Gaius Charles
Encyclopedia
Gaius Charles is an American
stage, television and film actor best known for playing Brian "Smash" Williams
on NBC
's Friday Night Lights
.
, New York
, then lived in Queens
, and later moved to Teaneck
, New Jersey
with his family when he was in middle school. Growing up in the childhood home of composer Alan Silvestri
, he graduated from Teaneck High School
in 2001. He attended Carnegie Mellon University
's College of Fine Arts, where he obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts
degree in drama and performed in productions including Candide
, The Wild Party
and Spunk
, the college's first production with an all-black cast. He appeared in Romeo and Juliet
as Mercutio
at the Princeton Rep
Shakespeare
Festival and also studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art
(NIDA) in Sydney
, Australia
.
and one episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
, and attended around 250 auditions before landing a main role on the ensemble cast
of Friday Night Lights
as Brian "Smash" Williams
. The night before his Friday Night Lights audition, he sprained his ankle and wound up in a hospital emergency room, which he took as "a sign from God that I should really prepare for this one", though he had originally intended to "kind of wing it". When he got the part, he began to watch football
, listen to Texas
rap music, research famous running back
s, as well as Texas's economic struggles. Smash left the series as a main character in the second season
, and Charles only held a recurring role in season three.
Since his Friday Night Lights departure, Charles has appeared in a number of stage productions, including Broke-ology at Williamstown
, Massachusetts
' Theatre Festival
. He has completed filming on 2009 film
s Toe to Toe
and The Messenger
, and is set to appear in 2010's Bone Deep. He also has appeared in minor roles in two movies released in 2010, Takers
as Max and Salt as a CIA officer.
's full name and also one of Jesus
's early disciple
s, Gaius, to whom the Third Epistle of John
is addressed. In 2007 he said of his name: "It's so unique that I guess as a kid you don't appreciate it. But as I've gotten older, people have come to really respond to it and really appreciate it for its unusual factor."
Charles is Christian
, calling his faith in Christ
and God
"the only thing that's really gotten me here to this point". His interests include public speaking, boxing, aviation and writing.
He has also starred in Pan Am
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
stage, television and film actor best known for playing Brian "Smash" Williams
Smash Williams
Brian "Smash" Williams is a fictional character in the NBC/DirecTV drama television series Friday Night Lights portrayed by actor Gaius Charles. He is the starting running back of the Dillon High School Panthers. Considered the most talented player on the roster after quarterback Jason Street,...
on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Friday Night Lights
Friday Night Lights (TV series)
Friday Night Lights is an American sports drama television series adapted by Peter Berg, Brian Grazer and David Nevins from a book and film of the same name. The series details events surrounding a high school football team based in fictional Dillon, Texas, with particular focus given to team...
.
Early life
Charles was born on May 2, 1983 in ManhattanManhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, then lived in Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
, and later moved to Teaneck
Teaneck, New Jersey
Teaneck is a township in Bergen County, New Jersey, and a suburb in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 39,776, making it the second-most populous among the 70 municipalities in Bergen County....
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
with his family when he was in middle school. Growing up in the childhood home of composer Alan Silvestri
Alan Silvestri
Alan Anthony Silvestri is an American film composer and conductor.-Career:Silvestri is best known for his collaborations with director Robert Zemeckis, having scored Romancing the Stone , the Back to the Future trilogy , Who Framed Roger Rabbit , Death Becomes Her , Forrest Gump , Contact ,...
, he graduated from Teaneck High School
Teaneck High School
Teaneck High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school, which is part of the Teaneck Public Schools district in Teaneck, New Jersey, United States...
in 2001. He attended Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
's College of Fine Arts, where he obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts
Bachelor of Fine Arts
In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...
degree in drama and performed in productions including Candide
Candide (operetta)
Candide is an operetta with music composed by Leonard Bernstein, based on the novella of the same name by Voltaire. The operetta was first performed in 1956 with a libretto by Lillian Hellman; but since 1974 it has been generally performed with a book by Hugh Wheeler which is more faithful to...
, The Wild Party
The Wild Party (LaChiusa musical)
The Wild Party is a musical with a book by Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe and music and lyrics by LaChiusa. It is based on the 1928 Joseph Moncure March narrative poem of the same name...
and Spunk
Spunk (play)
Spunk is a play by American playwright George C. Wolfe and is an adaptation of three stories by Zora Neale Hurston. Wolfe won a 1989 Obie award for best off-Broadway director for Spunk....
, the college's first production with an all-black cast. He appeared in Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
as Mercutio
Mercutio
Mercutio a fictional character in William Shakespeare's 1597 tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. He is a close friend of Romeo, and Romeo's cousin Benvolio, and also a blood relative to Prince Escalus and Count Paris. As such, being neither a Montague nor a Capulet, Mercutio is one of the few in Verona...
at the Princeton Rep
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
Festival and also studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art
National Institute of Dramatic Art
The National Institute of Dramatic Art is an Australian national training institute for students of theatre, film, and television, based in the Sydney suburb of Kensington. It is supported by the federal Office for the Arts, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. NIDA is located adjacent...
(NIDA) in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Career
Charles had guest-starred in one episode of The Book of DanielThe Book of Daniel (TV series)
The Book of Daniel is a television series broadcast on NBC. The network promoted it as a serious drama about Christians and the Christian faith, but it was controversial with some Christians. The show had been proposed for NBC's 2005 fall line-up, but was rescheduled as a 2006 midseason replacement...
and one episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...
, and attended around 250 auditions before landing a main role on the ensemble cast
Ensemble cast
An ensemble cast is made up of cast members in which the principal actors and performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and screen time in a dramatic production. This kind of casting became more popular in television series because it allows flexibility for writers to focus on...
of Friday Night Lights
Friday Night Lights (TV series)
Friday Night Lights is an American sports drama television series adapted by Peter Berg, Brian Grazer and David Nevins from a book and film of the same name. The series details events surrounding a high school football team based in fictional Dillon, Texas, with particular focus given to team...
as Brian "Smash" Williams
Smash Williams
Brian "Smash" Williams is a fictional character in the NBC/DirecTV drama television series Friday Night Lights portrayed by actor Gaius Charles. He is the starting running back of the Dillon High School Panthers. Considered the most talented player on the roster after quarterback Jason Street,...
. The night before his Friday Night Lights audition, he sprained his ankle and wound up in a hospital emergency room, which he took as "a sign from God that I should really prepare for this one", though he had originally intended to "kind of wing it". When he got the part, he began to watch football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, listen to Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
rap music, research famous running back
Running back
A running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running...
s, as well as Texas's economic struggles. Smash left the series as a main character in the second season
Friday Night Lights (season 2)
The second season of the American serial drama television series Friday Night Lights commenced airing in the United States and Canada on October 5, 2007 and concluded its 15-episode season on February 7, 2008. While initially renewed for a 22-episode full season, the show ended production for the...
, and Charles only held a recurring role in season three.
Since his Friday Night Lights departure, Charles has appeared in a number of stage productions, including Broke-ology at Williamstown
Williamstown, Massachusetts
Williamstown is a town in Berkshire County, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,754 at the 2010 census...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
' Theatre Festival
Williamstown Theatre Festival
The Williamstown Theatre Festival is a regional summer stock theatre on the campus of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, founded in 1954 by Williams College news director, Ralph Renzi, and drama program chairman, David C. Bryant. The theatre was conceived as a way to use the Adams...
. He has completed filming on 2009 film
2009 in film
The year 2009 saw the release of many films. Seven made the top 50 list of highest-grossing films, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that as of this year, their Best Picture category would consist of ten nominees, rather than five .- Highest-grossing films :Please note...
s Toe to Toe
Toe To Toe
Toe to Toe are an Australian hardcore band from Sydney, New South Wales. The band was most prominent in the Australian hardcore scene during the 1990s, touring and recording less frequently by the 2000s...
and The Messenger
The Messenger (2009 film)
The Messenger is a 2009 war drama film starring Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Steve Buscemi, Jena Malone, and Samantha Morton. It is the directorial debut of Oren Moverman, who also wrote the screenplay with Alessandro Camon....
, and is set to appear in 2010's Bone Deep. He also has appeared in minor roles in two movies released in 2010, Takers
Takers
Takers is a 2010 crime film directed by John Luessenhop from a story and screenplay written by Luessenhop, Gabriel Casseus, Peter Allen, John Rogers, and Avery Duff. It features an ensemble cast that includes Matt Dillon, Chris Brown, Idris Elba, T.I., Jay Hernandez, Paul Walker, Hayden...
as Max and Salt as a CIA officer.
Personal life
Charles's first name Gaius is an homage to Gaius Julius CaesarJulius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
's full name and also one of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
's early disciple
Disciple (Christianity)
In Christianity, the disciples were the students of Jesus during his ministry. While Jesus attracted a large following, the term disciple is commonly used to refer specifically to "the Twelve", an inner circle of men whose number perhaps represented the twelve tribes of Israel...
s, Gaius, to whom the Third Epistle of John
Third Epistle of John
The Third Epistle of John, often referred to as Third John and written 3 John, is a book of the New Testament attributed to John the Evangelist, traditionally thought to be the author of the Gospel of John and the other two epistles of John...
is addressed. In 2007 he said of his name: "It's so unique that I guess as a kid you don't appreciate it. But as I've gotten older, people have come to really respond to it and really appreciate it for its unusual factor."
Charles is Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, calling his faith in Christ
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
and God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
"the only thing that's really gotten me here to this point". His interests include public speaking, boxing, aviation and writing.
He has also starred in Pan Am