OCALA, FL (352today.com)—Ocala actor Kane Parks has experienced a meteoric rise in recent years, and his trajectory for success doesn’t look to be teetering downward anytime soon.
The Ocala native has home roots buried into the structure of his acting career, with his first exposure to television production when he was a student at Dunnellon Middle School. Parks, determined to continue working toward his dream goal, signed a commercial agent out of Orlando while he was in high school.
Parks landed a commercial audition for Wawa, his first real insight into acting, before taking a break while pursuing a Business Marketing degree at the University of Central Florida (UCF). He was also on the Knights football team for a year, filling in at the slot receiver spot beside the Knights’ offensive line for one season before a lingering torn PCL injury took its toll.
Compounded by a feeling of unsettlement and uncertainty, Parks says his mindset in college was at an all-time low as he was left unclear about what he wanted to accomplish.
“I took a minute and took a step back,” recollects Parks. “That’s when I was like, ‘I actually had a passion for acting.'”
After two years, Parks decided to follow his dreams and left UCF to pursue acting, although he would later return to complete his Business Marketing degree online.
After just six months of attending the school, he scored two separate modeling gigs for Nike and Champs Sports. Through modeling, Parks found a manager based in Los Angeles, who booked him for auditions in and around the City of Angels.
“It was right after COVID happened, so all of the auditions went to self-tape, so I didn’t have to be in-person,” explains Parks.
After a month of self-tape auditions from home, Parks booked his first big show, a recurring role on Netflix’s All American: Homecoming, starring the character named Quintin. Parks says he originally signed on board the show for a co-star role, which he says usually calls for three to four lines in one episode.
“The producers and directors really liked me on the show, so they called me back for more episodes,” says Parks.
Parks would go on to feature in all three seasons of the show, which recently concluded this past September.
“It was really cool. It was my first experience professionally acting,” he shares. “It kind of touched everything that could happen in the acting world.”
The show was shot in Los Angeles, which Parks says is a far cry from Ocala’s open areas and cozy atmosphere.
“It’s fast-paced in LA; it’s almost surreal. I’m on these sets, I’m going to different stages and stuff, and I don’t really get a second to take in what I’m doing just because I’ve been chasing it for so long,” he says. “Life in Ocala is more laid-back. It’s where I am myself.”
Parks recalls a specific scene shot in Los Angeles in which he was continuously shuttled from “home base” to the set. He admits he was originally supposed to be on set that day for a reasonable four or five hours; he ended up staying there for 20.
“It’s the name of the game. It’s just part of the businesses,” recalls Parks. “People behind the scenes need to get set up and get the cameras working.”
Parks says out of those 20 hours, they would usually only film for about an hour.
“Acting is all about being in a rush to wait,” he laughs. “You’re in a rush to get there just to wait around.”
While on set, he says he was impressed by the sheer number of staff members working behind the camera to get everything started.
“It’s not just you, the other actors, and the director,” he says. “There’s 60 or 70 people behind the scenes that you don’t see. It was a really cool awakening as a new actor.”
Aside from his All American: Homecoming experience, Parks has appeared in a number of shows including Never Have I Ever and the popular medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, where he played a patient named Logan Smith during an episode.
“I was a patient that had been struck by lightning,” says Parks. “I was there, as were my sister and my parents. I explained to the doctors what had happened. It was a cool experience.”
Look for part two of Joseph Jackimczuk’s interview with Kane Parks tomorrow, as Parks reflects on acting and ambitions and his life beyond Ocala.