Alex Shaffer (born August 23, 1993) is an American actor, best known
for his role as Kyle Timmons, a troubled kid and a wrestling prodigy,
in the 2011 film Win Win.Shaffer was born in Hunterdon County, New
Jersey and raised in Raritan Township. He was a sophomore at Hunterdon
Central Regional High School when he was cast as a young wrestler in
the movie Win Win after a classmate tipped him off about the auditions
to the film that required an athlete-wrestler. Shaffer had been a
successful high school wrestler, winning the 2010 New Jersey State
Wrestling Championship at 119 lb. as a sophomore, but his wrestling
career ended when he broke his L-5 vertebra.Shaffer’s screen debut
earned raves. Roger Ebert described his acting as "effortlessly
convincing." Shaffer, whose hair was bleached for the role, "plays the
reserved and withdrawn Kyle to perfection," said film critic Brandon
Fibbs. As for the film director Tom McCarthy, he said: "I knew that if
the kid we cast had never wrestled, he wasn’t going to be able to
fake it, at least not at the level we wanted Kyle to be. The great
thing about Alex is, he also evokes all the qualities of a 16-year-old
kid. He just felt so real to me. We really put him through the wringer
on this movie and he just kept getting better and better." In an
interview with PBS he said: "You know, this monosyllabic shut-down
character we all know and love so much, which is very difficult to
bring to the screen actually, as you run the risk of the character
being flat, but he [Alex Shaffer] found a way in his directness to be
very charming".After the success of Win Win, Shaffer decided to pursue
acting professionally. In 2013 he starred alongside Kristen Bell and
Martin Starr in the Sundance indie The Lifeguard. He also stars in the
director/writer Kimberly Levin's independent film, Runoff. He played
the character Squirrel in the 2015 film We Are Your Friends, starring
Zac Efron and directed by Max Joseph. At the same time, he briefly
filled in as a guest host on the MTV series Catfish: The TV Show in
place of Joseph.
for his role as Kyle Timmons, a troubled kid and a wrestling prodigy,
in the 2011 film Win Win.Shaffer was born in Hunterdon County, New
Jersey and raised in Raritan Township. He was a sophomore at Hunterdon
Central Regional High School when he was cast as a young wrestler in
the movie Win Win after a classmate tipped him off about the auditions
to the film that required an athlete-wrestler. Shaffer had been a
successful high school wrestler, winning the 2010 New Jersey State
Wrestling Championship at 119 lb. as a sophomore, but his wrestling
career ended when he broke his L-5 vertebra.Shaffer’s screen debut
earned raves. Roger Ebert described his acting as "effortlessly
convincing." Shaffer, whose hair was bleached for the role, "plays the
reserved and withdrawn Kyle to perfection," said film critic Brandon
Fibbs. As for the film director Tom McCarthy, he said: "I knew that if
the kid we cast had never wrestled, he wasn’t going to be able to
fake it, at least not at the level we wanted Kyle to be. The great
thing about Alex is, he also evokes all the qualities of a 16-year-old
kid. He just felt so real to me. We really put him through the wringer
on this movie and he just kept getting better and better." In an
interview with PBS he said: "You know, this monosyllabic shut-down
character we all know and love so much, which is very difficult to
bring to the screen actually, as you run the risk of the character
being flat, but he [Alex Shaffer] found a way in his directness to be
very charming".After the success of Win Win, Shaffer decided to pursue
acting professionally. In 2013 he starred alongside Kristen Bell and
Martin Starr in the Sundance indie The Lifeguard. He also stars in the
director/writer Kimberly Levin's independent film, Runoff. He played
the character Squirrel in the 2015 film We Are Your Friends, starring
Zac Efron and directed by Max Joseph. At the same time, he briefly
filled in as a guest host on the MTV series Catfish: The TV Show in
place of Joseph.
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