For local actor Jacob Brooks, the opportunities just seem to keep coming. 

Brooks, a senior theater major, was involved in several indie films this summer, including “Bare Knuckle Broke,” and is continuing to star in productions as this semester begins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCa8wGuAmzE

“The past year or so, I’ve been working in the Colorado film industry,” Brooks said. “I started out working with Colorado Film School and doing the open auditions with them.” 

Brooks said he got cast in some films through the Colorado Film School, and after that people started seeing his work and he received more opportunities to get involved in more professional-level productions.

Brooks, who will be playing Leontes in the Colorado State University production of “Winter’s Tale” this semester, said he got his start in theater after following a girl he liked into an audition in middle school.

“I grew up a sports kid, actually,” Brooks said. “My dad put me in football pad as soon as he could, and I’ve been playing sports since I could walk.”

The actor said that he went to a very clique-heavy school, and his parents pushed to get him involved in more than just sports. Brooks said he followed a girl he was interested in into an audition for “High School Musical,” and he was initially told to leave. Brooks persisted, and coincidentally, his life followed the plot of said play as he and the girl he was interested in received the lead parts of Troy and Gabriella. Two actors he was competing with even played the parts of the rival characters in the play, although Brooks said his sport-playing friends did not dance on tables, despite disagreeing with his participation in the production.

After this, Brooks fell in love with theater. He’s been involved in several productions at CSU, and he’s hoping to become a full-time professional actor after graduation.

“Theater is the only thing that makes me want to work hard,” said Brooks. “I’m lucky enough to have found something that I really want to work at.”

Along with getting cast in a superhero movie that he said he really can’t talk about, the local actor has also gotten involved in modeling work. He has five publications in the US, as well as an Irish publication that are featuring his work as a model. He’s doing his best to work with local agencies, but has also been working with some very professional artists.

For the future, Brooks is planning on moving to Los Angeles after graduation. He said that he knows the cliche of heading to a big city with big dreams, but he said he already has housing figured out and he feels that he has built enough of a reel to do well in the real world.

The actor says that he cites the community at CSU for all of his success. He said that all of the support he receives makes him feel like his work is important, and he said that the theater department here has allowed him many of the opportunities that have gotten him where he is today.

“What I love about acting in general is that you get to play in the most crucial parts of people’s lives,” Brooks said. “There aren’t many times that you get to let loose, and that you get to have all those connections with all of those people.”

Collegian Reporter Chapman W. Croskell can be reached at entertainment@collegian.com and on Twitter @Nescwick.