Meet Suburban Boy, 12, Who is the Voice of Nemo in 'Finding Dory'

Photo credit: Hayden Rolence's Twitter page

It has been an exciting couple weeks for 12-year-old Hayden Rolence from Aurora who is the voice of Nemo in Finding Dory.

Rolence, who just finished up sixth grade at Still Middle School in Aurora, has been on the road with his family promoting Finding Dory, which is scheduled to hit the theaters on Friday, June 17, according to the Aurora Beacon-News.

Rolence was at the red-carpet movie premiere of Finding Dory last week in Los Angeles, which is where he met, for the first time, the other actors who provided the voices for characters in the long-awaited sequel to Disney Pixar’s Finding Nemo, including the voice for Dory, Ellen DeGeneres, and the voice for Marlin, Albert Brooks, the Daily Herald reports. When recording the voice of Nemo, Rolence was typically just in a sound booth with Andrew Stanton (director/writer) and Lindsey Collins (producer) and a couple of other people who try to help him perfect his voice.

Rolence and his parents, Jason and Marlene Rolence, could not reveal Hayden’s role as Nemo for two years after he first got the role, according to the Chicago Tribune. Hayden was attending 4th and 5th grade at Owen Elementary School in Naperville during this time and missing school to travel to California to record for Finding Dory.

"I'm an actor, so that was about all I could say," Hayden told the Chicago Tribune.

At the start of the 2015-16 school year, the cast of Finding Dory was announced, and Hayden’s classmates and teachers at Still Middle School in Aurora were shocked and thrilled when they learned Hayden's role in the film. And everyone wanted him to do his Nemo voice for them.

"My teachers would say, 'You guys should stop bugging him. But before that, can you do the voice?'" Hayden told the Chicago Tribune.

Rolence has been modeling since he was 4 years old and has been in a series of TV commercials for Allstate Insurance, PGA and Sears and also appeared in film shorts, according to the Daily Herald.

In preparing for the Finding Dory audition, he watched Finding Nemo and practiced imitating Nemo until he perfected the voice, according to WGN News.

Alexander Gould, the original voice for Nemo, aged out of the role. Aside from Nemo, Gould is best known for playing Shane, the troubled younger brother on Showtime’s “Weeds.”

"I mainly tried to make my voice sound like Alexander's voice," Hayden told the Daily Herald,"because I thought he was such a good person to play Nemo."

Landing the role, Rolence said, has been a dream come true.

“It’s very exciting. I used to love watching Finding Nemo as a kid. I watched it over and over again,” he said in an interview with ScreenSlam.com before the premiere for Finding Dory . “And I just never thought I would’ve gotten to do something as big as an animated movie. Let alone by Disney.”

This past week, Rolence has been sharing updates and photos on his Instagram and Twitter accounts while on the road promoting Finding Dory.

Rolence also joined the crew of Finding Dory during a Talks at Google interview last week. There he shared his thoughts on what it was like to play Nemo.

“It’s very fun to pretend that I’m just a cute little fish and I’m not just me. I actually get to pretend I’m something that’s a very good idea and very fun to do,” Rolence said during the interview.

Back in Chicago this past week, Rolence appeared on Windy City Live on Tuesday and has been interviewed by various local media outlets throughout the week. When asked on Windy City Live if he preferred the “Hollywood life” over life in Aurora, following his trip to L.A. and his red carpet experience at the Finding Dory premiere, Rolence said he preferred his hometown.

“I like just being in Aurora. I like just being here just being a regular kid,” Rolence said.

>>>> RELATED: Aurora Student Lands Role of Nemo in 'Finding Dory'

Finding Dory will hit the theaters nationwide Friday. You can find local showtimes on Fandango.

Here is a sneak peak of the movie in the official trailer.