DEPAUL GRAD GOES TO ‘DOME’
This time last year, Alexander Koch had just graduated from the Theatre School at DePaul University.
Living near St. Ben’s on the North Side, the aspiring actor baby-sat to make money. He landed a bit part in MTV’s short-lived series “Underemployed.”
“That kind of woke me up and made me realize I could stay in Chicago and continue to do these day player-type roles, getting guest star spots on ‘Chicago Fire’ and all that stuff,” said the 25-yearold native of suburban Detroit. “I didn’t want to do that. There’s so much more opportunity in Los Angeles. I knew I had to leave Chicago.”
He packed up his car, drove to California and crashed on a friend’s couch.
This next turn is bound to be the envy of every would-be actor: He auditioned for a pilot — a little Stephen King-Steven Spielberg CBS project called “Under the Dome” — and got the part.
“Literally it was his first audition,” said showrunner Neal Baer (“Law & Order: SVU,” “A Gifted Man”). “It’s great to have a fresh face, someone you don’t know.”
Koch plays Junior, a troubled young man obsessed with a girl he grew up with in the town of Chester’s Mill.
“He has two different personas,” Koch said. “He’s this person his father very much wants him to be: the jock, the town football hero. But deep down, he had a very rough childhood, and he’s still recovering from that.”
“Under the Dome” creator Brian K. Vaughan described Junior as an unstable guy with a dark side who can put on a bright face.
“We really needed an actor with a lot of dimensions,” Vaughan said. “Alexander blew us all away.”
Relocating to L.A. turned out to be a smart career move, but it wasn’t easy to leave Chicago, a place Koch said will always be his second home. He’s looking forward to coming home in August to visit friends and go to Lollapalooza.