CAPA grad in new Showtime offering
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Jacob Ming-Trent, who grew up in Highland Park and Penn Hills and is a 1997 graduate of Pittsburgh CAPA, co-stars as the roommate of Jay Pharoah’s aspiring comic actor star Floyd Mooney in Showtime’s “White Famous” (10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Sunday).
Mr. Ming-Trent plays Ron Balls, a postal carrier who tries to keep Floyd grounded during Floyd’s adventures in Hollywood.
“I’m not in the [entertainment] industry, I don’t want to be in the industry,” Mr. Ming-Trent says, speaking as his character. “It’s all about keeping it very real and helping Floyd keep his feet grounded. Balls is the truth-teller on this show.”
“White Famous” is execu- tive produced by actor Jamie Foxx, who guest stars in the premiere, and the showrunner is Tom Kapinos, late of Showtime’s “Californication.” The “White Famous” of the title refers to an actor of color who becomes truly famous and crosses over to be a star among white audiences.
“This is something that became popular in the ’90s,” Mr. Ming-Trent said. “For a black person, it meant you had reached the top. Will Smith is white famous. Denzel [Washington] is white famous.”
Mr. Kapinos said Mr. Ming-Trent auditioned on tape for the show early in the casting process.
“He just had the right energy and seemed like a fierce performer,” Mr. Kapinos said. “And the more I learned about him coming from the theater world, I thought, this guy is gonna be a secret weapon and I couldn’t have been more right.”
Mr. Ming-Trent began acting at Rogers Middle School for the Creative and Performing Arts before attending Pittsburgh CAPA.
“That performing arts middle school and that performing arts high school definitely saved my life, without a doubt,” he said. “Back in that time, let’s just say, Pittsburgh was problematic growing up on the East side. It wasn’t simple. My mother was a single parent. [Those schools] definitely gave me a sense of confidence, which is what I think kids need.”
After graduating from CAPA, Mr. Ming-Trent went to the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York and later attended American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.
He’s appeared locally in productions for Quantum Theatre, Pittsburgh Musical Theatre and in New York on Broadway in “Shrek the Musical,” in Shakespeare in the Park and at New York’s Public Theater.
After a run in the controversial 2015 Classic Stage Company production of “Mother Courage and her Children” — the show’s star quit after clashing with its director — Mr. Ming-Trent told his agent he wanted to do TV. He appeared in nine out of 10 episodes of AMC’s one-season-and-done 2016 series “Feed the Beast” before landing on “White Famous.”
“I thought it would be a difficult transition, but it wasn’t,” he said. “Part of being a good actor is understanding the room that you’re playing. If you can understand that, you can understand how to do film and television.”
Mr. Ming-Trent’s immediate family no longer lives in Pittsburgh, but he’d still like to return to perform on stage.
“You tell them I’ve been trying to do work in Pittsburgh,” Mr. Ming-Trent said, chuckling in August at a Showtime cocktail party. “I’ve worked at The Public Theater in New York, on Broadway, I’ve done a play in London, but for some reason you can’t come home. I don’t know what that’s about, but I have really fond memories of the arts scene there. It’s vibrant.”