would gravitate towards my father’s camcorders. In our home movies, I’d be jumping in front of the lens, begging him to let me use it. I remember my childhood home being full of cameras, books, and music. My parents love the arts and gave me access to different art forms throughout my childhood. They are the single most influential force in my journey as a filmmaker.

At my high school in Chicago, I had a wonderful photography teacher who inspired me. I spent the majority of my time in the school’s dark room. I also shot my first short film with a Super 8 camera. By then, I was hooked on the power of images to tell a story. In many ways, as a teenager and now as an adult, I’ve simply been nurturing the young girl within me who was born keen to film stories about life. 

Q. How did your time at Harvard play into that story? 

A. At Harvard, I varied my creative interests. I was a photographer for the Harvard Crimson as well as produced and danced in cultural shows, such as Ghungroo. My blockmates would lovingly laugh whenever I edited promo videos for campus events in a baseball cap. They called it my director’s hat. Little did we all know, a decade later I’d be keeping up the tradition of wearing baseball caps while editing my films. Harvard was the beginning of an important detour from pursuing filmmaking as a career. I spent college filling my mind with new subjects and filling my heart with amazing life experiences and friendships.

Q. Can you speak about your time at Google, staying creative in a corporate setting, and maintaining your goals? 

A. Google surprisingly brought me back to the world of storytelling. Google is an intrinsically creative place where storytelling is required when imagining future technologies. I joined their rotational marketing program after graduation. One product I worked on was Google+. Our team’s mandate was to encourage content development on the platform with some of the most influential thought leaders and creators, as well as elevate underrepresented voices to the mainstream through social and video platforms. 

I developed content partnerships with the New York Times, ESPN, NBC as well as produced interviews with President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, the Dalai Lama, and many others around major cultural, social, and public events. For example, I produced State of the Union interviews with President Obama, inviting Americans to be the first to converse with the President before the media. To use technology, such as social and video platforms, to democratize storytelling was a central mission for me at Google. I’ve carried with me, as a filmmaker, the same mission to elevate unrepresented voices in my work. 

Daniel Rogers AB '12 is an award-winning writer, producer and actor. He's currently a TV staff writer, is developing his own series, and won the 2019 Harvardwood Writers Competition. 

Q. When did you know you wanted to get into writing? Can you explain the journey from the first light bulbs, to any light practice, to now?

A. I think I first knew I liked writing in elementary school. I always had a knack for telling stories, and actually won some writing competitions at my school and in some regional events. I dabbled here and there throughout middle school and high school, but fell off during college (though I did take a creative writing class about poetry!). But the real lightbulb moment came when I was in grad school and took my first screenwriting course with Ken Lazebnik in USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program. Up until that point, I knew I wanted to work in the entertainment industry, and was still figuring out exactly what my niche would be. That class helped me rekindle my love for writing, and now almost five years later, I guess it’s working out!

Q. How did your time at Harvard (Acting, Glee Club, etc.) play into that story?

A. I studied English at Harvard, which obviously involved a lot of reading novelists and playwrights in the Western canon. Spending so much time with Byron and Shakespeare and George Eliot, plus the poetry writing course, definitely lends my writing a classical (dare I say musical?) bent. My time in the Glee Club inflamed my passion for music, and these days I think every other project I take on is about musicians, whether rockstars, choral singers, conductors, or whatever. In addition, being Manager of the Glee Club gave me a firm foundation in running an arts organization with a large budget and dueling creative and administrative goals. As an aspiring showrunner, that background is crucial. I know how to be creative, and I also know how to keep the trains running. You’d be surprised how rare that combination is!

Q. Can you speak about Writing vs. Producing and your MFA journey? How did you pursue both career-wise, to the point where you now produce content while operating in a writer's room?

A. People say “Film is a director’s medium, while television is a writer’s medium,” and it really is true. While at USC, I learned that most (or at least, a large chunk) of the producers on TV shows are writers. These folks have significant creative control over the direction of a series, in a way that most film screenwriters simply don’t. When I realized this, the choice between film and TV was easy. These days, as a member of a writers’ room, writing an outline or script or breaking story is basically second nature, though of course I’m always improving. But producing is its own beast. I was lucky enough to be a producing writer on set for an episode of “In the Dark” in 2019, and the hours we kept and the decisions I had to make were overwhelming. I had a say in everything from costumes to props to actor’s notes to set design to lighting to… well, the list goes on and on. That’s the kind of work I got into this business to do. Someday I’ll be able to separate the two, so I can produce the writing of younger writers I believe in. But for the moment, my focus is on producing for TV shows that I write for.

Harrison Greenbaum AB '08 is a comedian and writer in NYC. He was the co-founder of the Harvard College Stand-Up Comic Society, and can be seen on America's Got Talent, Last Comic Standing, Conan, Comedy Central, ABC, and much more. 

Q. You’re a popular stand-up comic, so I imagine before the pandemic, you were touring a lot. So let me get right to it: how did you adjust after the pandemic shut everything down?

A. Before the pandemic, I was averaging about 600 shows a year, touring all over the world, so as soon as the lockdown started back in March, I immediately pivoted everything to virtual and livestreaming so I could keep performing.  By the 2nd or 3rd week in March, I was hosting three different shows, five days a week: National Lampoon Live! with Harrison Greenbaum (raising money for the COVID Foundation), Who Books That? (an interview series presented by the International Brotherhood of Magicians), and SCAM Online (the first weekly magic livestream show from NYC).  I learned A LOT very quickly and – between these three shows and all the private events I’ve been doing – I’ve been able to perform for more than a million people in the last 10 months.  It’s been insane.  At this point, my living room is a TV studio capable of a TV-broadcast quality, three-camera shoot, so I’m just grateful I can still connect with a wide audience.  I’m having a blast doing virtual shows, especially since it combines the benefits of being on TV (being able to reach a large, global audience directly in their homes) with the benefits of performing live (being able to directly interact with the audience and to have their reactions immediately impact the show) – all of that, and I don’t have to be more than 20 steps from my couch.  

[Editor’s note: for more info on Harrison’s virtual shows and/or for booking information, visit harrisongreenbaum.com/virtual.]

Q. Alright, take me back to the beginning: how did you know you wanted to get into comedy? Can you explain the journey from the first light bulbs, to light pursuit, to now?

A. I started out doing magic when I was about five years old.  It just stuck.  I loved every aspect of it and, as I got older, I realized I especially liked the parts of the tricks that made people laugh.  I went to Magic Camp when I was 14 years old, because obviously I was very dedicated to not ever getting laid.  In all seriousness though, Tannen’s Magic Camp changed my life and exposed me to so many different kinds of performers, including the funny ones, who became my heroes.  When I got to Harvard, I was invited to do a stand-up show and, even though I’d never done stand-up before, I figured, “Why not?”  As soon as I did that first show, I was immediately hooked.  Harvard was such an important part of me becoming a comedian.  (Don’t tell my parents.)

Q. How did your time at Harvard play into that story? Can you give any (hilarious) anecdotes about your time there on your journey?

A. I’m so glad you qualified “anecdote” with “hilarious” – as a professional comedian, so many of my stories are real tear-jerkers… The summer of my freshman year at Harvard, I interned for MAD Magazine and started doing stand-up around the city (mostly getting on stage by “barking,” which means I stood on the corner, handing out flyers to try to get people to buy tickets to the show in exchange for stage time); when I got back, I realized that the only way to really get up on stage as much as possible while on campus was to start a club, so by my junior year, I was handing in the paperwork to make the Harvard Stand-Up Comic Society an official student organization.  I made sure to write out the full name every time on all the forms with the hope that the administration wouldn’t figure out that the name of the club was actually “Harvard SUCS.”  A few days later, I got an e-mail from the Dean’s Office about the application, asking me to come to the office, so I was worried we’d been caught; at the meeting, the dean started off by telling me that the name wasn’t acceptable, so I was sure we’d been caught.  But then he explained that, since the group was undergraduate-focused, I’d have to change the name to the Harvard College Stand-Up Comic Society… and I realized they hadn’t worked out what we’d done at all!  I don’t think I ever turned around paperwork faster in my life.  In fact, the university didn’t realize they had approved a student group called “Harvard College SUCS” until we wanted to get sweatshirts and applied to the Trademark Office, which was when I finally received another e-mail from the Dean’s Office chiding us (but letting us keep the name).  Years later, at my 5 Year Reunion, the dean who called me in pulled me to the side and told me that – while officially they had to be upset with us – internally they had actually thought it was one of the funniest stunts that had ever been successfully pulled on them.  I’m proud of that, and also really, really proud of the fact that HCSUCS is still going strong and still ruining the lives of students who decide to throw away all the advantages of a Harvard degree and become comedians.

Oh, and Harvardwood.  I did the Harvardwood winter break trip.  I should probably mention that, huh?

Q. Now that you’ve brought it up… tell me how Harvardwood influenced your career.

A. I had such a blast going to Los Angeles with Harvardwood my senior year.  Legitimately life-changing.  I remember Dan O’Keefe met me for coffee and still – to this day – I can’t believe how insane that a writer like that (he’s the guy behind the Festivus episode of Seinfeld, for God’s sake!) to listen to a college senior blab on and on about his dreams at a Coffee Bean.  (Of course it was a Coffee Bean.)

 Julio Vincent Gambuto AB '00 is a writer and director, based in New York City. Team Marco, Julio’s debut feature film, is now available nationwide in the US and Canada, from Samuel Goldwyn Films. Check it out. Julio also wrote that viral essay about the pandemic that 20 million people read around the world. Now, he’s a weekly contributor to Medium.

Q. What about your upbringing in Staten Island first inspired you to write, direct, produce, etc. and get involved with the film industry?

A. Being an artist in an Italian-American family can be tough. We’re the children of immigrants, so when you get the chance to go to Harvard, the last thing your parents really want to hear is that you want to be an artist. My family has always been remarkably supportive, though. They trusted me from the beginning, and it’s really only because of their love and support that I was able to stay the course. Specifically, I think Italian-Americans are natural storytellers. We are a very dramatic culture — at least in my family — so stories are how we communicate. I actually discovered that for myself at Harvard. I realized freshman year that a lot of people around me communicated only through intellectual sparring — not all, but many — and that was a different form of communication than I had been used to from a working-class family. I just wanted to tell stories. It’s how I connect to people.

Q. What motivated you to continue studies at USC in Directing?

A. To be honest, I was just very frustrated that my acting career wasn’t going anywhere. I had a movie deal with an independent film company to make a film based on my one-man show (Julie from Staten Island), but it fell through during the recession in 2008, so I put myself back in school.

Q. In what ways did you get involved in film while at Harvard?

A. I was very involved in theater with the HRDC. I loved it. I came to film much later in my life. I was an actor right out of school. I did a lot of downtown theater in New York, working with an LGBTQ+ theater company. I did some improv and then went into standup comedy to prepare for my one-man show. The show was really a turning point for me. I ran it in New York monthly for two years, then in LA. We had an independent movie deal, but it fell through in the ’08 recession, so I put myself back in school and went to film school at 32.

Zoë Morrison AB '11 recently became Head of Production at Delirio Films, where she's been the lead on a slew of amazing projects, such as Mike Wallace Is Here and Ask Dr. Ruth, which both premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival before their theatrical releases, and Hulu’s hit original documentary Too Funny To Fail: The Life and Death of the Dana Carvey Show (2017).

Q. When did your interest in producing come to you in life? Can you tell us about it?

A. Honestly I can tell you the exact moment. It was at a really great Office of Career Services seminar given by Harvardwood's Mia Riverton Alpert halfway through my sophomore year that broke down the different types of professions in Hollywood. She went through agents, managers, studio/network execs, and when she got to creative producers something clicked. I thought, that's a combination of my skills & interests that I can visualize myself doing well and enjoying—combining organization with creativity, helping artists hone their ideas and bring them to life, with a low risk for boredom thanks to the nature of the work being project-based with a constant stream of new collaborators. Plus, the fruit of my labors would be something tangible that would (hopefully) make an impact on people, giving them food for thought or at the very least bringing them joy, which is so valuable in itself. I had previously thought I'd go into the fine arts in some sort of administrative role, but had grown disenchanted with how that world felt inaccessible to many people. I had only ever considered film as a consumer, so the seminar really opened my eyes to it as a whole industry that was possible for me to enter, and I realized it could be the perfect sweet spot marrying the arts with a whole lot more action, commerce, and wider audience reach.

Q. In what ways did you get involved in film while at school?

A. Right after that seminar, I switched my secondary field from History of Art & Architecture to VES Film Studies and looked for ways to get involved with film via extracurriculars. I was already planning to study abroad my junior fall though, and because of the extracurricular structure and comping schedule at Harvard I was a bit late on that front. So I focused on maximizing my study abroad time with film classes at Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle, and when I returned to campus I landed at HUTV, where I spent the next year and a half planning events for guest speakers and helping to grow the relatively new organization. And I continued activities I had previously been involved with that weren't explicitly film related, but still relevant like producing the dance section of Arts First weekend and working as a tutor at the Writing Center. I also joined Harvardwood, which led to a fantastic summer internship at FilmNation in NYC. There I learned a lot more detail about different models of film production... and also learned that I hated living in New York! It was LA or bust after that.

Justin Walker White AB '10 is Harvardwood's new Director of Programs and Business Development! Justin started his career in management consulting, before pursuing his passion of acting more seriously and receiving his MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. After graduating, Justin maintained his consulting career while acting in television and theater, and works on a myriad of projects today.

Q. What childhood experiences—whether you recognized it at the time or not—influenced your passion for acting?

A. I certainly didn’t recognize it. I had a few opportunities to act as a young kid and rejected them. Later, a friend at Harvard even asked me to audition for a show, and I shunned that too. I recall saying to them, “why would I memorize lines for no class credit?!?” Funny that I’ve easily spent hundreds of nights up late memorizing lines since 2014. Life's crazy.

My experiential connection was certainly through watching stand-up comedy. I vividly remember wanting to be a stand-up as a kid — never an actor. I made a (false, some would say) distinction in my head. I also remember being entirely too scared to try it. I finally tried in 2013, just as the acting bug caught me. I started with a stand-up class on Groupon, which should tell you all you need to know about how that went down.

My deep connection to—and passion for—acting, both dramatic and comedic, became apparent to me as a grown man, swimming around in corporate America.

Q. Why did you choose Harvard? Did you do any acting on campus?

A. I chose Harvard for the challenge. I knew the environment would impact me greatly. I visited on my own, and was ready to be done with what I felt at the time was a rough process.

I did no acting at school whatsoever. If you would’ve told me before my senior year that I’d be an actor 10 years later, I’d have laughed it off. It just wasn’t on my radar. Strangely, though, I wanted to be a sportscaster at the time, even interning at the NBA in Live Production. I didn't pursue it seriously enough, feeling I "had to" go into business. Part of the reason I’m so involved with Harvardwood is because I want to enable young grads and their networks to enter the entertainment industry and truly be set up for success. Or, at least, meaningful exposure, or even informed failure. I’ve experienced all three.