NEW MILFORD — When Roger Shaw was 8 years old, he memorized several Michael Jackson dances on YouTube and posted them to his Instagram.
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Little did he or his family know he would soon get noticed by a talent agency and become a child actor.
Now 11 and a fifth-grader at Sarah Noble Intermediate School, Roger has appeared in 10 productions for TV, movies and commercials including “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Blacklist,” “Life and Beth,” “Help me Mary” and “Evil Lives Here.”
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The road to Roger’s acting career began when John Casablancas Modeling & Acting Agency in Rocky Hill called his mother and said, ‘I saw these Michael Jackson dances and I’d really like to meet him,’” said Roger’s mother, Megan Shaw, who also has 6-year-old twins. “They liked that he was self taught and they liked his look.”
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When Roger and his mother drove to the agency, Roger was hired on the spot.
“He started doing modeling classes, acting classes and he was really liking it,” Shaw said.
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Mother and son began making weekly trips to the agency after school — and Roger’s world began to change.
He would spend two hours, along with about 10 other kids, walking a runway and practicing lines.
“They had a lot of teachers, such as the president of the drama club from Yale. It was always someone else teaching him a different idea or a different lesson, so that he finally got comfortable,” Shaw said.
One skill Roger learned is how to slate — which means he has to say his name, agency, location, sometimes his height — out loud.
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“Every time he has an audition, he has to say those things,” Shaw said.
After three months, Roger got selected for an event called the International Modeling & Talent Association, or IMTA.
“This is an event where huge talent agencies from all over the world come to scout talent. However, you have to audition and then you have to be chosen,” Shaw said. “He had to train for that event for a year. The training was focused on acting and modeling.”
“You need to be comfortable on stage in front of hundreds of people,” Shaw said.
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Roger was practicing for a year for the IMTA — and then COVID-19 came. The event, which was scheduled to be in Manhattan in July of 2020 — was canceled.
Yet, Roger continued to train every week — but virtually, over Zoom.
“The trainer, who is a professional teacher or actor, would send us slides via email, which are lines to read and memorize. Roger would read them and they’d go back and forth,” she said. “It was frustrating because there is no comparison to in-person tutoring.”
In January 2021, Roger and his mother traveled to an IMTA event in Orlando, Fla.
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From Monday to Thursday, in front of about 500 people, Roger practiced a variety of different skills such as walking the runway and a skill called “Kids’ Spot,” where he had to get comfortable speaking about something he liked.
“I felt very nervous. The hardest part was getting on stage and talking,” Roger said.
Roger chose to talk about karate, which he said he loves and for which he now has a Brown Belt.
At each rehearsal, “the agencies look at you, they want to see how you look and how you carry yourself,” Shaw said.
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Friday was callback day.
“That was when you found out if any agencies liked you from the work you did all week,” Shaw said.
From IMTA, eight agencies in the U.S. were interested in Roger, and Shaw chose two of them.
Getting gigs
Today, Roger gets an acting gig when his agencies call his parents to tell them about it or when his parents see something available on different acting apps, such as “Backstage.”
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He has auditioned across the tri-state area.
When he goes to auditions, it’s a long day for him, said his mother.
“We’ll have to be on set sometimes at 7:30 in the morning,” Shaw said. “He’s 11 years old and he gets really tired. By 5 o’clock he will fall asleep in the car.”
In order for children to get acting jobs, they must have a trust account set up in their name, Shaw said.
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Fifteen percent of every job automatically goes in the account and can’t be touched until the child turns 18. The rest can be deposited into that account or can be cashed for the child to use. The child must be present when they are cashed.
While Roger is having a lot of fun with acting, “this is a lot of work,” Shaw said. “We are constantly looking for things to do in the business.”
Roger has set his sights to be in a big movie or TV show, his mother said.
“I see him on a long running comedy show, like Modern Family,” Shaw said. “Roger is just really is attached to family. My parents live with us and Roger loves it. He is very family oriented.”
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[email protected] 203-948-9802