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Hollywood Aspirations

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

Trey Griffin has a lot of experience with the Highlands Little Theatre and most recently played Puck in the production of "Shakespeare in Hollywood."

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By JOE SEELIG

Highlands Today

Published: July 6, 2009

SEBRING - At age 20, aspiring actor Trey Griffin of Sebring has already done quite a lot with his life, including appearances in Highlands Little Theatre plays, films, commercials and a reality show.

He uses Trey as his stage name.

"My real name is Donald Ray Griffin III, (as in 'tres' which is 3 in Spanish) and that's why they call me Trey," he said, while seated comfortably Wednesday afternoon in his parents' lake house.

"My mom is Tracy Griffin and some people thought that's where Trey came from (from Tre-cee). My dad is Donald Ray (Griffin) II, but he goes by Ray."

Trey said he was born in Sebring, attended Heartland Christian Academy, then Cracker Trail Elementary, Sebring Middle School and graduated from Sebring High School, but didn't go to college.

He works at his father's dry cleaning business, Griffin's Dry Cleaners, in downtown Sebring, where he presses shirts... "All day!" he said. "And it's hot. I'm ready to get out of there right now."

He loads the machines 50 pounds at a time, then unloads them and hangs the clothes up. They don't use water. They use a solvent, he said.

"I should have gone to college right out of high school," he said. "But what I'm going to do is go to (Los Angeles).

"It's pilot season January through March. That's kind of the best season to go there if you have plans of being an actor and that's what I'm going to go there for."

He's got his resume, his head shots and has agents - Azuree Talent Agency Inc. in Winter Park, and Benz Model Talent Agency in Tampa. You can see his shots with Benz at: http://www.benzmodelandtalent.com/search_model.asp....

He has other agents but these are the two who call him, he said.

What got him interested in acting?

"Maybe it was Ace Ventura or something like that when I decided, 'Man, I want to do movies,'" he said.

And so he has.

He's appeared in the feature film, "Bring It On: In It to Win It" as a member of the cheerleading squad, but he didn't cheer much.

There were a lot of people from Sebring in the film, he said.

"I had lines but I couldn't do back flips or things like that," he said. "The casting director asked me if I knew any cheerleaders. I said my sister's a cheerleader. They said well what about the whole cheerleading team."

He has two sisters, Kayla, 19, and Kendall, 10; and a brother Alex, 15.

The varsity team went, he said. It was being filmed at Universal Studios.

He has appeared in a science film for Busch Gardens, was an extra in a commercial for Epcot as well as a commercial for St. Petersburg College.

"I've done a commercial for Typhoon Lagoon," he said. "I did one for Rooms to Go. I've been working in the business since I was 12. I've done some independent films too.

Griffin has a lot of experience with the Highlands Little Theatre and most recently played Puck in the production of "Shakespeare in Hollywood."

At 6-feet 1-inch tall, he's probably the tallest Puck ever. The role of Puck was played by Mickey Rooney in the film version of "A Mid-Summer Night's Dream," upon which the play was gleaned.

"I liked that role because I got to be something different," he said, "A different Puck."

His first role at the theater was in "Oliver," based upon the classic novel, "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens, as a Fagin's Boy, one of Fagin's band of thieves.

"I said, 'Books you ordered from the bookstore sir,' (with a convincing British accent) and that was the only thing I said," said Griffin. "After that I was hooked.

"Once I started doing things at the theater and things, (his brother and sisters) wanted to do it, too. We all got our head shots at the same time."

He appeared again for "On Golden Pond" as Billy and then had a role as a Siamese child in "The King and I."

"I've done more small parts than big parts," he said.

Not in any particular order came "Brigadoon," "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Peter Pan" - as John.

It was at age 15 he made a brief appearance in a reality show called "Endurance 2" in its second season, on Discovery Kids, on NBC.

"I was 14 when we did it (began shooting on June 30, 2003) and 15 when it aired (on Sept. 27, 2003)," he said. His birthday is on July 21. He'll be 21.

Hosted by J.D. Roth, the new season of "Endurance" aired from Sept. 27, 2003, every Saturday through January 2004, on NBC.

Griffin was picked from thousands of applicants to be on the show that challenged kids to tests of mental and physical endurance.

Twenty teens, 10 boys and 10 girls, from around the country spent several weeks at a remote destination in Baja, Mexico, where they underwent a series of fun and challenging games to see if they had what it took to master the obstacles presented to them.

The first day of shooting three boys and three girls would be eliminated.

"I didn't make it past the challenge on the first day," he said. "I was the third guy that got kicked off. I had to hold this bar over my head, standing on a plank. There was a sensor wire - and if you drop your bar too much, the planks gave out."

He heard the kid (kid number four) next to him hit the water and he wondered which of them hit the water first.

"This guy gets the camera right in my face," he remembered.

That's when he knew he was out and kid number four was still in. The winners got a trip to the Bahamas. He got to spend a week in Mexico with his mom, who went along with him. He did make a lot of good friends from the show, who he still stays in contact with.

Speaking of falling into the water, on a clear day, Griffin likes to go fishing, fresh water or salt water.

"I really like salt," he said. "Around here I do a lot of bass fishin'. I don't do a lot of bass catchin'. I guess if you cannot catch fish and still call yourself a fisherman, then that's what I am."

Seriously though, his biggest catch was in April when he pulled a 10-pound bass out of Lake Verona, he said. It was 24 inches long.

"I fished for a total of about two and a half minutes that day," he said. "I broke my phone and my pole catching that. I had my phone in my pocket and I jumped into the water."

He enjoys watching television, especially movies.

"But I'm analyzing things too much when I'm watching a film," he said. "I see things - like a glass of water is half full on a table - then it's down - then it's filled up again."

Highlands Today reporter Joe Seelig can be reached at (863) 386-5834 or jseelig@highlandstoday.com .

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