Troy Metcalf Enjoys Being in the Middle of Sherman Oaks

You may know him as Jim on ABC's hit TV show, "The Middle", but he's actually Troy Metcalf, your neighbor in Sherman Oaks.

The burly actor loves living here, and told Patch Sherman Oaks, "It's a real community, and it's filled with creative people, so many in the same industry as we are...show business."

Metcalf, 39, who hails from Missouri, (the Show Me State,) began to "show 'em" as soon as he moved to New York to attend grad school. At the Directors Workshop, he studied under director Mike Nichols and Second City founder Paul Sills.

                                                                                                          "Coming out of that training, how could I miss?" he said.
After establishing himself solidly as an off-Broadway actor, he co-wrote, with producer Ken Davenport, a play called The Awesome 80s Prom. It's now been running off-Broadway for six years.

He told Patch Sherman Oaks, "Ken and I realized that people who grew up in the 80s were ready to pay for nostalgia about their generation. 80s archetypes are very specific: big hair, big shoulders, certain music.

   
 So in 2005, we developed the script, working with about 18 improvisers. Together, we created an interactive play in which the audience itself gets to choose who among the characters will be Prom King and Prom Queen. Throughout the show, they vote for their favorites as each actor lobbies
the audience for votes. We wrote separate endings to cover all the possibilities, very fun.

It has run inmany venues, even South Korea."

Despite his love for the stage, Metcalf realized that to make his living in show business, LA was the place. "It's my business, this is what I want to do for a living, and the best way is in TV. There just was not enough TV in New York to make it work.

At the urging of my agent, we moved, and soon I got
hired for Comedy Central's Strangers with Candy. I can now trace every success I've had back to that
show, every single thing. Work begets work. I love TV."                                                                                              
But Metcalf still loves the stage. "Right now, I'm appearing in a World Premiere play called No Good Deed at (Inside) The Ford Theatre in Hollywood, through Feb. 26. It's based upon the story of security guard Richard Jewell, who was falsely accused of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics terrorist attack.

It's a very moving play, and I feel very close to this man, who died at only 43 of kidney failure and stress. He had a lot of passion and desire to be more than he is. That is a profoundly human condition.

I myself feel that way very often." Metcalf 's wife Michele is also involved in show business. "My wife is a stage costumer. We're both from Missouri and had dated a little bit in college. We met again totally by accident in New York, when she was doing costumes for an off- Broadway show I was in. At the table read, there she was! I asked her out to dinner, and that was that," he laughed. 

"Michele is the really talented one in the family. She worked at Julliard for nine years, the LA Opera, the GI Joe movie, and is on a movie project right
now." The busy couple have been married for 11 years and are the proud parents of 10 year old Natalie, already a budding thespian. "If you don't see me on TV or the stage, you may catch me dropping Natalie off at Dixie Canyon School," laughed Troy. "She's our favorite Sherman Oaks production!"