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Miller Place’s very own 5-year-old actor Izzy King is making his debut in a new HBO series.
Izzy will be playing alongside Academy Award-winning actress Kate Winslet in the show “Mare of Easttown,” premiering April 18 at 10 p.m.
This is the young actor’s first major acting job, and he says his favorite part about it was the toy he got to take home from the set.
“I got this T-Rex,” Izzy said, holding up a plastic dinosaur.
Izzy’s mom, Nicole Galante, didn’t know that her intrigue with her son’s modeling career would lead to this.
“We started with him when he was really little doing some modeling work, which was fun,” Galante said. “It was great. He was this cute baby and you put him in a cute outfit and he smiles and that’s it.”
But, as he got older, Izzy’s manager Marni Maroof realized his big personality would be better suited for acting.
Within a week after signing with an agency, Izzy got an audition for “Mare of Easttown.”
Galante said the audition process was all very new to her and her husband, Adam King, and Izzy was the very last one to audition.
“After a while, there were parents there that had a ton more experience doing this than we did saying ‘Oh no it’s moving fast that means they already found the kid,’ Galante said.
Galante had noticed the other kids were only in the audition room for about five minutes, but while her and her husband were standing outside waiting for their son, they realized fifteen minutes had passed.
Before they knew it, they were brought into the audition room to see Izzy playing with Winslet on the floor.
“He doesn’t even know how big of a star Kate is,” Galante said. “To him, that’s just his friend Kate and this is his show.”
He will be playing the grandson of Winslet — who will be portraying a detective that is investigating a local murder case in a small town in Pennsylvania.
Here’s the official trailer to the series:
The show was filmed in Philadelphia, and Galante says that Izzy was a natural even with cameras two inches from his face, screens, lights, makeup, hair, and costumes.
“It’s amazing to watch him and see him enjoying it,” Galante said. “It’s beyond words.”
Galante said that Winslet was “super wonderful” on set and helped Izzy learn to act.
Izzy’s acting career has just begun, and he’s already been cast in a new AT&T commercial, which filmed a few weeks ago.
“So far he’s doing great and who he is always shines through in everything he does, which I think is exactly where we want to be,” Galante said.
Galante says that her only hopes for Izzy’s acting career in the future is that he always enjoys doing it and he’s always able to be himself.
“But I mean if you asked him if he wants to be an actor when he grows up, he’d probably tell you he wants to be a paleontologist,” she said.
Top: Izzy King on set of “Mare of Easttown” (Credit: @therealizzyking on Instagram).
