Won the John Philip Sousa Award in 1998 for trumpet.
He graduated from Greenon High School before attending Wittenberg University with plans to be a high school English teacher. He withdrew from college to pursue acting and filmmaking full-time.
His short film, "Cost of Living," was accepted to the Short Film Corner of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.
Upon arriving in Hollywood, got a job at "The Dip," a restaurant owned by Ken Davitian who played the part of Azamat Bagatov in the feature film "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.".