25-year-old Filipino-American actor Jacob Batalon has come a long way since making his mark in Hollywood as Ned Leeds, Peter Parker's bestfriend in the hit “Spiderman” franchise.
He is now to star in his own series on Syfy titled “Reginald the Vampire.”
Note he is also its executive producer.
Jacob believes the move a boon to other Asian-Americans eager to break into Hollywood.
“It's a very powerful message to see someone like me, an Asian-American – specifically a Filipino-American – be a lead of a series," he told Entertainment Weekly.
“Reginald The Vampire” was created by Harley Peyton as based on Johnny B. Truant's “Fat Vampire” books.
It follows the story of Reginald, a regular dude who discovers he has supernatural powers.
It's a comedy.
"It's an uplifting series about how society judges people by the way they look," Jacob related.
He described his character as “a person who can be overlooked as just another person, and people don’t really care to look behind the curtain.”
“The fact that he has been judged by people and has gone through all these negative things in his life puts him in a place where he has accepted his fate.”
Born and raised in Hawaii to Filipino parents, Jacob enrolled in a two-year acting course at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts before landing Ned's part in "Spiderman."
He admitted to not being quite confident of his abilities as actor before that.
That has changed since.
He told ABS-CBN, “That grew over time with the more work I've done, and the people that I've worked with, and I was fortunate to really be progressing to the actor that I am now.”