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Gavin Lewis stars in the Netflix coming of age family comedy “The Prince of Peoria.”
Lewis portrays the title role of “Prince Emil,” a 13-year old prince from a wealthy island kingdom who travels to America to live incognito as an exchange student in order to experience life as an ordinary teen. The series is now streaming.
The Knockturnal: How did you get involved with the show?
Gavin Lewis: I received a call to come in and audition last January. The audition was with one of my favorite casting directors, Suzanne Goddard-Smythe. I went to the first audition and had a great time with the material. A couple of days later they told me I was pinned for the role of Emil. I then had to go audition for the producers and complete a screen test. The whole audition process took about a month. Auditions can be stressful, but I had a lot of fun throughout the process. I had a blast playing around with the character right from the beginning and everyone involved was really nice.
The Knockturnal: What resonated the most with you about your character?
Gavin Lewis: I love Emil’s positive attitude. I think, with everything that is going on in the world, it is easy for young people to get overly stressed and anxious. I enjoyed seeing a young character like Emil who, as a young person, is looking for the good in the world and always trying to make the best of things.
The Knockturnal: What was a highlight episode/scene for you and why?
Gavin Lewis: I really liked working on all the episodes, but it was particularly fun shooting episode four, “A Night at the Hip-Hopera.” There is a musical number at the end of the episode that everyone in the cast had a great time filming. Our choreographers Cris Judd and Bryan Anthony were so great and the original rap song by Conor Hanney was super creative and funny. We also got to wear cool historical costumes. It was one of my favorite scenes of the season.
The Knockturnal: How was working with the cast?
Gavin Lewis: Working with the cast on Prince of Peoria has been great. Everyone is so talented and more importantly nice. I consider them all to be family now.
Photo Credit: Netflix
The Knockturnal: What do you hope audiences take away from Prince of Peoria?
Gavin Lewis: I hope audiences come away from watching Prince of Peoria just feeling good. I think it’s a show that you can watch to have a laugh and be happy. I thinks it’s important that kids and families have a show they can watch that’s not necessarily about all the toughest aspects of life but focuses on family, friends and good times.
The Knockturnal: Your parents are in theater, is that what motivated you to get into acting?
Gavin Lewis: Actually, having both my parents in theatre kind of had the opposite effect for a while. For a long time I wanted nothing to do with acting and refused to be on stage; I think I was maybe a little overexposed. I hung out backstage, A LOT. As I got older, I became interested in television and film acting, probably just to do something a little different from what my parents do. I convinced my mom to let me audition for a film one of her acting students was directing. I got the part and loved it, so I really started pursuing film and television after that. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to work in the theatre again and I enjoy it a lot. So, maybe it is just in the genes.
The Knockturnal: You work with the Beyond Type 1 organization. Tell us a little bit about your work with them.
Gavin Lewis: Beyond Type One is an inspiring organization that works to spread the word about type one diabetes using social media and technology. They want to change what it means to be type one by empowering the community through connection and education. As a non-profit, they use the money they raise to help people living with type one diabetes and to fund research for a cure. I am fortunate to be an ambassador for them, helping to educate and tell people what’s it like living with type one.
Leading Photo Credit: Joanna DeGeneres
